Unai Emery, half season report card

[Beast Incarnate]

7/10

He's done ok with the squad he has at his disposal. Being 5th and only 2 points behind 4th is probably just about acceptable.

The squad he inherited was average and hasn't really had the funds to fix things. Now add all the injuries and it's a very difficult situation.

We're still absolutely woeful in defence though. That needs addressing ASAP.

 

[Ceballinhos]

7/10

He's done ok with the squad he has at his disposal. Being 5th and only 2 points behind 4th is probably just about acceptable.

The squad he inherited was average and hasn't really had the funds to fix things. Now add all the injuries and it's a very difficult situation.

We're still absolutely woeful in defence though. That needs addressing ASAP.

I think we got much better lately as a team.
But individual mistakes which can't be fixed by coaching are killing us weeks after weeks.

If it wasn't for Lich mistake's yesterday, kolasinac against united, and Koscielny against the saints we would have a very different conversation today...
Just in december we've lost at least 5 points because of them.

With those 5 more points we would be only 1pt behind City... 2 behind Tottenham...

These mistakes are killing us.
Not only result wise but also the flow of the game like it did yesterday.

 

[pigge]

Doing very well with the **** squad he got(we obviously got a few good players though). Every game he got at least one very much under par player in each part of the pitch. Very much hopes he gets a few new players in and a few out to have a good squad to show his football. I did not expect a new manager to win the league, if he gets us champions league he has done very well. Not sure what everyone expected tbh. Could easily have won most games vs big teams as well. Never looked that with wenger, and it was HIS squad.

8/10 for me so far.

 

[Giroud12]

Doing pretty good. 8/10 for me.

Some people seem to have way too high expecations. With our squad and the massive amount of injuries, I´d say both us and Chelsea are right where we should be - in the battle for fourth. Comparing us to Pep (several years and hundreds of millions spent), Klopp (the same as Pep, just with a litte less money) and Pochettino who has had years to build a team and has some world class players in his squad) is pointless.

Look at Pep´s first season. Look at how many trophies Poch and Klopp has won, despite getting money and time. Look at Man U post Fergie.

Some people are talking like Emery is some kind of David Moyes He took over a trainwreck of a team and had little money to spend. Bad would have been us in 7-10th place. Sure, some of the results and tactical decisions have been disappointing the last few weeks, but come on. Any team with 5 of their 6 best defenders out would struggle.

Our big game performances have improved so much just the past 5 months, we look like a completely different team than under Wenger and that´s credit to Emery.

He has gotten at least some kind of stability here in a very short time, and things could easily have gone the other way. If he´s backed in the transfer window, we could and should challenge for the league in a few years. However he must get the time and money needed.

 

[HBL]

I think we got much better lately as a team.
But individual mistakes which can't be fixed by coaching are killing us weeks after weeks.

If it wasn't for Lich mistake's yesterday, kolasinac against united, and Koscielny against the saints we would have a very different conversation today...
Just in december we've lost at least 5 points because of them.

With those 5 more points we would be only 1pt behind City... 2 behind Tottenham...

These mistakes are killing us.
Not only result wise but also the flow of the game like it did yesterday.

This is a good point, so many goals we concede come from big individual errors. Emery can't really do anything about the mistakes being made in a weakened defence. We looked so comfortable up until they scored yesterday.

 

[squallman]

Positives:
Great win against Sp**s
Chugging along in the Europa League
Good performance at home against Liverpool
We didn't curl up and die at Old Trafford
Bellerin looks better
Holding has improved

Negatives:
Awful defensive record
Poor rotation, Xhaka hasn't had a game off in weeks
Marginalizing key squad members like Özil, Ramsey, Auba (early on) and now Lacazette in favor of Iwobi and Mkhi
Inability to be leading a league game at half time
Poor performances overall
Too much chopping and changing at half time, indicating that he gets the starting line up wrong too often
Lost in the Carling Cup against Sp**s while playing too many first teamers.

I would like to say we look more organized but our defensive record says otherwise.

5/10

 

[albakos]

6/10 - a passing grade

He still doesn't seem to have a clear plan how we want to play. Earlier it was for our fullbacks/wingbacks to maintain width and join into attacks.
His constant changes in formation with some weird substitutions are an indication that he is still trying to find a balance.
The most striking factor is the inability to lead at HT or being able and finish off teams early.

I don't buy this whataboutism that he inherited a poor squad.
A team with Özil, Auba, Laca, Bellerin, Xhaka, Ramsey and Mkhi offer a great core with a good set of options. Teh signings have also adapted well.

The problem with last year was that players had lost faith in Wenger, he was unable to inspire them anymore and it decayed into an awful season, especially away from home.

Hopefully we get players back from injuries and we have a signing or two (CB and winger) lined up for early January.

If we somehow manage to finish Top 4, it will be an excellent achievement, a miracle.

 

[Jae]

7.5/10 for me.

You just can't please some people, I don't think any other manager would have improved us any more than Emery has done. We're playing at our level given the quality of our players and the cost of our squad.

He's inherited some absolutely dreadful players. People saying that he was great at setting a team up at PSG and rarely tinkered.... Well that's all well and good when you have Neymar on your wing instead of Iwobi and Thiago Silva at Centre Back instead of Mustafi Has to do the best with what he's got, which is not a lot in all honesty.

We're two points off Chelsea who have considerably more talent in their squad than us.

On another note... now people are pro-Özil after slagging him off and wanting him out for the past 2 seasons? I like the guy but he has done nothing worthy of mention since he's been here besides a smattering of great games here and there. If Emery "mismanages" him and he ends up leaving he'd of probably done us a favour.

My only disappointment is that he still pretty much refuses to play Laca and Auba together, however I think that is due to issues in other areas of the pitch, which will hopefully be addressed in the next two windows.

 

[Ceballinhos]

I don't buy this whataboutism that he inherited a poor squad.
A team with Özil, Auba, Laca, Bellerin, Xhaka, Ramsey and Mkhi offer a great core with a good set of options. Teh signings have also adapted well.

There is a serious lack of balance in the squad, that's why it is poor.
Mkhi is in a poor form this season.
Ramsey won't sign a new deal so there's no point at starting him ahead of any of our other players. And when he did at the beginning of the season he was poor.

We have no width offensive players in the squad and that's a huge issue especially when you look at their importance in the modern game in the PL.
Iwobi Mkhi Ramsey Özil are the same type of players and we have too much of them while having no serious wing option.
Our only consistent offensive players are Lacazette and Auba, who both plays in the same position...

We also have a very poor CB selection. Even more with the Holding injury.

We don't have any decent cover at the FB position with unfortunately Nacho being near the end and getting a lot of injuries lately, and Kolasinac being injury prone.

Guendouzi is our first option in the CM spot if Lucas or Granit gets injured or suspended.
As much as I rate him he's not ready yet to have such an importance in the squad.
Elneny is a pointless player and Ramsey hasn't been great the last couple of years as a CM + his contract situation...

Bellerin is the only player who brings a threat on the right side in the whole squad.
kolasinac (and nacho) have a huge importance too this season in our offense they're the only one who brings a threat on the left side since Iwobi is back to his poor form.

I think all the teams ahead of us have overrall a better squad than we do.

 

[OnlyOne]

Gave him an 8

Touching distance of top 4 which is where we want and thought we'd be in and around. Our away record has improved massively and new signings have done well. We haven't been rolled over by anyone so far even though everyone thought we would be. We're still in the Europa league looking like favourites.

Our attack, even though at one point, was second most goals scored, still looked like it could easily go up a notch which is exciting, just think we need that winger which I hope we get in Jan.

Think our injury crisis is a lot worse than some are making out. We started to gather momentum but we lost two KEY players for the season and then further injuries where we couldn't really replace them. So I think the fact we're still around top 4 is really impressive.

He has made some mistakes but we'll see what happens in Jan and hopefully we'll get some players back.

I am still very optimistic.

 

[Camron]

Seems Unai's constant tinkering is something new according to GFN

"

"

"

Can't really compare tinkering on a team full of wc stars that wins it's domestic league on a yearly basis by a landslide vs a team on low confidence with a lot of mediocrity struggling to get into top 4 in the most dominant league.

 

[celestis]

Can't really compare tinkering on a team full of wc stars that wins it's domestic league on a yearly basis by a landslide vs a team on low confidence with a lot of mediocrity struggling to get into top 4 in the most dominant league.

Lot of mediocrity ? really ? Two top , strikers , a midfield pairing that has dominated both Sp**s and Liverpool and extremely decent wing backs and a great Am hardly mediocrity and that's with all the injuries .

Don't think they're low on confidence just yet but if keeps taking of strikers when we are one all and chasing then maybe so .

 

[Maybe]

Our big game performances have improved so much just the past 5 months, we look like a completely different team than under Wenger and that´s credit to Emery.

It's down to the success on the market from by the people who are responsible for recruiting. Can't remember a single season where Wenger was given 4 players that are ready for the first team football without losing a single key player.
People forgot quickly how good we were for the majority of Wenger's career here, they remember only his last 2 seasons. I'll be happy if Emery achives 80% of the things Wenger did

 

[Maybe]

Lot of mediocrity ? really ? Two top , strikers , a midfield pairing that has dominated both Sp**s and Liverpool and extremely decent wing backs and a great Am hardly mediocrity and that's with all the injuries .

Don't think they're low on confidence just yet but if keeps taking of stikers when we are one all and chasing then maybe so .

Hallelujah, I had a feeling we were playing with plumbers and farmers here, not 2 top class strikers and top notch midfield.

 

[Jimmy282304]

Pros:
- Unlike Wenger he does change things when it's not working as he expected.
- Players work hard for 90 min.
- Likes to play the Arsenal way with a lot of passing and movement.

Cons:
- Has no clue how to set this team up, the further the seasons goes the worse he is at setting things up, and it should be the exact opposite.
- Created a lot of chaos in recent weeks, key players are frustrated and he is killing any chance of consistency in them.
- Doesn't give chances to academy players, rather sticks with proven failures in games where they could actually get some experience without having negative impact on the result.
- Over reliant on individual brilliance instead of having a working system.
- Terrible man management, we've seen how this worked out for Mourinho.
- Questionable team selections, subs worked out most of the time so there is a feeling that he is a great tactician, but in reality it was the initial selection that was flawed and he needed to change things as soon as possible.

A lot of good work was done by Sven and Sanlehi that Emery takes credit for. New players (Torreira, Douzy, Papa and Leno) massively improved the quality of the squad.
Considering how good this squad is and that we still need top quality wide player and CB, I would say that we are having expected results (maybe we could've got few more points), but our competition is very consistent and we'll be there when we add those 2 additions to the squad.

7/10 for table position
4/10 for players management
5/10 for tactics

I expected more if I'm honest, he is far away from Wenger's quality.

Agree, hes not the guy

 

[Manberg]

5/10 because he failed to bring in enough quality signings and address the issues of the squad over the summer. We have no good wide players at all, lacking in midfield and a weak defence. Torreira and Sokratis were good signings but not nearly sufficient.
I also don’t like predictable routines such as the sub at half time in every game.
His game and tactical management needs improving too.
But this is his first season and he has lots of work to do so I’m willing to give him more time

 

[Preacher]

Some of you are overrating current squad. It clouds your judgement.

 

[Ceballinhos]

Lot of mediocrity ? really ? Two top , strikers , a midfield pairing that has dominated both Sp**s and Liverpool and extremely decent wing backs and a great Am hardly mediocrity and that's with all the injuries .

Don't think they're low on confidence just yet but if keeps taking of strikers when we are one all and chasing then maybe so .

The kind of mediocrity that ruins our good players work, yes.
And the lack of balance which has been obvious for a couple of season.

As I've said, if we had solid players at the back there who weren't shipping away cheap goals, we would have a different conversation.

We were all over them yesterday during the first half. We should have been 2 or 3/0 before they scored.
Then Lich has made a huge mistake and suddenly all the momentum has shifted.

We're a bit like Liverpool a couple of seasons ago where they had a great attack but kept giving away cheap goals and ultimately that's why they've finished only 4th twice in a row.
But since VVD and Alisson, they're a different team.

 

[krackpot]

Great thread!

Overall: 7/10...He's left me optimistic.

Tactics: 7.5/10. He's done well with what he has. Played the best tactics which suits the majority of our players.

In-Game Management: 7/10...Switches and tinkers a lot in-game, which I appreciate.

Media Handling: 6/10...he's been good.

Style: 6/10...He hasn't had the time to impose his style.

Man Management: 5/10...hasn't really impressed a lot until now.

 

[tap-in]

I gave him 8

We have 38 pts, no idea what we had at this point last season but 38 is more than half of 63 pts, which is how we finished last season. Taking into the account the squad he has, I have to be happy with how he has done. New to the league, learning the language and we've lost 3 out of 19 (same as City & Chelsea) and we smashed our EL group with ease. We've played some great football and got the fans singing again. Sure we can improve and I'm sure Emery will ensure we do.