Unai Emery - Initial thoughts: Page 31 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Unai Emery - Initial thoughts

Bold Tone

The question is why are we so poor defensively?
We have had to score more than 2 goals to just about win games.
It's strange as we are not gung-ho or going all out like city yet teams find it easy to score against us.

Qwiss

banduan wrote:
I missed the match but the highlights showed that most our positive work came through him?

Yep.

Qwiss

Bold Tone wrote:
The question is why are we so poor defensively?
We have had to score more than 2 goals to just about win games.
It's strange as we are not gung-ho or going all out like city yet teams find it easy to score against us.

We are pretty gung ho we just don't do a great job of it. Our full backs push way up and no one really sits deep in midfield when we attack. Leads to a lot of counter attack opportunities.

est

Bold Tone wrote:
The question is why are we so poor defensively?
We have had to score more than 2 goals to just about win games.
It's strange as we are not gung-ho or going all out like city yet teams find it easy to score against us.

Because we have stupid players that switch off when we're being 'comfortable' in a game or just players that aren't good enough and make mistakes when put under pressure.

flobaba

Yep. It’s not exactly rocket science. Our players aren’t great.

arsedocmd

Qwiss! wrote:
banduan wrote:
I missed the match but the highlights showed that most our positive work came through him?

Yep.

😆

goon

est wrote:
Bold Tone wrote:
The question is why are we so poor defensively?
We have had to score more than 2 goals to just about win games.
It's strange as we are not gung-ho or going all out like city yet teams find it easy to score against us.

Because we have stupid players that switch off when we're being 'comfortable' in a game or just players that aren't good enough and make mistakes when put under pressure.

I don’t think they’re especially stupid or especially bad. But when you have a manager who plays a high risk style that will expose the defence if not executed properly then they’re inevitably going to look like idiots. A big part of the issue is what’s in front of them. We lost to Southampton with a 22yr old playing in his first season in the PL for a big side alongside a 19yr old practically in his first top flight season. I love them both, but you can’t expect them to have the pressing and positioning down the the result is our defence looks exposed. A van Dijk in there would help but won’t really solve anything until Emery has had time to glue these guys together.

Bold Tone

You make a reasonable case but my question also relates to games we have won.
Torreira has been putting in superhuman efforts yet we were only winning by the odd goal over, supposedly, inferior premiership teams.
I don't know the answer or if it's simply a mental bias but, Mkhi's 2 deflected goals aside, we seem to have to do something special to score yet i feel we easily get opened up by a simple cross/through ball often with everyone back even with our first choice midfield pairing.

BWoolley

I don't think Emery will do much to improve our defense. I know I am in a minority here, but Emery's defensive track record with his prior teams is abominable - his Sevilla team conceded 50+ goals every season he was there. I don't really expect much from him to start with (although our clownshoes is perhaps taking that a little too far). Wouldn't be surprised if our defense didn't really improve very much over the course of the season.

mdgoonah41

BWoolley wrote:
I don't think Emery will do much to improve our defense. I know I am in a minority here, but Emery's defensive track record with his prior teams is abominable - his Sevilla team conceded 50+ goals every season he was there. I don't really expect much from him to start with (although our clownshoes is perhaps taking that a little too far). Wouldn't be surprised if our defense didn't really improve very much over the course of the season.

well, 2 things:

he surely sees our defense as an issue, and he could easily see that our defense also sucked under wenger, and bould is the common denominator, so, maybe he will look to bring in an actual defensive specialist who can coach and drill our players. the current methods obviously arent working
he surely sees our actual talent in defense is lacking and he will implore sven to find him a better CB and suitable backups for LB and RB given the bombing wide style we want to play

if he does nothing to address the defense, then i will ask questions of him

Bold Tone

I like that he said he knew that we would be physically inferior to the Burnley cavemen.
He is obviously a quick learner as he ditched the Southampton tactic of trying to match them at their own game.
Hopefully that means, till he gets his type of player, we will concentrate more on football than running so we never see a mourinho-type midfield 4 of Torreira, Guendouzi, Iwobi and Mkhitarian.

Anzac

BWoolley wrote:
I don't think Emery will do much to improve our defense. I know I am in a minority here, but Emery's defensive track record with his prior teams is abominable - his Sevilla team conceded 50+ goals every season he was there. I don't really expect much from him to start with (although our clownshoes is perhaps taking that a little too far). Wouldn't be surprised if our defense didn't really improve very much over the course of the season.

IMO it's also a consequence of the new era of the 3 point system where a draw is as much 2 points dropped as opposed to 1 point saved. Your defence may save you games whereas your attack can win them, but in order to be able to win titles you need both.

banduan

Remember, he'd rather win 5-4 than 1-0. He absolutely meant it. It'll drive fans mental but that's what we're in for.

goon

Why would it drive fans mental to watch a team that is primed to score goals rather than to stop them?

banduan

goon wrote:
Why would it drive fans mental to watch a team that is primed to score goals rather than to stop them?

It drives fan mental to match a team not primed to stop goals, regardless if they can score them as well.

flobaba

The flip side would be a functional Mourinho team. I’d much rather err on the side of attack.

banduan

Me too. But I'd like at least some devotion to keeping our goals against to the minimum.

Bold Tone

Yup Liverpool are showing that by having the stingiest defence atm.
They realised they couldn't get this with clowns at the back so paid the astronomical prices demanded for Alisson and VVD.
Of course they haven't won anything yet but there's no doubting that they now have a chance that seemed impossible 6 months ago.

mdgoonah41

liverpool paid £75m for him, but southampton paid like £15m for him. just a reminder that there are good players out there that dont cost a boatload of money, you just need to identify them before they become world class. its been known to happen before.

Anzac

mdgoonah41 wrote:
liverpool paid £75m for him, but southampton paid like £15m for him. just a reminder that there are good players out there that dont cost a boatload of money, you just need to identify them before they become world class. its been known to happen before.

And another opportunity we rejected the chance to sign him about that time because we felt he was too languid / laid back in his style of play. Just as we also rejected the opportunity to sign Wanyama, Yeung(??), Kante, Schneiderlin, Mbappe(??) (none of whom would have broken the bank at the time), before we get to those who rejected us.

« Previous Page Next Page »