Tourbillion
Angry & Miserable
I completely agree. Really dislike Emery's midfield "system".It still comes down to stupid instructions from the manager. Willock is an 8. Yet when he came on yesterday he was given the instruction to play as a 10. He came on, basically played off the striker not receiving the ball. He got involved when he became one of the two sitters.
The way we look to progress out of the back is ridiculous. Pass the ball along the back four until a midfielder is able to receive it on his correct foot, not take a year to turn and have the balls to play a forward pass to a number 10 who has found space. He will then play it wide and our winger who can't take anyone on will either slide it to the full back or go back to one of our two pivots to start the cycle again. If we lose the ball and our full back is high up the opposition simply receive the ball in their space and run at us for 20 yards because our two pivot players can't tackle or run. If the number 10 can't receive it the opposition midfielders can simply run through our midfield because one of them can't move. If we press and fail to win the ball they can run through us because we have no numbers or pace centrally. They can also just hit it over the top and chase because our defence is clueless and our midfield can't win the second ball.
The way Emery wants to play and the way he sets us up encourages the opposition and brings them confidence.
What is the point of having Auba, Laca and Pepe if they score and then walk back hands on hips watching as our midfielders don't tackle, track, get outnumbered, out paced and our defenders are exposed and feel the need to make desperate attempts to defend leaving to the opposition scoring. Pepe will not prevent any of that from reoccuring. I don't even think a top centre back will change that as Emery will happily play Xhaka and Guendouzi as a double Pivot.