Freddie Ljungberg, who spent the glorious years of his playing career under the legendary Arsene Wenger was recently appointed as Arsenal’s interim manager after Unai Emery was relieved of his managerial duties last week.
Arsenal academy defender Daniel Ballard, who spent a season under Freddie last year compared Arsenal’s new man at helm with Pep Guardiola back in February.
Daniel is out on loan at Swindon Town (currently injured and had to undergo a knee surgery), made himself a regular in Ljungberg’s U23’s last campaign. In fact only games he missed out were the suspensions for the red card in September.
Who better to give an assessment about Ljungberg’s way of coaching then someone who has nailed starting place under him and has played about all the time he was officially available. The Englishman spoke to the Northern Ireland social media page back in February about Freddie.
“He (Ljungberg) looks at the game in such a unique and different way,” Ballard said. “He often uses Pep Guardiola and the way he plays and tries to implement that with us.
“Sometimes it looks risky, and it is difficult, but when it pays off the football is really good and we’ve had some really good results under him.”
“I think especially at the start of the season [Ljungberg’s philosophy] was something completely new,” Ballard said in another interview with Arsenal.
“We had to learn the new rotations and how we play, so it’s really starting to come together.
“You’ll see it at the end of games now that teams are getting more tired with the way that we play and pass the ball.
“Working under him every day we’re learning so much more and the game is becoming easier, so we’re all understanding it more now and it’s making us play a lot better.”
