As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
The odds on Unai Emery to be sacked as Arsenal boss before the end of the season have been slashed to just 6/4. Mikel Arteta is 5/1 favourite to take over. Patrick Vieira & Fredrik Ljungberg follow closely behind at 6/1. (Mirror) #afc
Callum Chambers is not the answer, but to be fair I thought he played out of his skin at Newcastle and he finds himself dropped whilst Luiz lunges from one calamity to the next.
Torrerira has been quite a big disappointment for me after he was excellent in the first half of last season - I don't think that the bloke is fit enough to be completely honest - but how is he meant to feel watching Xhaka range between ineffective and calamitous. There was one moment at the end of the Watford game where he fucked up a great attacking position with a dreadful pass straight to their full-back, and then made the most half-arsed effort at tracking back that I've seen since the days of Denilson whilst they nearly grabbed a winner. The guy is a fucking disgrace, and a guaranteed starter.
I think Tierney will be a good signing (assuming no ongoing fitness issues), Bellerin might well prosper from being encouraged to bomb forward more and hopefully Holding will look more assured than either of the CBs we currently have. Does anybody believe that any or all of them becoming fit again will see us being anything other than a complete joke defensively?
I know this is sentiment talking, but would like to see Vieira given a crack. Even putting aside his class as a player, his leadership qualities and the hard-as-nails persona, the guy strikes me as a massive pragmatist and meticulous. There are things that I like about Emery, but he is a complete fucking dreamer just like Wenger.
Looking at the players that made significant progress under emery last season all got injured. Bellerin, Holding and Welbeck all improved but got serious injuries. Emery can coach players to improve performance. However, the mistakes they make is that down to the infamous football intelligence or lack of it of the player or the coach not being able to install that intelligence in the player. The return of those three defenders should improve the defence. Will Holding take charge and make sure that xhaka and one other do their midfield duties in front of them?
Famously, Adams bould/ keown made it clear to vieira and petit where their position was needed on the pitch, after that blackburn defeat. Its clear that is the ingrediant that is missing.
As awful as denilson was he never finished outside the top 4 in an Arsenal shirt. Same could be said of Eboue and Senderos.
I don't think its just sentiment but I'd welcome vieira ahead of arteta because he would pass on the meaning of being the captain of The Arsenal in the way Adams showed him, who learnt from Graham. That cycle needs to begin again.
Arteta would be a nightmare appointment for me and I have gone on record as saying so for the last 12 months.
People rightly bemoan emery for not being able to fix the organizational weaknesses in our team and for failing to put some sort of leadership emphasis on the players, but I don't see arteta being able to do it either. I know that some managers manage differently to how they played themselves (stroller is a prime example), but does anybody honestly look at arteta and see a guy that can light a fire under our players ? In years to come arteta might turn out to be the greatest manager ever but the key word there is MIGHT, and I don't think appointing a rookie coach is anywhere near the right decision for us to take.
I have come to the point where I now accept that at best emery will last no longer than next summer, and tbh I am not sure he will even last that long if the fans ire gets any worse. My huge concern is that not every choice after him would be the right choice - if fans honestly feel that we don't have the time to drift along hoping that emery will get things right given time, then surely we don't have the time to experiment with whoever is the next appointment. I have never liked the "be careful what you wish for" statement cos it suggests a losers mentality in that we should accept failure in case our next appointment would be bigger failures - I wanted le cock gone cos he was pissing away money on 3rd and 4th rate shite, was persevering with a system and players that were proven failures, and was bringing this club into a hole that might take years to climb out of (as is clearly the case). I believed any manager at all would improve on those things and I expressed a willingness to be patient cos clubs don't return from where we were to where we want to be overnight, and I also stated that the next manager after wenger didn't have to be THE manager - I knew that it would take a couple of appointments to take us back up to that level, and all I wanted was a manager that would put us back on the right road by eroding the soft culture, getting rid of shite overpaid players, and bringing in quality replacements. We have started down that road tbf to emery and the club, but much is still to be done, and if emery isn't the answer then so be it, but please don't just advocate any manager at all, and don't support any call from numpties and jcl w.nkers championing arteta for the role
I see one of the Italian journos who speaks Spanish has said that Dick doesn't make much sense in Spanish either so it's not his slightly accented English after all
I'm beginning to wonder if this explains how he got the job
As much as I want Rob Holding to return and continue to show some of the promise he displayed last season I can't help but recall that he didn't look overly comfortable on the ball. I am hoping that Dick does not persist with his silly arse playing out from the back bullshit which will cause Holding unnecessary problems. On the plus side if Dick does continue with his one man mission to embarrass our defence then at least when Tierney and bellend are fit they will provide much improved options when we are trying, with great difficulty, to get the ball out of our own 18 yard box. Life really shouldn't be this difficult
I see one of the Italian journos who speaks Spanish has said that Dick doesn't make much sense in Spanish either so it's not his slightly accented English after all
I'm beginning to wonder if this explains how he got the job
I was told about a quote the other day where listening to Emery was compared with someone tuning in an old radio - you get a lot of whiny noises and pick up the odd word but you have no idea what's actually being said.
As much as I want Rob Holding to return and continue to show some of the promise he displayed last season I can't help but recall that he didn't look overly comfortable on the ball. I am hoping that Dick does not persist with his silly arse playing out from the back bullshit which will cause Holding unnecessary problems. On the plus side if Dick does continue with his one man mission to embarrass our defence then at least when Tierney and bellend are fit they will provide much improved options when we are trying, with great difficulty, to get the ball out of our own 18 yard box. Life really shouldn't be this difficult
I worry that he might not pick Holding if it means dropping Luiz but I hope the defenders we have out at the moment are in the defence soon. Those three improving things is the last piece of hope I have for us having a better season this time round.
Oh and it means we can also use the famous Brian Johnston quote: "The centre back's Holding, the right back's Bellend"
I didn't want Emery in the first place, I was completely underwhelmed by his appointment last May. When he was announced, he seemed like more of a West Ham/Everton level appointment. I suppose we couldn't have gotten much better, but still. People will say he won three ELs and the treble at PSG (anyone could win trophies with that squad in a shite league, and it wasn't all plain sailing for him there), but if he was so good, why were PSG seemingly happy to let him go after two seasons? I heard a Real Betis fan the other day saying that their fans loved Emery whenever they played against his sides because Betis would give them a hiding.
I'm not going to pretend I've watched Sevilla or any of his previous clubs before, but going off what I've read, it's a very mixed record. At Sevilla, he didn't win a single away league game in 15-16. A decent side like Sevilla not winning away in the league all season! He also didn't finish in the top four with them in any of his seasons there. Also, at Valencia, a goalless draw away to fucking Genk in 11-12 cost him 2nd place in the CL group; they finished 3rd behind Leverkusen. Some will say Valencia weren't a fantastic side so goalless draws like that will happen, but it reminds me of last season against Bate and Rennes.
Getting onto the PSG tenure, he then lost Ligue 1 to Monaco in his first season. I also remember them coming up against us in the group stage and failing to beat us in two games with, if I remember correctly, Xhaka and Mustafi in the side. He then blew a 4-0 lead over Barcelona in the last 16, losing the second leg fucking 6-1.
Allegri would struggle with this side too, but we'd surely see some progress after over a year. We've seen nothing; even in that unbeaten 22 game run (against mostly sides which we should be beating anyway) we rode our luck in those games like Bournemouth away and Leicester at home. I remember when we played Burnley last season, our defenders were literally just standing there ball watching in a sort of clump on the edge of the box, hoping that they'd be able to do the bare minimum to clear it and things would sort themselves out; it's literally what you'd see from schoolboys. To me, it looked like the players didn't believe in whatever he was telling them.
I can't see him lasting to the end of the season. Aubameyang and Lacazette have kept bailing him out, but I think we're fucked for this season while he's here.
Last edited by Sutch2 on Thu Sep 19, 2019 4:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I see one of the Italian journos who speaks Spanish has said that Dick doesn't make much sense in Spanish either so it's not his slightly accented English after all
I'm beginning to wonder if this explains how he got the job
I was told about a quote the other day where listening to Emery was compared with someone tuning in an old radio - you get a lot of whiny noises and pick up the odd word but you have no idea what's actually being said.
As much as I want Rob Holding to return and continue to show some of the promise he displayed last season I can't help but recall that he didn't look overly comfortable on the ball. I am hoping that Dick does not persist with his silly arse playing out from the back bullshit which will cause Holding unnecessary problems. On the plus side if Dick does continue with his one man mission to embarrass our defence then at least when Tierney and bellend are fit they will provide much improved options when we are trying, with great difficulty, to get the ball out of our own 18 yard box. Life really shouldn't be this difficult
I worry that he might not pick Holding if it means dropping Luiz but I hope the defenders we have out at the moment are in the defence soon. Those three improving things is the last piece of hope I have for us having a better season this time round.
Oh and it means we can also use the famous Brian Johnston quote: "The centre back's Holding, the right back's Bellend"
That's a brilliant analogy with the radio - spot on
And being able to reinvent that classic cricketing quote is good work too
Allegri would struggle with this side too, but we'd surely see some progress after over a year. We've seen nothing; even in that unbeaten 22 game run (against mostly sides which we should be beating anyway) we rode our luck in those games like Bournemouth away and Leicester at home.
I can't see him lasting to the end of the season. Aubameyang and Lacazette have kept bailing him out, but I think we're fucked for this season while he's here.
Decent post mate. You are right that any top manager would struggle to sort out our lot but importantly "progress" is the key word and the apparent lack of it is increasingly a concern to many.
I think that one of the biggest issues with Emery’s reign at Arsenal is that the team still hasn’t shown any visible sign on improving defensively. While, to be fair to Emery, the players he inherited were nothing short of shite, we are still embarrassingly poor at the back. Not only are we quite an open to team to play against, we have defensive players that are either not managed/coached properly or are just mentally incapable of seeing out a game without switching off – which is also another issue with coaching if they aren’t being reprimanded enough so that they know not to do it again.
I don’t think I have been confident of us going into a single game this season, particularly since the Newcastle game. I don’t recall a single game this season where we have looked comfortable or in control throughout the 90. I’m still not entirely sure of what our style is supposed to be. It just seems to be a mix of riding our luck and catching them on the break – with only one midfielder who can contribute to counter attacking play. That midfielder is also only here on loan.
The thing is, we appear to be able to match the top 6 teams’ toe to toe when they come to us, however we seem to completely drop those levels when any other team comes to us and when we play away from home. It’s worrying that a manager into his second season with a club still hasn’t improved the team, implemented a style or even know his best 11.
The way things stand, I wouldn’t want him here next year. I’m not in the ‘Emery Out Now!’ camp, but I do have a funny feeling that he’ll be gone by Christmas.
In terms of his replacement, I would go for Erik ten Hag of Ajax.
I think that one of the biggest issues with Emery’s reign at Arsenal is that the team still hasn’t shown any visible sign on improving defensively. While, to be fair to Emery, the players he inherited were nothing short of shite, we are still embarrassingly poor at the back. Not only are we quite an open to team to play against, we have defensive players that are either not managed/coached properly or are just mentally incapable of seeing out a game without switching off – which is also another issue with coaching if they aren’t being reprimanded enough so that they know not to do it again.
I don’t think I have been confident of us going into a single game this season, particularly since the Newcastle game. I don’t recall a single game this season where we have looked comfortable or in control throughout the 90. I’m still not entirely sure of what our style is supposed to be. It just seems to be a mix of riding our luck and catching them on the break – with only one midfielder who can contribute to counter attacking play. That midfielder is also only here on loan.
The thing is, we appear to be able to match the top 6 teams’ toe to toe when they come to us, however we seem to completely drop those levels when any other team comes to us and when we play away from home. It’s worrying that a manager into his second season with a club still hasn’t improved the team, implemented a style or even know his best 11.
The way things stand, I wouldn’t want him here next year. I’m not in the ‘Emery Out Now!’ camp, but I do have a funny feeling that he’ll be gone by Christmas.
In terms of his replacement, I would go for Erik ten Hag of Ajax.
I agree with a lot of what you have put mate.
I was happy enough with his appointment (but would have been happy enough with anyone after TOF left )
Thought we had glimpses last season of improvement vs the top teams but still looked like we struggled to give a shit v teams who like a battle and actually fight for the ball.
Was pleased with our transfer window bar Luiz signing which was unnecessary ( didn’t we learn form Cech )
But after a full season, pre -season, new players, his squad now - I am really struggling to see where we have improved.
Our midfield leave huge gaps for the opposition to run through unchallenged and our full backs are frequently exposed 2 v1.
The end of season collapse left me scratching my head, our start to this season has got me shaking it.
Not bothered right now if he’s gone t the end of the season - hope that changes.
Whatever happened to the squad that caused the catastrophic implosion of the last 5 games of last season does not appear to have been addressed. I'm not even sure Emery knows what happened, he looked completely shell shocked at the end of the europa league final.
The self destructiveness was still evident against both spurs and Watford.
Even though he has shipped out a lot of deadwood and brought 5 new players it is still there. What is the cause of this element in Arsenal's play?
Someone said chambers isn't the answer yet he's played in both games in which we've not conceded this season.
Whilst emery isn't hanging by a thread, mourinho has already submitted his application by treating every analysis he's given of arsenal this season as a job interview. He's already sat in Fergusons chair, he must be desperate to sit in wengers old seat.
