Fàbregas: Wenger was the coach who most influenced my coaching style

When interviewed by CBS Sports, Fàbregas was asked which former mentor had most influenced his coaching style. In response, he said if he had to choose one, it would be Wenger.

Carragher: Cesc, you are now one of the most talked about young coaches in European football. At the same time, you played under some of the greatest coaches in football history during your playing career. If someone were watching your team play for the first time tonight, which coach you've worked with do you think your team's style of play most resembles or is closest to?

Ah, Jamie, that's a very good question, a really good one (laughs). It's difficult to answer. I'm going to give an answer that sounds "politically correct," but it's also true, which is that I've absorbed something from every coach I've worked with.

If I had to pick one person, I think it would definitely be Wenger. Because when we played under Wenger, we didn't do a lot of tactical training. Perhaps because times are different now, I do more in this regard today.

But one very clever thing about Wenger is that he was very good at selecting players. He knew which players could understand his football philosophy and which players were best suited for it. For example, intelligent players, players who could operate between the lines, players who could attack space, and those who could read the game in different ways.

I think this was one of the most successful and important characteristics of Wenger's coaching during that period. He knew exactly what kind of players he wanted to bring to the club, and he was able to develop these players, then put them on the same pitch and let them make a difference together.

So I think we want to control possession and play more vertically when we have the opportunity. When the opponent adopts very aggressive man-marking, we will try to exploit the space behind them; if they use more zonal defense, we will also look for corresponding spaces. We assess each stage of the game and then think about how we can hurt the opponent at that stage.

And every game is different. In every game, the opposing coach and players will do different things. So we just want to establish our own football philosophy. I think we had a very clear playing style and team characteristics at Arsenal back then, and now we can follow that path. We will work hard to achieve this.

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