When Arsene Wenger was a young manager, at the start of his career, he was extremely passionate. If we had let him down in a game at Monaco, he would let you know in the strongest way.

The dressing-room could get fiery. I remember bottles being thrown — plastic ones, that is — and a stream of angry French being directed at the team.

Mark Hateley and I were the two designated foreign players and would be a little a bit outside of it all, because it was in French. But there was no danger of misunderstanding the general message. If we were not doing what he had asked, he would show it.

Arsene Wenger is feeling the pressure as his Arsenal side continue to struggle in Europe

Once he had finished on the team in French, he would turn to Mark and I and, perhaps because he had to use English, it wasn’t quite as angry but he would be cold and clipped with us, telling us what he wanted.

Arsene has changed quite a lot over the years and I understand he is a lot more controlled in the dressing-room these days. But don’t be misled. This is a man who hates losing and will have been seething at the defensive performance on Tuesday night against Olympiacos.

And I would hope he is showing his players similar disapproval, even if it is in a different way.

Arsene is right that it goes much deeper than the selection of David Ospina. But even though he says that, in a must-win game you play your must-win team, and that means Petr Cech.

The Gunners boss was criticised by fans and pundits for his team selection against Olympiacos

Analysing the defeat, you have to look at the strategy and tactics as well as the poor performances by players.

The worrying thing about Arsene’s record in Europe of late is that they keep making exactly the same mistakes. And that suggests that either he or the team aren’t learning. That’s the only conclusion you can reach.

It should be clear now that their system has to change in the Champions League. The whole mentality of the team has to adapt. They seem to imagine that they have to play with the ball, that all the onus is on them to be creative. But they will never have success in Europe playing that way.

Hoddle played under Wenger at French side Monaco and is aware of his fiery dressing room rants

In fact, they have a team made for counter-attacking football, when you look at the pace of Alexis Sanchez, Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, plus Danny Welbeck when he comes back. At the moment they cannot defend well against teams in Europe and they haven’t even come up against the best.

On Sunday they take on Manchester United and even though they are at home, you could do the team a real favour and show them a rerun of their 2-0 victory at Manchester City last season and remind them there is more than one way to win a game.

Against City, they seemed to have had a moment of clarity when they realised that it is perfectly acceptable to play on the counter-attack. Playing that way the team can sit deeper and that would protect the back four better.

Alexis Sanchez's pace should be utilised on the counter attack, along with Theo Walcott

Then with the forward players they have, they would threaten any team on the break, even Bayern Munich. Olivier Giroud could play his part in that system because he would be good at holding the ball up to release the quicker players. It will be fascinating to see how they set up against Bayern.

Certainly when he was at Monaco, the team I played in was a lot tighter defensively than this Arsenal side. Quite often, Arsene would set us up to play on the counter.

We had a flying winger in Youssouf Fofana, who we would try to feed, but when we went away from home the philosophy was very much that we sat tight and broke when we could. Arsene would often ask me to direct when we sat back and when we pressed.

I would communicate with Mark up front, or later George Weah, and the wide players and decide when to press high or when to sit back a little and let the other side come on at us.

You don’t have the sense that he has a leader on the pitch at the moment who can do that for him, someone who is an extension of his management on the pitch.

Arsenal should look back at last season's win over Manchester City for inspiration on counter attacking

Over the years Arsene seems to have become more of an idealist and less focused on that side of the game.

It’s as though Arsenal want to win every game having dominated possession and creating the best chances.

Right now, they need to take that pressure off themselves, stop thinking they have to out-possession and out-play sides, and simply set up their stall to hit them on the break. If they win the ball in the middle third of the pitch, Arsenal could hurt any team.

I doubt we will ever see Arsene throwing bottles across the dressing-room like he did at Monaco but I would like to see a little more of that Monaco pragmatism in Arsenal’s game.

Van Gaal and United's reward for Martial coup

I know Arsene Wenger has had some criticism for not signing Anthony Martial, when he was a French player from his former club Monaco.

To be honest, though, there wasn’t a queue of clubs waiting to sign him. Most clubs wanted to wait another season.

Martial wasn’t always in the first XI at Monaco last year. But Manchester United were bold and brave and it may pay off, even though the fee seemed expensive.

Manchester United have profited from signing French youngster Anthony Martial from Monaco

Certainly having Martial and Memphis Depay in the team has improved them, adding pace and strength.

Wayne Rooney needed that support. Michael Carrick and Bastian Schweinsteiger are players who need movement in front them, so does Juan Mata.

They have much better options with Martial and Depay playing. There are plenty of tests ahead before we can say Martial was good value, but at least he has brought immediate improvement to the team.

Wayne Rooney (centre) has seen his performances improve after Martial was brought into the team

United will be tested this month

We will know a lot more about Manchester United in a few weeks, when they have completed a tricky month of away games, starting at Arsenal on Sunday and including a trip to CSKA Moscow.

They also have to take on Manchester City at Old Trafford, though they finally went top after almost two years last weekend, they have got there without playing especially well.

They beat Liverpool but Brendan Rodgers’ team were so low on confidence that you don’t feel United have been properly tested yet. I’d simply say they were par for the course at present, with some really difficult holes coming up.

Alli has a lot to prove but he has ability

I was pleased to see Dele Alli in the England squad, even though it is earlier than any of us expected. What I like about him is that calmness he has on the ball, almost an ability to slow the game down.

That is a crucial feature of a top player and even more important at international level. He has a long way to go and a lot to prove, but it’s good that he’s getting his chance next week in what should be a relatively relaxed atmosphere, given that England have already qualified.