Unai Emery: Adios

[Football Manager]

I don't believe that "top players only need complete freedom." Some structure and some discipline is needed, but there is a balance that needs to be made in order to get the best out of your players.


Emery took over a squad featuring the most creative player of the past 20 years, who has won trophies at the highest levels of competition, still in his prime, with two outstanding strikers playing in front of him.


Somehow Emery sees this and wants Mesut Özil to play like Dirk f*cking Kuyt.


That is terrible management. That is not getting the most out of your players. That is not setting your players up for success. That is a failure on the part of the manager. The same applies to Ramsey, Lacazette, and even Xhaka to a degree who has been put at LB for several games. Emery doesn't see players, he sees pawns.

No, he doesn’t want Özil to be kyut.
You’ve got it completely wrong mate.

If he actually prefer kyut type of players we would play ****ing defensive boring **** and woundnt concede as much. But Emery is an attacking minded manager, he wants to out score his opponent.

He just wants a player who is as technically good and creative as Özil, but can also press the opponent at the same time. Someone like a younger silva, iniesta, modric, cazorla....


Not getting the best out of the players?
They are not even in his plan.

If Drogba was in guardiola team he would have benched drogba and go on to play his tiki taka football.
And he would sell drogba for someone small and technically gifted in the transfer window.
Emery is just doing the exact same thing.

 

[squallman]

If Drogba was in guardiola team he would have benched drogba and go on to play his tiki taka football.

The difference is that in this fantasy scenario Guardiola could drop Drogba and play Aguero/Jesus up front. We're dropping Özil to play who exactly? Iwobi/Mkhitaryan

 

[Football Manager]

The difference is that in this fantasy scenario Guardiola could drop Drogba and play Aguero/Jesus up front. We're dropping Özil to play who exactly? Iwobi/Mkhitaryan

Thats why he needs a few transfer windows.
Just give him time to build his team ffs.
Some people here talk like as if they only have a few months remaining in their life.

 

[squallman]

Thats why he needs a few transfer windows.
Just give him time to build his team ffs.
Some people here talk like as if they only have a few months remaining in their life.

Not the point I was making, even though I seriously disagree with the notion that Emery should get a few transfer windows no matter what happens to do as he pleases. But I've been over that too many times to repeat myself.

You said Guardiola would come in and drop Drogba. The point I was making is that Guardiola could afford to do that because he would have quality replacements ready to come in. Emery does not have that luxury at the moment so dropping Özil for inferior players who aren't even performing better than him isn't a good idea. Just play Özil until you get to the transfer window and can sign a replacement. Benching him hasn't made us better offensively or defensively.

 

[carlito'sway]

If Drogba was in guardiola team he would have benched drogba and go on to play his tiki taka football.
And he would sell drogba for someone small and technically gifted in the transfer window.
Emery is just doing the exact same thing.

Errrr....What? No clue what you are trying to say. Are you comparing Drogba to Özil? Is there something lost in translation?

 

[Toby]

His point (that people seem to be missing over and over again) is that it's individual errors (or lack of quality) that are killing us this season. Emery can't set up the team or coach people to stop them doing this.

A lot of people forget though that defensive organization usually massively helps to iron out individual mistakes. It's literally the point of it. It should minimize the overall danger to your box, minimize the individual weaknesses of players, give them the confidence to play their game and thus decrease the chance of individual mistakes happening. It's really the foundation of any positive or negative way of defending.

A perfect example of this has been my other team Stuttgart right in the time between last December and today, three different coaches and the same personnel - if need be I could shed some light on that. Defensive organization, individual player coaching, overall compactness do minimize the chance of individual mistakes.

Again, of course player quality has a role in it, but it's not like defensive structure won't have an influence on an individual's quality. It's exactly why some players look absolute worldbeaters in some teams, and then they absolutely suck in another - because the setup, structure and system does have a huge influence basically on player quality.

 

[Gooner Zig]

The identity of the team comes from the manager - the spirit, the mentality, the confidence, the competitiveness, the culture. Emery, IMO, has failed here as well, by his mismanagement of they players. You can see it in the confusion, frustration, and poor mindset the players have on the pitch.

I don't buy the "Liverpool are just that much better than Arsenal" line. Arsenal drew with them last match, and in that match Özil, Laca, and Auba were all in the first 11 together.

I generally agree with your post but I don't think you can say that there's no "spirit, confidence, competitiveness" - you don't go 22 games unbeaten without a bit of those qualities.

Also, Laca was a sub in the Liverpool game at the Emirates.

 

[Gooner Zig]

The overarching point is still that we have very few assets bar Auba and maybe torreira if he continues his trajectory.

We need the money now and in the summer. Not making the CL will set us back financially in a significant way.

Obviously making the CL is a pretty big financial boon but I recall reading that we actually made more money last season from the EL than United did in the CL, though it was a bit of a one off due to the fact that there were 5 PL teams in the CL but still, it's not like a 50M revenue gap which would exist if a team was out of Europe altogether.

 

[Jae]

A lot of people forget though that defensive organization usually massively helps to iron out individual mistakes. It's literally the point of it. It should minimize the overall danger to your box, minimize the individual weaknesses of players, give them the confidence to play their game and thus decrease the chance of individual mistakes happening. It's really the foundation of any positive or negative way of defending.

A perfect example of this has been my other team Stuttgart right in the time between last December and today, three different coaches and the same personnel - if need be I could shed some light on that. Defensive organization, individual player coaching, overall compactness do minimize the chance of individual mistakes.

Again, of course player quality has a role in it, but it's not like defensive structure won't have an influence on an individual's quality. It's exactly why some players look absolute worldbeaters in some teams, and then they absolutely suck in another - because the setup, structure and system does have a huge influence basically on player quality.

I'd agree, but only to a certain degree. Guardiola is one of the best coaches in the world, but he couldn't do anything with some of the personnel he had in defence at City. Same goes for Klopp at Liverpool.

Wenger very rarely coached defense, but in the early days we had quality, world class defenders who actually knew how to defend and play as a unit. Hence he didn't need to.

 

[celestis]

I'd agree, but only to a certain degree. Guardiola is one of the best coaches in the world, but he couldn't do anything with some of the personnel he had in defence at City. Same goes for Klopp at Liverpool.

Wenger very rarely coached defense, but in the early days we had quality, world class defenders who actually knew how to defend and play as a unit. Hence he didn't need to.

Thing is though Jae , we had Sol and Kolo in the invincible era . Only one of them is a good defender in the pure sense of the word , We also had a record run of clean sheets to the final of the CL with Senderos, Eboue and Flamini in our defensive four. Goes to show what good organisation can do .

I can tell you now Sokratis , Mustafi and Kos there is enough quality there to have a much better defensive record if someone can orfganise them .

 

[Jae]

I can tell you now Sokratis , Mustafi and Kos there is enough quality there to have a much better defensive record if someone can organise them .

For me that person who organises them needs to be a player though.

 

[celestis]

For me that person who organises them needs to be a player though.

Yeah fair enough , thing is last few weeks we have beeen ****ing around with formation and personnel in those positions . Very hard to get organised .

 

[Gooner Zig]

Was Sokratis really the best we could find in the summer? Really?

Couldn't we have just spent the fee + whatever more it took to get in a truly class CB in?

 

[Makingtrax]

Haven't you posted this already

I don’t go on Gooners World bro.

 

[Makingtrax]

Was Sokratis really the best we could find in the summer? Really?

Couldn't we have just spent the fee + whatever more it took to get in a truly class CB in?

This. He’s a clone of Mustafi, very good at times, but always likely to lose his head under pressure. Even a waning Kos is better than those two.

 

[OnlyOne]

This. He’s a clone of Mustafi, very good at times, but always likely to lose his head under pressure. Even a waning Kos is better than those two.

No he's not.

 

[celestis]

No he's not.

Give it a few more weeks for Kos to come good hasn't even had pre season .

 

[OnlyOne]

Give it a few more weeks for Kos to come good hasn't even had pre season .

Why are people acting like Kos was class before his injury though. He's really not that good.

 

[Toby]

For me that person who organises them needs to be a player though.

Now that's where we're probably closest in our opinion. I still hold up that organization is the most important aspect of a defense, vastly more important that individual quality, and @celestis has given two good examples, and I highly doubt that Wenger didn't coach defense.

But to properly execute defensive organization and hold the structure 90% of teams/managers need a right hand man on the field. That may be your goalkeeper or one of the CBs, but someone has to organize it. That doesn't have to be the individually best players, or worldclass players, but someone who can see and perceive things, grasp tactical concepts and hold it together on the field. The last guy we had who could do that was Mertesacker.

 

[Ceballinhos]

Thing is though Jae , we had Sol and Kolo in the invincible era . Only one of them is a good defender in the pure sense of the word , We also had a record run of clean sheets to the final of the CL with Senderos, Eboue and Flamini in our defensive four. Goes to show what good organisation can do .

I can tell you now Sokratis , Mustafi and Kos there is enough quality there to have a much better defensive record if someone can orfganise them .

Kos hasn't been the same player anymore since his injury so far and you could make the case he was already on the decline.

Mustafi has been the most error prone defender we've ever had as a "starter".
He is a player we've offered to WBA and tried to get rid of for Evans

And Kolasinac is a huge downgrade on Nacho on the defensive side.

In our squad we only have Sokratis & Holding who can defend without making a huge mistake/game.
One of them is out for the season.

So there's a serious lack of quality.