Unai Emery: Adios

[GoonerJeeves]

I was eager to play Man City and Chelsea as I thought both of them, but City in particular, would have World Cup hangovers. I was wrong in that Emery hadn't had anywhere near enough time to get his ideas and style thorough to the players. Despite this we could, and should, have drawn at Chelsea and would have had it not been for that poor patch in the first-half.

Chelsea game showed we could mix it with the favourites and lose. Liverpool game showed we can mix it with the favourites and draw. We now need to get victories against the "big boys" starting with Manu. They have been incredibly lucky in some of their last games, we need to have an authoritative win over them. And authoritative doesn't have to be 5-0, it can be 1-0 in a game where they are never given a sniff.

Defensively we have improved. Largely through the addition of Torreira, with honourable mentions for Guendouzi and Sokratis, and the awakening of Xhaka but, most importantly, through better collective defending as a unit and paying attention to the qualities and deficiencies of the teams we play against.

We have looked very good going forward at times but I think Emery can get more out of these players. We need to be a team that once again beats the smaller clubs 3-0 almost on auto-pilot and lifts itself for the big games.

At the moment we are 5th (squad cost?) but recent weeks have given cause for optimism that we could end up as high as 3rd or.... who knows?

Anything above 6th and Emery has done well.

Top post!

 

[razörist]

Wish we still had the Ox! Think he could really push on under Emery’s guidance, like Iwobi is doing right now.

 

[Gunner140]

Wish we still had the Ox! Think he could really push on under Emery’s guidance, like Iwobi is doing right now.

Maybe, maybe not. I don't think we ever really missed Ox. Even in last season, which was the worst in decades, we didn't really missed him, or needed him (we did need a replacement, though).

 

[razörist]

Maybe, maybe not. I don't think we ever really missed Ox. Even in last season, which was the worst in decades, we didn't really missed him, or needed him (we did need a replacement, though).

Didn’t say we miss him. Just that as a player Ox could do with a manager like Emery.

 

[Dj_sds -]

Didn’t say we miss him. Just that as a player Ox could do with a manager like Emery.

I think he would be decent in the am role in the 4231.

 

[ThlRama]

"For us each match is more information for how we can improve."

From the press conference vs. Sporting. What a big data freak our man is!

 

[krackpot]

Glad to see us having these hiccups.

Will give some perspective to Unai and the fans about the work that still needs to be done.

 

[North5]

Still way ahead of where we have been the last few years. I have a lot of faith in unai

 

[ThlRama]

People judging him harshly after yesterday have been ignoring quite a few things:

a) The league is actually much stronger this season, from top to bottom. Even Man. City seem to have improved which is absurd if one thinks about it.

b) Results aren't the end-all be-all, you also have to look at performances. Overall clearly better than last season, we drew Liverpool at home last season too but I doubt many were as happy with that result back then.

c) We still played two very difficult games at the start of the season and those losses cost us a lot looking at it now, because all teams around us are amazingly consistent.

d) People were willing to give Emery time in the summer, yet after a good run of results they suddenly thought we had become the finished article. Pure revisionism.

e) Emery has always been, and will always be, more of a cup manager than a league manager. We do not need to kid ourselves regarding that. Our cup runs should be more important in passing judgement on his work this season.

f) Our injury crisis these past few months has been largely ignored/underrated in its impact. We had 3 LBs, 3 CBs and 1 GK out at some point in time ffs, that is literally two backlines out. Yet we haven't lost a single game while at it. Speaking of which...

g) Draws are not ideal for league form but they are good for confidence and they do show a team with character and that has a better chance to go on cup runs. We revere the Invincibles for going unbeaten a whole season, yet many PL winning teams have surpassed their record in terms points total, so which is it?

h) Time should work in our favour. The international break will hopefully do us some good at this point.

 

[nick gould]

For the first time I didn’t agree with the changes he made. Iwobi wasn’t having a good game but I don’t think taking him off and bringing Matteo was a good attacking move. I would have tried Iwobi on the left.

The Özil change could be vindicated maybe but there were many players I could have pulled out before him. I would have sacrificed a defender or a defensive midfielder. Mustafi was making a lot of bad decisions.

 

[Toby]

For the first time I didn’t agree with the changes he made. Iwobi wasn’t having a good game but I don’t think taking him off and bringing Matteo was a good attacking move. I would have tried Iwobi on the left.

The Özil change could be vindicated maybe but there were many players I could have pulled out before him. I would have sacrificed a defender or a defensive midfielder. Mustafi was making a lot of bad decisions.

Should have probably been Xhaka off for Ramsey first to go 442 or 4132 to see how Iwobi works out on the left and see if Ramsey can cause heavoc to Wolves' backline as they still have to deal with Auba and Laca, with Özil dropping a bit deeper if needed to progress the ball, but apart from their counters we were in their half anyway. No idea why we would need a Xhaka/Guendouzi type in midfield in such a situation with Torreira and Mesut still on. I'm getting a tad annoyed with his persistency to always have a ball recycler/distributor in there, even when we're on 60% possession in the other half and just looking for that extra bit of disorganization for the opposition defence. It wasn't minute 25 against 'pool or City, it was well in the second half against Wolverhampton and looking for two goals.

 

[Sniper Mik]

Rest of the interview in English is here

 

[El Granit-Coq]

Rest of the interview in English is here

Very interesting quotes to begin with an amplifies what even Wenger fans have said for a while. Emery's biggest challenge was changing our defensive discipline, our attacking structure was already elite (regardless of players). If you put a clinical striker in Wengers past 6 years, you would have seen how ridiculous his attacking structure actually was.

Credit to Emerys honesty, he has actually done a fantastic job in somewhat changing the defensive structure and discipline of the team. I say somewhat as the same mistakes attributed to Wenger can be seen in some games. What has changed is the focus for longer periods and the desire to actually challenge an opponent in a tackle.

Where Wenger is a conservative presser i.e. press only when confident to get the ball, otherwise drop back and let the opponent play themselves into a mistake - which is why we were always said to give any opponent a chance due to our playstyle.

 

[tap-in]

There's a piece in The Guardian, I guess the twitter ****ters have found my source

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/nov/22/unai-emery-arsenal-lost-their-way-Arsène-wenger

 

[Garrincha]

Bold interview just 5 months in, sitting 5th in the league & his first English Christmas period to come.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Bold interview just 5 months in, sitting 5th in the league & his first English Christmas period to come.

I feel his comments on our performances vs the top 6 put a lot of pressure on himself especially with the games we've got coming up and the fact we've only took 1 point from 9 against Chelsea, City and Liverpool.

He certainly doesn't lack balls. Let's see if the performances can back up his courage.

 

[celestis]

Bold interview just 5 months in, sitting 5th in the league & his first English Christmas period to come.

It is considering there were more shots against us than even the same time last season by a long way .

 

[CaseUteinberger]

When we judge our progress under Emery we need to keep the issues we had for years under Wenger in mind. Over years and years we really lacked a solid defensive structure to lean on in big games and when we didn't score. Building that structure will take time and isn't anything that is installed in a couple of months.

I think we are already seeing the progress, but over and over we still make simple mistakes, misplaced passes that allow teams to open us up easily. I for one am willing to give Emery time to turn this ship around. We need to give the club time to bring in some new players and to ingrain the defensive set up through practice over several seasons.

Right now I feel we have been in a bit of a down period and haven't played very well, but we are not losing games and are still within striking distance of top 4 which is as much as I could hope for at the beginning of the season.

 

[SingmeasongSong]

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/46330496

For ****s sake, a Peaky Blinders watching coach, what times to be alive as an Arsenal fan - love that guy already

 

[Tom349]

Another awful defensive performance. Emery should shut his mouth as right now we're worse than last season in defence.