Unai Emery - Initial thoughts: Page 32 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Unai Emery - Initial thoughts

flobaba

It’s always a risk. Just cause a player looks decent at a young age, doesn’t mean he’s going to be the next Thomas Eisfeld.

Anzac

flobaba wrote:
It’s always a risk. Just cause a player looks decent at a young age, doesn’t mean he’s going to be the next Thomas Eisfeld.

Was going to say that's what the scouts are paid to do, but then remembered that AW had the last word on everything previously and he became so risk adverse in the later years.

DiabyKungFu

Sir Arsene Wenger is rolling over in his grave.

Shady

I'm still giving Emery until the 18 month mark. A lot can change in a year. Let's see how he uses the next two transfer windows.

I will be worried if he tinkers as much.

lorddulaarsenal

Very benign football at the moment

I expect to see bold moves made in the window to address our lack of creativity and physicality at the back

Pissed off with Wenger and having doubts about the new regime. Willing to see how this season goes but we need to be challenging otherwise it’s just continued failure

frusciante

emery sucks

Bosscielny

We have to work so hard for every chance we get. Half the time the deeper cm’s are passing it between them and the centre backs until one of them gets pressed and it goes all the way back for Leno to lump it forward. Meanwhile every time we’re without the ball the opposition walks through us.

We’ve had two or three convincing wins all season, kept one clean sheet since September and we’ve failed to be leading at half time in 17 of our 18 games.

Wenger left him a shambles of a team, but Emery is only making it harder on himself. I can get on board on what he’s doing with Ozil, but outside of that it feels like every decision he makes ends up working against him.

flobaba

Every decision? Ever?!

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

Not impressed recently but let's see what he's really about when he gets players he wants in.

BWoolley

It's frustrating in that we have spent 70M in the summer and yet, we seem to have gotten no better. Our defense is worse than it was under Wenger and the only reason we have the attacking numbers we do is Aubameyang. Emery's teams feel like they are picked at random. Overall, I would have liked a coach with a bit more of an identity and / or better defensive organization. He also doesn't feel like a developmental coach, which is a different type of coach we could have used as well. Overall, I'd say 4/10 after 6 months.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:
Very benign football at the moment

I expect to see bold moves made in the window to address our lack of creativity and physicality at the back

Pissed off with Wenger and having doubts about the new regime. Willing to see how this season goes but we need to be challenging otherwise it’s just continued failure

How come you're having doubts about Sven et al?

awooga83

To get Arsenal back to a level to complete will take similar time as Liverpool from the Rodgers era through klopp it took time to build and recruit the players that took them to the next level. But we must be making those moves over the next 2 transfer windows.

lorddulaarsenal

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert wrote:
@lorddulaarsenal wrote:
Very benign football at the moment

I expect to see bold moves made in the window to address our lack of creativity and physicality at the back

Pissed off with Wenger and having doubts about the new regime. Willing to see how this season goes but we need to be challenging otherwise it’s just continued failure

How come you're having doubts about Sven et al?

No doubt they can spot talent and players but yet to see enough convinction to get us back to the top.

So what if Wenger left a lorry load of issues? Just fix as many as you can as soon as you can even if it means being ruthless - the fact that we still have so many shithouse players on our books is a negative on them as well as the previous management

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

Yeah I can't disagree with any of that.

See what they're about over January.

mdgoonah41

trying to be level-headed right now.

when chelsea win today, we'll be 2 points off the top 4 exactly halfway through the league season. when the season started, especially after we lost our first 2 games, im sure people feared the worst. we're in a decent position given our squad strength
our squad is dogshit. we have 7 or 8 good players, and then a bunch of fringe players, and then a big bunch of players who shouldnt be near the 25 man first team squad. we've played lots of fixtures (everyone has, obviously), we have used most of the squad, but the problem is a majority of the squad is shit. emery has tried relying on our passable defenders, he might have overplayed them, and now a bunch of them are hurt. it sucks.
we constantly criticized wenger for never adjusting and waiting too long to make changes when things arent working, emery is now sort of the complete opposite of that. hes not afraid to make changes, but it does make you wonder why he sets up the team the way he does at the start of games. has he identified how he thinks the other team will play, and the other team does something unexpected so he changes? im glad hes proactive, but he needs to strike a balance.
he clearly wants to play a certain way, and he isnt playing players who who dont fit how he wants to play. given that hes had 4 months to evaluate the players we have, hopefully he has given clear instructions to sven and raul about who fits and who doesnt, and what he needs to address the issues in the squad. fixing the whole squad in january is impossible, but hopefully we can sign 1-2 players, even on loan, to fill the big gaps. we have a while until europa starts again, we can play youngsters in the first few rounds of the FA cup, so hopefully we can start to ease off overplaying our 4-5 good players.

flobaba

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:
Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert wrote:
How come you're having doubts about Sven et al?

No doubt they can spot talent and players but yet to see enough conviction to get us back to the top.

So what if Wenger left a lorry load of issues? Just fix as many as you can as soon as you can even if it means being ruthless - the fact that we still have so many shithouse players on our books is a negative on them as well as the previous management

Yes, and the process has begun. But realistically, how many changes were expected last summer? They can only try to patch things together at that stage. The current manager has to be able to do some personal evaluation and then determine the players he can find use for and the ones he can't. Imagine if before he came in and we had already sold Ozil and/or Rambo? Some would have even sold Bellerin as well, and then what? Who is left? How do we recover from that in one window? And these are our better players we are talking about here.

The ideas were good- even if one isn't totally in agreement with the personnel brought in. Defense needed reinforcement - Sok, Licht, are brought in. GK is busted - Leno is brought in. Midfield needs some energy and steel - Torreira and Guendouzi come in. Holding's, and to a lesser extent perhaps, Welbeck's injuries came at the worst possible time and our current blip, in my opinion, can be attributed to their loss. Now we are starting a LANS Kos, who had not played in about a year in a new system. A lot was said about our xG conceded also. It would have been a minor miracle to get away with all of that going on with our whiskers unsinged.

Looking at the positives - Xhaka has looked serviceable and may be an actual option for us going forward. Iwobi and Mkhi have also improved marginally and showed great form at the beginning of the season, although i'd prefer if neither were starting for us.

I think we are performing as expected this season. Let's give the suits and the boss at least another full window or preferably two to work before we become unenchanted and label this new dispensation a failure. Patience, people. There is a time and place for aggressive restructuring and replacement. Last summer wasn't it. This summer though...

Anzac

I suspect that part of the issue re team selections and subs is that the players in general are struggling to play in accordance to a tactical structure. I also think Emery is trying to be mindful about both the increased physicality his style imposes upon the players, as well as wanting to remain as competitive across multiple competitions.

As much as we have been crying out for a dominant CB and a winger, IMO the biggest miss has been that we have no one in squad who has played under Emery previously in his preferred style and system.

I also suspect that despite the new structure the basic policy re transfer activity remains pretty much the status quo, and that we will not be looking to resolve our issues and requirements via transfers.

Anzac

flobaba wrote:
@lorddulaarsenal wrote:
No doubt they can spot talent and players but yet to see enough conviction to get us back to the top.

So what if Wenger left a lorry load of issues? Just fix as many as you can as soon as you can even if it means being ruthless - the fact that we still have so many shithouse players on our books is a negative on them as well as the previous management

Yes, and the process has begun. But realistically, how many changes were expected last summer? They can only try to patch things together at that stage. The current manager has to be able to do some personal evaluation and then determine the players he can find use for and the ones he can't. Imagine if before he came in and we had already sold Ozil and/or Rambo? Some would have even sold Bellerin as well, and then what? Who is left? How do we recover from that in one window? And these are our better players we are talking about here.

The ideas were good- even if one isn't totally in agreement with the personnel brought in. Defense needed reinforcement - Sok, Licht, are brought in. GK is busted - Leno is brought in. Midfield needs some energy and steel - Torreira and Guendouzi come in. Holding's, and to a lesser extent perhaps, Welbeck's injuries came at the worst possible time and our current blip, in my opinion, can be attributed to their loss. Now we are starting a LANS Kos, who had not played in about a year in a new system. A lot was said about our xG conceded also. It would have been a minor miracle to get away with all of that going on with our whiskers unsinged.

Looking at the positives - Xhaka has looked serviceable and may be an actual option for us going forward. Iwobi and Mkhi have also improved marginally and showed great form at the beginning of the season, although i'd prefer if neither were starting for us.

I think we are performing as expected this season. Let's give the suits and the boss at least another full window or preferably two to work before we become unenchanted and label this new dispensation a failure. Patience, people. There is a time and place for aggressive restructuring and replacement. Last summer wasn't it. This summer though...

I still don't think that this summer will see the squad issues resolved or rectified as we are restricted in terms of both our current status, transfer funding and wages.

As such I won't stat asking questions of Emery as manager/coach until more than 50% of the 25 man squad are players signed to his requirements. I also think that we will continue to struggle until such time as our match day squads consist of players who are used to playing according to a tactical plan including shape, style and roles - something we haven't done as a club for over a decade.

Clrnc

My major problem for this season so far is that we have very very few convincing performances, results or not. It's a bit opposite from Wenger where we can look good but don't get the points in the end.

We badly need strengthening, till then I won't judge Emery fully like what I mentioned the other time. He need his style players.

Klopp took 2 or 3 years to fully make Liverpool his team, but then again people can argue even in his very first season they were already exciting to watch performances wise

flobaba

Come on Clrnc, we have definitely had good moments and games this season where we have looked exciting. We called it Merryball, remember? 😉

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