Stephan Lichtsteiner: ‘A lack of experience and leaders – that’s why Arsenal are struggling’ Exclusive: Swiss defender cites communication issues, new competition and loss of old heads as factors for his former club’s poor form

Things are very different for Stephan Lichtsteiner at FC Augsburg. Brought up among the rolling valleys and green meadows of Lucerne in Switzerland, he’s had no trouble adapting to the slower pace of life in Bavaria even if he was just getting used to the hectic rush of London.

Having spent seven seasons at Juventus, however, winning Serie A in each and every campaign, and having played his part in Arsenal’s run to the Europa League final last term, he is now fighting first and foremost to keep ‘FCA’ in the Bundesliga. The shift in mentality has been a challenge. “It was quite difficult for me to adapt because it’s a completely other [type of] football,” he says. “I have to change my character, I have to change my game. It’s a different way to think.”

Having made his senior debut for Grasshopper Zurich all the way back in 2001 before formative spells with Lille and Lazio, Lichtsteiner, now almost 36, is one of the most experienced pros in the game. He has already played in Ligue 1, Serie A and the Premier League, so the Bundesliga was a logical next step. “It’s Swiss-German, where I grew up,” he says. “In Zurich, everybody looks to the Bundesliga. The stadiums, the fans… it’s amazing to play here.”

Content as he is with life at Augsburg, things didn’t end how Lichtsteiner would have liked at Arsenal. Having featured only sporadically over the last few months of the campaign, he was on the bench as Unai Emery’s side were torn to shreds by Chelsea in Baku. “Every time it’s difficult when you don’t achieve your objectives,” he sighs, when asked about how hard it was to leave the club on such a low note.

“When I came to Arsenal, my objective was to bring Arsenal back to the top four and win a title. It’s what I said when I signed for Arsenal, I knew it would be very difficult, but at the end we were really, really close. If you see the year before, or even this year, the situation is much more difficult.”

‘Almost everything was positive’

As it happens, Lichtsteiner is speaking to i two days before Emery is sacked following a miserable defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League. Asked about how he views his former manager, he is keen to stress that he does not want to join the collective pile-on. “When a manager doesn’t play you for two months it is easy to criticise,” he says, reflectively. “That’s not my style.”

Looking back on his time working under Emery, Lichtsteiner tries to keep things in perspective. “Over a long time it was really good, then the last two months [of the season] I didn’t really understand what had happened. Training was good, the team that we had last year was an amazing team, so it’s not my thing to speak bad about the coach because it is too easy now that they are struggling to say something against him.”

He does have one telling criticism of the Emery era, however. “I’d say [he is] a good trainer, a good coach, but maybe he struggled with the top players. With the big players, he hasn’t maybe the relationship to bring more out [of them] and get the top performances. Maybe that point I can say [something] negative, but the rest was almost everything positive.”

That said, Lichtsteiner admits that he is not surprised to see Arsenal struggling this season even if he could not have foreseen the severity of the situation. He points to the intense competitiveness of the Premier League, with Liverpool and Manchester City “on another level”, and the re-emergence of Leicester as decisive factors.

Internal struggles

There have also been internal struggles, evidently, not least Granit Xhaka’s explosive outburst at the fans after some cheered his substitution as Arsenal lurched to a draw against Crystal Palace last month. Lichtsteiner, who captains Xhaka at international level, is characteristically even-handed when asked about the incident which saw his Switzerland teammate temporarily frozen out at the Emirates.

“I understand both sides, you know? I understand the fans, because there is an ambition and they want to win,” he says. “They are not happy, of course, but I understand Granit also because this [reaction] is just human. He deserves more respect, because he gives everything for Arsenal. I see how he works, he is 100 per cent professional. He has his own coaches at home [so he can] give better performances and everything else.

“On the other side, the bigger the club is the bigger the pressure. As a football player, you need to manage that pressure because it’s part of the game. If you have seen Cristiano Ronaldo, they did the same [jeering] with him at Real Madrid. It’s normal in football, especially when you are at a big club, this pressure, so it’s completely human what has happened with Granit but I hope for him, and for Arsenal, that they are going to find a good solution. It’s important for the team and for him also.”

Having spoken with Xhaka on international duty since then, Lichtsteiner suggests that he is ready to move on from the incident. “He’s a great character, a great player,” he says. “It’s just one period in his career and now he needs to manage that, but he is able.”

As for Arsenal, Lichtsteiner points to the loss of a core leadership group within the squad as one of the biggest challenges going forwards. “It is a problem for Arsenal: who can help a young player to become a leader, you know? For Granit, at 24 he came to Arsenal and [the idea that] he should be a leader directly, it’s quite difficult. At Juventus, we had [Giorgio] Chiellini, me, [Claudio] Marchisio. We grew up next to [Andrea] Pirlo, next to [Gianluigi] Buffon, next to [Alessandro] Del Piero. To get into a position like this, you need to have players around you and [to see] how they manage the pressure, how they do everything.”

Loss of older heads

It may have come in deceptive increments but Arsenal lost Petr Cech, Aaron Ramsey, Laurent Koscielny and Nacho Monreal over the summer, all well respected players who had well over 1,000 appearances for the club between them. Lichsteiner, an old head by his own admission, sees the lack of leaders in the squad as a crucial shortcoming. “The quality of the young players that Arsenal have is amazing, but you need to have players around that can help them,” he says.

“Sometimes, an older player can manage the pressure and the criticism from the fans in another way from a young player. Last year, [despite] all the criticism I took, I was used, because I played for Juve and it was not different, I played for Lazio and it was not different. Now, I don’t see the players who can show the younger players how to manage being in a big club and having the pressure to win every weekend.”

Lichtsteiner knows the value of experience better than most. “Maybe that is something that Arsenal are missing.”