Unai Emery: Adios

[nick gould]

I watched the full game today. The question is why did we change to man to man marking on corners considering our zonal marking has not given away many goals at all? I understand the need to rotate but starting with more than 3 dodgy players is risky business considering you are only allowed 3 changes. Guendozi and Elneny didn't work against Everton, starting them together again was really setting the team up to fail. Finally, now that Mustafi has made this club laughing stock, is the manager going to be brave enough to leave him out for the rest of the season?

 

[berric]

I really like Emery but I am afraid the next 4 league games and the EL run will make or break him here.

Seeing how fast fans oscillate from full support to no support at all for the manager makes me feel like without the CL money and the reputation that comes with it he won't be able to build a competitive team, which will make the next season even harder.

 

[CaseUteinberger]

Mustafi has made this club laughing stock, is the manager going to be brave enough to leave him out for the rest of the season?

I sure as hell hope so. Unless are down to the bone at CB I would bench him personally. Would almost prefer Xhaka at CB compared to this guy right now.

 

[CaseUteinberger]

I really like Emery but I am afraid the next 4 league games and the EL run will make or break him here.

Seeing how fast fans oscillate from full support to no support at all for the manager makes me feel like without the CL money and the reputation that comes with it he won't be able to build a competitive team, which will make the next season even harder.

Think we will make top 4 and the EL is a toss up. Man U and Chelsea look pretty awful also. Sp**s aren't blowing anyone away. Think top 4 is still very much in the cards.

 

[Dutch D]

I sure as hell hope so. Unless are down to the bone at CB I would bench him personally. Would almost prefer Xhaka at CB compared to this guy right now.

Sokratis is back from his suspension, right? And Mavro is finally getting some game time. If we stick to a back-four formation (can't stand our 3 at the back formation) we don't need to play him anymore. Would rather even use Medley or Monreal in the centre of a back four (we do need to be careful with Kos).

 

[Tourbillion]

Sokratis is back from his suspension, right? And Mavro is finally getting some game time. If we stick to a back-four formation (can't stand our 3 at the back formation) we don't need to play him anymore. Would rather even use Medley or Monreal in the centre of a back four (we do need to be careful with Kos).

For some reason Emery has wet dreams about three at the back. It's bemusing and I wish it would stop. It's absolutely horrid.

 

[MustOezil]

Too many times this season has this clown cost us 3 points through his questionable selections. The sooner he goes the better.

 

[progman07]

I really like Emery but I am afraid the next 4 league games and the EL run will make or break him here.

Seeing how fast fans oscillate from full support to no support at all for the manager makes me feel like without the CL money and the reputation that comes with it he won't be able to build a competitive team, which will make the next season even harder.

Emery is the ultimate pragmatic, result-orientated coach - if he cannot bring CL during this season where basically every single one of our rivals (Sp**s-Chelsea-United) bottled it, what's the point of pragmatic football.

Personally if he makes the top4, I'm more than willing to give him time, but this 5 defenders formation has to stop.

 

[freeglennhelder2]

Emery is the ultimate pragmatic, result-orientated coach - if he cannot bring CL during this season where basically every single one of our rivals (Sp**s-Chelsea-United) bottled it, what's the point of pragmatic football.

Personally if he makes the top4, I'm more than willing to give him time, but this 5 defenders formation has to stop.

How have they bottled it. The point tally needed to achieve 3rd/4th this season is in line with trending values for previous sessions. If you needed 5-10 points less than expected to achieve 3/4th place this season then yeah I’d agree it was a big opportunity missed.

 

[yybecause]

we are playing 3 at back cause we don't have a decent backup for Hector. best we have is Niles who is not good at it but can do decent as rwb so formation picks itself

 

[Mark Tobias]

Emery is the ultimate pragmatic, result-orientated coach - if he cannot bring CL during this season where basically every single one of our rivals (Sp**s-Chelsea-United) bottled it, what's the point of pragmatic football.

Personally if he makes the top4, I'm more than willing to give him time, but this 5 defenders formation has to stop.

What formation would you play with the current injuries in mind..

 

[progman07]

What formation would you play with the current injuries in mind..

He has played this formation all season long, regardless of injuries.

Also if it takes 3 injuries (Holding, Bellerin, Welbeck) for us to switch to 5 defenders, then we probably should expect us to play this next season as well.

Personally I would play 4-3-1-2 which has helped us dominate midfield against big teams, which suits our two best players (Laca-Auba) and which makes up for the lack of wingers. This way our midfielders can cover the full-backs better, and defenders have more passing options.

I don't know if people notice it, but when we play this weird 5-2-3, the opposition just needs to press our two midfielders, and we cannot bring the ball into action. Our full-backs have a passing completion rate of 50-70%, and our centre backs generally cannot pass out of the back properly.

 

[PoleInGoal]

He has played this formation all season long, regardless of injuries.

Also if it takes 3 injuries (Holding, Bellerin, Welbeck) for us to switch to 5 defenders, then we probably should expect us to play this next season as well.

Personally I would play 4-3-1-2 which has helped us dominate midfield against big teams, which suits our two best players (Laca-Auba) and which makes up for the lack of wingers. This way our midfielders can cover the full-backs better, and defenders have more passing options.

I don't know if people notice it, but when we play this weird 5-2-3, the opposition just needs to press our two midfielders, and we cannot bring the ball into action. Our full-backs have a passing completion rate of 50-70%, and our centre backs generally cannot pass out of the back properly.

This is completely untrue, the first time he played this in the PL was the Bournemouth game at the end of November, which was shortly after a Monreal injury. This is a result of having only Bellerin and Monreal as fullbacks who are reliable in a back 4.

 

[892]

Have any of our short corners been successful this season? Missed some games but I haven't seen one actually lead to a chance, yet we seem to use them in most games.

 

[Dennis_Bergkamp_10]

It was a good line up given the circumstances and we were playing comfortably up until their first goal. The players let him down massively.

But ****ing hell, Emery has his work cut out for him. So many average players who wouldn't look all that in the Championship.

And before people start overreacting, just give the man time and some transfer windows. When we were 20 matches unbeaten he was the next coming of Jesus, then he was ****, then we railed Sp**s in and went to the semis in the EL and he was a great tactician again. I suppose he he has to go now again?

 

[Hope]

Mustafi killed everyone tbh. That defeat was shattering

 

[UpTheGunnerz]

U. Emery needs time and transfer windows, just as Klopp did. I have faith, good ebening

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Unai will be first to blame but I don't think any manager could have done better with these players.with everything he doing the players keep making mistakes and letting the manager and fans down

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

But let's forget he got 50M to fix this mess.

Every top team manager must be jealous of emery. Whoo!

Seriously we f**ked good luck unai to fix this with only 50M

 

[GunnerBP]

I'm sure many of you guys will think I'm overreacting, but I've never liked Emery as a coach, and this match and Sunday's only further re-enforced my dislike.

And just to be clear, I thought Emery did a good job at improving our midfield and defense at the beginning of the season. My biggest concern has always been his ability to work with elite players: Özil & Ramsey are our elite players. I think his management of these two has been abysmal, and it nearly ruined our season. And if we plan on getting better then we need to have better players too, and I doubt Emery will be able to work with them. Emery is like a Spanish David Moyes.

In the new year, our results picked up once Özil and Ramsey were regularly in the starting 11.

Emery has a reputation for being good with tactics, but I think he regularly misreads matches. His frequent halftime substitutions are normally a needed tactical change following a lackluster first half. I think he is comfortable with changing tactics during a match, but not good at having the right tactics to start a match.

These last two matches were some of the worst tactics and player management I've seen in a while.

At home against Palace, he plays with three at the back and cedes a lot of possession to Palace. Why in the world would this ever make sense, especially with our great form at the Emirates? Yes, there were injury concerns and we had a match on Wed, but a starting 11 of Leno, Mustafi at RB, Mavro, Kos, Monreal; Douzi, Elneny; Mkhi, Özil, PEA; Laca would have been better than what he put out, and apart from the formation the only difference is benching Jenks for Mkhi. Not too hard to figure out: Control possession and attack the weaker team when you're at home.

Today we played Wolves away, and they are known for counter-attacking, and scoring on set pieces. We should have played 3 at the back, and ceded them some possession. If they have the ball and we have an extra CB it is harder for us to get caught on the counter and on set pieces.
Starting 11 of Leno; Sokratis, Kos, Monreal; AMN, Torreira, Xhaka, Kola' Özil, Iwobi; Laca could have gotten us a good result today.

We definitely have a decent points total compared to last season, but the goal is to progress into the top 4 and progressively get better, and not celebrate that Emery is an improvement on Wenger's worst season at the club.

I really don't like Emery as a coach. More often than not we aren't fun to watch, and he makes dumb decisions. And I don't think he will suddenly become a better coach.