Unai Emery

[Ernie71]

The players Emery took over from Wenger

Cech Over the hill
Bellerin i dont get the Bellerin love in.He is a defender but he cant defend
Monreal used to be mr consistent but age and injuries have caught up with him
Mustafi a pile of shit. £35m flushed down the toilet
Holding: May turn out to be good but the jury is still out
Koscielny never the best but a reliable defender. He's finished
Kolašinac forget him bombing forward his job is to defend.He cant
Xhaka A truly terrible player another £35m wasted
Elneny: Why is he still a the club
Ramsey Overhyped inconsistent injury prone
Ozil Lazy "injury prone" £350k a week £18m a year.The train robbers got 30 years for nicking less
Mkhitaryan he was shite at United so some bright spark thought lets give him £200k a week.Out of the same box as Ozil
Iwobi A headless chicken.Not good enough
Welbeck Injury prone at United injury prone at Arsenal
Lacazette: Seems to be moody that he is not the number one striker
Abumeyang: top goalscorer but sometimes you think he plays for himself

So there you have it Emery was left one top class player. Other than the strikers none of them would get in any of the other top 6 teams.Yet we are expecting him to get us in the top 4. Give Pep or Klopp that squad with nothing to spend and see what they could do with it.

[rodders999]

I wouldn't describe myself as an Emery basher and he should 100% be given the next 18 months to try and build some sort of team but I'm also of the opinion that he shouldn't just be given a free ride either.

We all know the shit show left behind by Wenger and we all know it's going to take time and several transfer windows to try and right the many wrongs of the banter era BUT.....and here's the massive BUT it should also be possible to see some green shoots of recovery at this stage.

For the last few years I've been saying that the spine of our team simply wasn't up to scratch and needed an upgrade in every position and, to be fair, in the last 12 months we've signed Leno, Sokratis, Torreira and Aubameyang. We've upgraded 4 positions right up the heart of the side and haven't gotten any better, arguably we're worse

The Anfield debacle is when I first started to worry, we went up there with a patched up defence against the in form team in the league and we went there with no plan. Nothing! We were wide open from the off and it was as close to a "just go out and play lads" performance as you'd ever see lifted straight from the Wenger "zero tactics" handbook with the same painful result - an absolute dicking.

Southampton and West Ham were carbon copies of 90% of our away games last season and if you woke from a coma watching either of those matches you'd be convinced shit for brains was still in charge.

Here are my concerns -

He hasn't coached our defence to be even 1% better than it was last season, why not?

Why is that 6 months into the season he's still making double substitutions every game to try and illicit some sort of performance from the team?

Why is the team starting practically every game in snooze mode and pretty much writing off the entire first 45 minutes of each match with dire performances. Being ahead just once at HT half way through the season is not some sort of quirky stat, it points to a much deeper issue at the core of the side. What is it and why isn't it being addressed?

What is our game plan? Where is the pressing game? What is our plan for the opposition? I don't see any of it being honest.

[DB10GOONER]

I think that Emery was always due a rough ride from people who supported Wenger until he left and the mass hysteria that comes with social media. I am not saying that applies to anyone on this forum as we all know where people here were situated with Wenger. Also, I think that there is just too many unrealistic views on how his ideas can be implemented. He has very few players that he trusts and the squad is already threadbare. In central midfield, he literally hasn't any options outside of Xhaka, Dozi, and Torriera. He clearly doesn't rate Elneny (neither did Wenger) and Ramsey is out the door (not that he stayed in position anyway). Because of that, he has had to overplay a 19 year old who realistically shouldn't be playing as much as he has and I seriously doubt that he was purchased with that in mind. Torriera is from a new league and looked shattered recently from being overplayed. Maitland-Niles is listed as a central mid, but because of injuries and the shiteness of Lichtsteiner, he has had to play as a wingback. So we have a depth issue in midfield.

Emery came in saying that he wanted a pressing side which we have seen sometimes, but we also have only a handful of players from the front who have bought into it - Iwobi, Lacazette and Miki. Aubemayang is a great scorer, but if I am honest, his workrate stinks (in other words, he ain't going to press). Welbeck did press, but he is now out for the season (and for good as he is on too much money). We all know about Ozil. The man is a coaster, will never adapt and shows up when he wants. Miki is injured, so we are left with playing Aubameyang out of position and Iwobi, who actually hasn't been as bad as people here say that he has been. He is improved from last year. He may never reach the heights, but he is a good squad player.

Emery is trying to play somewhat differently than what he initially intended, for certain, which has led to some turgid football, but a lot of the blame needs to go to Stan, Wenger and Gazidis for their gross incompetance of the last 5 years (Wenger for a lot longer). Emery can shoulder some of the blame for what looks like a disjointed playing style and the poor results. Like it or not, we are a club in serious transition because of the mismanagement on the playing side and that will continue until the higher earners are out of the club and we start promoting within, which is what I think that the business model is - right or wrong. I think that we will see high turnover this summer as well and next year will be probably a playing style more akin to what Emery had in mind.

I don't think that we can realistically expect him to come in and pull up trees without the ability to bring players in and shift out the dross. In fact, I think that given the circumstances, even Klopp, Guardiola, or Fergie in his prime would stuggle with this Arsenal team. Not only that, but I doubt that you would have had loads of quality managers queueing up to take on the role given the modus operandi of trimming the wage budget and rebuilding with no money. Emery probably had no idea what a task he had trying to get his best players to be professional and another (Ramsey) not to run all over the pitch like a headless chicken with no positional awareness. I don't want to keep blaming Wenger, but that was the football that he liked to play and some players became institutionalized. Interesting that Ramsey had a contract all but signed until Gazidis was out the door. That tells you all that you need to know about the incompetance involved.

Sorry mate but you cannot really believe that bit in red? Comedy Iwobi has been appalling. Just as bad as last season and often far far worse. He cannot tackle. He cannot measure a pass. He cannot cross. He has no positional understanding. He is far lazier than the likes of Ozil who gets slaughtered for not running around like a gobshite. People seem to misconstrue Comedy Iwobi running around pointlessly with him being an energetic player with drive but when it's needed the fat arsed sloth jogs back after losing posession. This clown makes Alex Mong look like a player ffs.

[begeegs]

Sorry mate but you cannot really believe that bit in red? Comedy Iwobi has been appalling. Just as bad as last season and often far far worse. He cannot tackle. He cannot measure a pass. He cannot cross. He has no positional understanding. He is far lazier than the likes of Ozil who gets slaughtered for not running around like a gobshite. People seem to misconstrue Comedy Iwobi running around pointlessly with him being an energetic player with drive but when it's needed the fat arsed sloth jogs back after losing posession. This clown makes Alex Mong look like a player ffs.

I don't agree. He isn't the best player, but he is still a good squad player and could still improve. He makes it difficult for him to be knocked off the ball probably because of his overall girth .

If we had better options than him, he would be on the bench, surely, but we don't, so he plays. A squad player to me is someone who starts to give someone a rest against the lesser teams or off of the bench against a tiring side. We don't have anything remotely like the squad depth that we should, so we have had to rely on the guy.

[Nos89]

I wouldn't describe myself as an Emery basher and he should 100% be given the next 18 months to try and build some sort of team but I'm also of the opinion that he shouldn't just be given a free ride either.

We all know the shit show left behind by Wenger and we all know it's going to take time and several transfer windows to try and right the many wrongs of the banter era BUT.....and here's the massive BUT it should also be possible to see some green shoots of recovery at this stage.

For the last few years I've been saying that the spine of our team simply wasn't up to scratch and needed an upgrade in every position and, to be fair, in the last 12 months we've signed Leno, Sokratis, Torreira and Aubameyang. We've upgraded 4 positions right up the heart of the side and haven't gotten any better, arguably we're worse

The Anfield debacle is when I first started to worry, we went up there with a patched up defence against the in form team in the league and we went there with no plan. Nothing! We were wide open from the off and it was as close to a "just go out and play lads" performance as you'd ever see lifted straight from the Wenger "zero tactics" handbook with the same painful result - an absolute dicking.

Southampton and West Ham were carbon copies of 90% of our away games last season and if you woke from a coma watching either of those matches you'd be convinced shit for brains was still in charge.

Here are my concerns -

He hasn't coached our defence to be even 1% better than it was last season, why not?

Why is that 6 months into the season he's still making double substitutions every game to try and illicit some sort of performance from the team?

Why is the team starting practically every game in snooze mode and pretty much writing off the entire first 45 minutes of each match with dire performances. Being ahead just once at HT half way through the season is not some sort of quirky stat, it points to a much deeper issue at the core of the side. What is it and why isn't it being addressed?

What is our game plan? Where is the pressing game? What is our plan for the opposition? I don't see any of it being honest.

I would disagree with the coaching of the defence. Holding was improving with every game he played. Kolasinac has been improving with every game. When a defender gets to the age of mustafi, koscielny, lichsteiner and soktatis they cannot be coached into anything new because they have the experience, but have lost any pace. How often do you think mustafi has been told to stay on feet and dive in for a challenge? You think he's never heard that before? He still does it because he's not got the pace to keep up with the forward and vitally he still makes irrational decisions.
When Jenkinson played as an emergency CB he followed the instructions to the letter, yet, no one will give him a chance because "he's shit".
Emery has not got the quality of player at his disposal. Lichsteiner has won 7 league titles, played in 3 champions league finals do you honestly think he's gonna listen to steve bould about defending, and how to keep a straight line? he knows how to do it, he just cannot keep up with the pace of the game.
When Adams and Keown were coming to the end of their careers they had Sol and Kolo to bail them out. Plus they had Edu, Gilberto and Vieira in front of them.
Emery has not got the quality of player he needs to play his system.

[rodders999]

We’re obviously in dire need of better defenders, nobody could argue that, but Newcastle who are currently sitting in the relegation zone have conceded less goals than us as have Brighton, Wolves and Palace.

You can’t just wash your hands of it and say well we’ve shit defenders what else can be expected. Emery has come in as a massive upgrade on Wenger, we’ve added a new keeper, a new central defender and finally bought the defensive midfielder we’ve been crying out for since PV left, yet we’ve only kept 3 clean sheets all season and none away from home (only Fulham have less and they are absolute fucking dog shit).

As I said above we are six months in now and he has failed to make us even 1% better defensively than last season (which was a complete shit show) so as far as I’m concerned it’s only right that he gets called out for it.

Last year we conceded a shameful 51 goals in the league, we’re well on target to surpass that this season which I’d never have believed last August.

[GoonerMuzz]

We’re obviously in dire need of better defenders, nobody could argue that, but Newcastle who are currently sitting in the relegation zone have conceded less goals than us as have Brighton, Wolves and Palace.

You can’t just wash your hands of it and say well we’ve shit defenders what else can be expected. Emery has come in as a massive upgrade on Wenger, we’ve added a new keeper, a new central defender and finally bought the defensive midfielder we’ve been crying out for since PV left, yet we’ve only kept 3 clean sheets all season and none away from home (only Fulham have less and they are absolute fucking dog shit).

As I said above we are six months in now and he has failed to make us even 1% better defensively than last season (which was a complete shit show) so as far as I’m concerned it’s only right that he gets called out for it.

Last year we conceded a shameful 51 goals in the league, we’re well on target to surpass that this season which I’d never have believed last August.

I completely agree with Rodders and Sid on this, one of the things i was looking for this year was defensive improvement, with that it would have naturally meant improved points and potentially position. Now for the crux of the matter, if you take into account the players bought we are defensively worse this year, we have conceded more goals in less games with and supposedly improved spine than under Wenger.

Yes we've been unlucky with injuries but far too many of our goals have been conceded because of poor positioning of the backline as a whole not necessarily individuals being skinned (which has also happened far too often).

Each and everyone of us on here constantly criticised Wenger for his poor defensive management so i'll be damned if UE is getting away with it just because he isn't the 'Mental *word censored*' from last season.

Too many people are still sticking their heads in the sand because he isn't AW and anything is better than AW but for me unless things improve then i'm struggling to see why UE should be given another season unless things drastically improve between now and May, UE isn't Wenger and that is a blessing but it doesn't mean he gets a free pass either. Organisation is what we need not gungho tactics

[augie]

We’re obviously in dire need of better defenders, nobody could argue that, but Newcastle who are currently sitting in the relegation zone have conceded less goals than us as have Brighton, Wolves and Palace.

You can’t just wash your hands of it and say well we’ve shit defenders what else can be expected. Emery has come in as a massive upgrade on Wenger, we’ve added a new keeper, a new central defender and finally bought the defensive midfielder we’ve been crying out for since PV left, yet we’ve only kept 3 clean sheets all season and none away from home (only Fulham have less and they are absolute fucking dog shit).

As I said above we are six months in now and he has failed to make us even 1% better defensively than last season (which was a complete shit show) so as far as I’m concerned it’s only right that he gets called out for it.

Last year we conceded a shameful 51 goals in the league, we’re well on target to surpass that this season which I’d never have believed last August.

On the face of it that is a very fair summation, but lets look beyond the headlines - of all areas in our team the defence has been the one that has been hit hardest with injuries. Bellend missed a few games, monreal and kos missed a lot of games, mustafi missed a few, holding is missing most of a season, kolasniac missed a few games - ffs we have even had to play xhaka at centre back at one stage, and have played maitland niles at full back on numerous occasions, such has been the shortage of available defenders.
For sure I am not seeing any great improvement in defensive organisation when I watch them playing - without doubt sokratis is trying to organise them tbf, but mostly they seem to have no structure or cohesion as a defence. Not having the same players available for a consistant run in the team will surely play some (not all) part in that disorganisation. I will also say that the frequent changing of formations isnt helping either - I absolutely understand dick needing to change it due to available players or to counter the opposition threats, but it does not take away from the constant chopping and changing is certainly hindering and plan to be a solid settled back 4

Like I said earlier, I too am unhappy at the lack of defensive improvement and am growing impatient in this regard. I want to see dick have a proper set of defenders to work with though too, cos there will always only be so much a coach can do with a defensive containing mustafi and bellerin

[xisstential]

Where is Bould in all of this?? I thought it was Wenger who was restricting Bould from doing his job but it obviously wasn't....Bould is just crap.

If you think about it, it is mostly the same players who had is so cosy under Wenger and they still have the same "cosy" defensive coach. In hindsight Emery should have got shot of him. New broom and all that....

[Ernie71]

Sorry mate but you cannot really believe that bit in red? Comedy Iwobi has been appalling. Just as bad as last season and often far far worse. He cannot tackle. He cannot measure a pass. He cannot cross. He has no positional understanding. He is far lazier than the likes of Ozil who gets slaughtered for not running around like a gobshite. People seem to misconstrue Comedy Iwobi running around pointlessly with him being an energetic player with drive but when it's needed the fat arsed sloth jogs back after losing posession. This clown makes Alex Mong look like a player ffs.

I don't agree. He isn't the best player, but he is still a good squad player and could still improve. He makes it difficult for him to be knocked off the ball probably because of his overall girth .

If we had better options than him, he would be on the bench, surely, but we don't, so he plays. A squad player to me is someone who starts to give someone a rest against the lesser teams or off of the bench against a tiring side. We don't have anything remotely like the squad depth that we should, so we have had to rely on the guy.

Are you serious? Iwobi is another member of Wenger's failed youth policy or Project Failure as us Gooners call it..Iwobi wouldnt look out of place at Burnley. Serge Gnabry who was deemed by mad Wenger not to be good enough is now playing in Bayern's first team is someone telling me he isnt better than Iwobi. Players of the quality of Iwobi just shouldnt be at the club. Is that Sean Dyche or the phone?

[Jock Gooner]

Where is Bould in all of this?? I thought it was Wenger who was restricting Bould from doing his job but it obviously wasn't....Bould is just crap.

If you think about it, it is mostly the same players who had is so cosy under Wenger and they still have the same "cosy" defensive coach. In hindsight Emery should have got shot of him. New broom and all that....

I am a big Bouldie fan but let's face it he was defending in a team and league 30 years ago. Things have moved on a bit since then and dare I say it but perhaps he should have been gone a long time ago.

[begeegs]

Are you serious? Iwobi is another member of Wenger's failed youth policy or Project Failure as us Gooners call it..Iwobi wouldnt look out of place at Burnley. Serge Gnabry who was deemed by mad Wenger not to be good enough is now playing in Bayern's first team is someone telling me he isnt better than Iwobi. Players of the quality of Iwobi just shouldnt be at the club. Is that Sean Dyche or the phone?

At the moment, you are correct, he wouldn't look out of place there which is why I said a good squad player (and also an indictment on our current squad). That means that he shouldn't be starting, but given the paucity of options, he is. He should be an option of the bench and an occassional starter (against the likes of Burnley, for example, to give someone a rest). Like it or not, that is where we are currently at. We are a million miles from the Invincibles or even the team from 3 years ago, so out options are thin. He also is home-grown, so he isn't going anywhere. Would I like someone better than Iwobi? Of course, I would.

As far as Gnarby, no one will argue that he isn't better than Iwobi, but he isn't here any more, so a moot point.

[Sean]

I've loved the unbeaten run, but we have rode our luck a lot and now it's getting back to the old familiar frailties.

Gazidis and now seemingly Mislintat leaving is a bad sign. Dick is not being supported and our defence is a shambles. With that syrup cúnt now in total charge, Dick will have to perform miracles with that defence. Sure, there's a lot of rebuilding work to be done in the wake of the previous incumbent and his 'next level [down]', but with our board still penny-pinching, it's going to be a long road back to the top, if we ever get there.

UTA

[GoonerMuzz]

I've loved the unbeaten run, but we have rode our luck a lot and now it's getting back to the old familiar frailties.

Gazidis and now seemingly Mislintat leaving is a bad sign. Dick is not being supported and our defence is a shambles. With that syrup cúnt now in total charge, Dick will have to perform miracles with that defence. Sure, there's a lot of rebuilding work to be done in the wake of the previous incumbent and his 'next level [down]', but with our board still penny-pinching, it's going to be a long road back to the top, if we ever get there.

UTA

As i think it was SteveO and myself said way back when the protests against Wenger was starting to get into full swing there wasn't much point in leveraging Wenger successfully out the club if the bigger hinderance was still at the top, i think we may find over the remainder of this season and probably into the next how right that was

[goonersid]

I've loved the unbeaten run, but we have rode our luck a lot and now it's getting back to the old familiar frailties.

Gazidis and now seemingly Mislintat leaving is a bad sign. Dick is not being supported and our defence is a shambles. With that syrup cúnt now in total charge, Dick will have to perform miracles with that defence. Sure, there's a lot of rebuilding work to be done in the wake of the previous incumbent and his 'next level [down]', but with our board still penny-pinching, it's going to be a long road back to the top, if we ever get there.

UTA

As i think it was SteveO and myself said way back when the protests against Wenger was starting to get into full swing there wasn't much point in leveraging Wenger successfully out the club if the bigger hinderance was still at the top, i think we may find over the remainder of this season and probably into the next how right that was

So we should have allowed Wenger to carry on despite his incompetence as a coach?