Unai Emery

[DB10GOONER]

@OptaJoe
0 - Arsenal and Cardiff are the only two teams not to have been ahead at half-time in any of their 12 Premier League matches so far this season. Sluggish. #ARSWOL

It's actually miraculous that we've got as many points as we have.

This is what the table would like if it were a game of one half.

Optafuckingjoe.... what an exercise in pointlessness.... The whole fucking point and beauty of football is it is played over two halves and things can change drastically in the second half of any game.

What next? Here's what the table would look like if Barca and Brazil 70 were in the PL and if Theresa May was a drag queen with a 10 inch cock?

These optajoe stat geeks should not be let watch football.

[Gunner Rob]

the table for 2nd half only would be interesting though!

[rodders999]

I know what you're saying with regard to stats DB10 as for the most part they are absolute bollocks, but just as the beautiful Shakira's hips don't lie, that stat about us never being ahead at HT just hammers home how absolute dog shit we've been at starting games (for the most part) this season.

We're 12 games in now so it has started to become a thing and we don't seem to be addressing it. Hopefully after the break we will see a different mind set at the beginning of games but if we see more of the same lethargic, dead football from the off against Bournmouth I'll start to get seriously concerned.

[augie]

I know what you're saying with regard to stats DB10 as for the most part they are absolute bollocks, but just as the beautiful Shakira's hips don't lie, that stat about us never being ahead at HT just hammers home how absolute dog shit we've been at starting games (for the most part) this season.

We're 12 games in now so it has started to become a thing and we don't seem to be addressing it. Hopefully after the break we will see a different mind set at the beginning of games but if we see more of the same lethargic, dead football from the off against Bournmouth I'll start to get seriously concerned.

Absolutely agree rodders - I could always understand it when a team starts slow after half time cos they have spent 10-15 minutes sitting on their arses in the dressing room, but the start of the match is where players should be racing out of the traps and there is zero excuse for the pathetic first half performances thus far. It is very, very worrying that the managers and coaching staff dont seem to be able to correct it, cos 12 games in it should be improved if not totally corrected by now

[GoonerMuzz]

I have to say much as we have improved this season, and much as i've enjoyed our unbeaten run i still have reservations, sorry but i do. Something is not quite right in the mind set of the players, in the first half especially and after 12 leagues matches plus 6+ cup matches other than against Liverpool we have mainly been poor in the first half.

We know its going to take time to improve the team, one transfer window is nowhere near enough but attitude is something you can instil in players or drop them if they dont perform but he has not been able to so far, when we're good we're very good but when we're bad it is almost comically bad and yet at the moment he cant resolve this, it is worrying.

Hopefully he can pick them up by the scruff of the neck after the international break and put the fear of god into them because if he doesn't then after Christmas we could be mired in a 6-8th place dogfight things are so close behind us. As i said elsewhere January could be interesting for the first time in a decade and strangely i actually think we might end up missing Danny boy as the season progresses

[Nos89]

The problem is the team and not the manager. Basically, he needs to shift out those players who played the most under wenger. Ramsey, Ozil, Monreal, mustafi, Xhaka, Iwobi and Bellerin. I've worked with teams a lot over the years and whilst a new manager can coach and improve performance in the short term, the long standing employees will always fall back into their old ways. Essentially, he needs to get a bigger broom.

[DB10GOONER]

The problem is the team and not the manager. Basically, he needs to shift out those players who played the most under wenger. Ramsey, Ozil, Monreal, mustafi, Xhaka, Iwobi and Bellerin. I've worked with teams a lot over the years and whilst a new manager can coach and improve performance in the short term, the long standing employees will always fall back into their old ways. Essentially, he needs to get a bigger broom.

Sorry do not agree with that at all mate. A top man manager can turn around most (not all, but most) players no matter their mindset. I've played competitive football for over 30 years and watched the game for 40 years and one thing I've learned is 90% of players are really not that bright and are "mouldable" through repetition. That's why coaches use things like repetitive training drills over and over. It creates mental muscle memory.

You can clear out individual players because they are not technically good enough or their overall style in position does not work within a given specific system (eg no pace as a lone striker) but a wide sweep based on what the previous manager did is ridiculous.

[Herd]

Bit of both on that one ,whilst I agree that you can change a culture of a place, the rot at Arsenal was so ingrained it would take a lot of psychotherapy and a VERY strong teacher to change their indolent self satisfying ways .

I also think the management have a huge task in wheeling and dealing to do in the next year as I don't think there will be funds made available for further purchases so there wil be a lot of horse trading to be done .

On another note I'm told there was some grumblings in a couple of pubs Sunday as hardcore Wengerites are now piping up and saying that Emry isnt doing that well.
In One they were shut up by an old grizzly who told them "lest we forget" …...how shit we were last season !
Very appropriate !

[augie]

I have to say that out of all the players on that list, bellend is the only one I would keep cos I believe that he can still be moulded. Xhaka, iwobi and mustafi not good enough, monreal too old and now becoming injury prone, and ozil ............. god himself couldnt mould his attitude cos he thinks that he is above that I still believe that the mis-use of arshavin ranks as one of the most shocking tactical fcuk ups and disappointments of the last decade, but the failure of ozil to set the world alight for us on a consistant basis is not far behind. Talent is beyond question, but that only makes it worse

[augie]

I'm wondering if those retards that suggested henry should have been appointed our manager in the summer, have had their overdue insanity assessment

[DB10GOONER]

I have to say that out of all the players on that list, bellend is the only one I would keep cos I believe that he can still be moulded. Xhaka, iwobi and mustafi not good enough, monreal too old and now becoming injury prone, and ozil ............. god himself couldnt mould his attitude cos he thinks that he is above that I still believe that the mis-use of arshavin ranks as one of the most shocking tactical fcuk ups and disappointments of the last decade, but the failure of ozil to set the world alight for us on a consistant basis is not far behind. Talent is beyond question, but that only makes it worse

Now I'm sure you will correct me if I'm wrong here But this post and a few others you put on here imply that you view AA23's failure as Wenger's fault but Ozil's failure to "set the world alight" is his own fault?

I'm on record with not agreeing with this idea that Ozil has somehow "failed" since he arrived. It's a myth. Like the "he never delivers against the top 6 teams" horseshit that some idiots pop out whilst happily ignoring the fact that NONE of our players deliver against the top 6 teams and haven't done since long before Ozil's arrival and also ignoring the fact that during most of those games against the top 6 Ozil was still our best player.

We have to see what Ozil can do under the new manager. It might take some time for the system to work out. But for me every player starts with a clean slate this season. Even Comedy Iwobi.

[augie]

I have to say that out of all the players on that list, bellend is the only one I would keep cos I believe that he can still be moulded. Xhaka, iwobi and mustafi not good enough, monreal too old and now becoming injury prone, and ozil ............. god himself couldnt mould his attitude cos he thinks that he is above that I still believe that the mis-use of arshavin ranks as one of the most shocking tactical fcuk ups and disappointments of the last decade, but the failure of ozil to set the world alight for us on a consistant basis is not far behind. Talent is beyond question, but that only makes it worse

Now I'm sure you will correct me if I'm wrong here But this post and a few others you put on here imply that you view AA23's failure as Wenger's fault but Ozil's failure to "set the world alight" is his own fault?

I'm on record with not agreeing with this idea that Ozil has somehow "failed" since he arrived. It's a myth. Like the "he never delivers against the top 6 teams" horseshit that some idiots pop out whilst happily ignoring the fact that NONE of our players deliver against the top 6 teams and haven't done since long before Ozil's arrival and also ignoring the fact that during most of those games against the top 6 Ozil was still our best player.

We have to see what Ozil can do under the new manager. It might take some time for the system to work out. But for me every player starts with a clean slate this season. Even Comedy Iwobi.

I suppose that judging failure is all about perception and standards isnt it ? When you have a world class player like ozil, you expect him to be the fulcrum of a team (especially one as bad as ours has been ), and when he has rarely met those expectations, I think that it is fair enough to class him as a failure. Ozil has been given the freedom to do what he wanted under the previous dickhead manager, and even that didnt bring out the best of him. Arshavin however was marooned out onto the wing by a gormless senile old b.stard and it never allowed him to fulfill his potential with us. Could he have been our main man in those teams ? We will never know that for sure, but I suspect that he would have been more influencial than ozil if he had of been allowed the freedom that ozil had.

I still believe that ozil could become a highly influencial/key player for us IF he is played in the 10 behind a 2 man strikeforce. I agree the system is a work in progress, and it will remain a work in progress until dick gets at least 2 more transfer windows to get his own type of players in. In the meantime though, I expect to see players (like ozil and bangabang) working their arses off and buying into the team ethos instead of sulking when subbed

Btw I dont agree that ALL players get a clean slate - some players (mustafi for example) are shit and will never be any better, so it is a waste of time giving him a fresh start. Some players you know just arent good enough regardless of who is the manager

[GoonerMuzz]

I have to say that out of all the players on that list, bellend is the only one I would keep cos I believe that he can still be moulded. Xhaka, iwobi and mustafi not good enough, monreal too old and now becoming injury prone, and ozil ............. god himself couldnt mould his attitude cos he thinks that he is above that I still believe that the mis-use of arshavin ranks as one of the most shocking tactical fcuk ups and disappointments of the last decade, but the failure of ozil to set the world alight for us on a consistant basis is not far behind. Talent is beyond question, but that only makes it worse

Now I'm sure you will correct me if I'm wrong here But this post and a few others you put on here imply that you view AA23's failure as Wenger's fault but Ozil's failure to "set the world alight" is his own fault?

I'm on record with not agreeing with this idea that Ozil has somehow "failed" since he arrived. It's a myth. Like the "he never delivers against the top 6 teams" horseshit that some idiots pop out whilst happily ignoring the fact that NONE of our players deliver against the top 6 teams and haven't done since long before Ozil's arrival and also ignoring the fact that during most of those games against the top 6 Ozil was still our best player.

We have to see what Ozil can do under the new manager. It might take some time for the system to work out. But for me every player starts with a clean slate this season. Even Comedy Iwobi.

I suppose that judging failure is all about perception and standards isnt it ? When you have a world class player like ozil, you expect him to be the fulcrum of a team (especially one as bad as ours has been ), and when he has rarely met those expectations, I think that it is fair enough to class him as a failure. Ozil has been given the freedom to do what he wanted under the previous dickhead manager, and even that didnt bring out the best of him. Arshavin however was marooned out onto the wing by a gormless senile old b.stard and it never allowed him to fulfill his potential with us. Could he have been our main man in those teams ? We will never know that for sure, but I suspect that he would have been more influencial than ozil if he had of been allowed the freedom that ozil had.

I still believe that ozil could become a highly influencial/key player for us IF he is played in the 10 behind a 2 man strikeforce. I agree the system is a work in progress, and it will remain a work in progress until dick gets at least 2 more transfer windows to get his own type of players in. In the meantime though, I expect to see players (like ozil and bangabang) working their arses off and buying into the team ethos instead of sulking when subbed

Btw I dont agree that ALL players get a clean slate - some players (mustafi for example) are shit and will never be any better, so it is a waste of time giving him a fresh start. Some players you know just arent good enough regardless of who is the manager

Whilst i agree in principle with the above there is one point that everyone ignores, Ozil's ability is not in doubt however his elevating to world class player was in many ways was based around the higher class of player he was playing with at that point, personal skill and ability can only take you so far, everything else depends on those around you and if they are not producing and providing there is a limit to what a player can do.

Ozil is far from blameless, his attitude stinks a lot of the time but look back to the season when Giroud went dry for 15-16 games in a row, Ozil was still creating the chances but he lost out on what should have been a dead cert assists record because the striker couldn't hit a barn door for almost half a season.


Going back to Dick, some of you are either being obtuse or deliberately missing the point, yes there is only so much the manager can do with the players individually and about their ability but our main problem at the moment is not really tactical or skill based it is organisational and motivational and that is dead centre in the coaches area of responsibility, do any coaching course at any level and that is one of the things drummed into you.

For whatever reason Dick is struggling to get his message across to the players for the first half of the majority of matches, but when he pulls them in at half time in the majority of games we've turned poor first half performances into very good second half performances, it worries me that after nearly 20 games he is still not getting the message across before kick off or they are not responding. He should be able to assess his pre-match talks against his second half ones and resolve this.

Hopefully as i said before he'll resolve this quickly but i just find it odd the difference in 1st and 2nd half performances is so marked and yet barring the Victims match it is allowed to continue match after match. Either he is not realising and coaching it out of them or he does not see a problem, either way it is worrying.

Benefit of the doubt still stands because when we've been good we've been very good but it is caveated that eventually if things dont change we're going to take a pasting and the bubble will burst and i'm not looking forward to the deflated feeling as the inevitability of it builds, we can only ride our luck so long and we have one of our most important matches of the season soon and i want to beat those swamp dwelling *word censored*!!

[DB10GOONER]

Augie and Muzz I agree with most of what you both posted there tbh. On the Ozil front I've always said he is a luxury player that needs other top class intelligent players around him to be at his best (just like Bergkamp did). This is a fact that the less intelligent cannot see but use as a rod to beat him with which is ridiculous. The fact he has set PL assist and chances created records and has scored more PL goals than the "legendary" vermin Klinsman says to me that it's a miracle he has achieved all that whilst often playing with complete shit players.

Augie agreed that Mustafi is poor but who is to say that Dick cannot get more from him? But we should deffo be looking at better defenders because it is our weakest area.

Just one last point though about Ozil's "freedom" under Wenger..... he was seldom given that freedom in his most effective position (as a proper number 10 behind one or better still two strikers) but often pushed out wide (like AA23) or played slightly out of position to accommodate Ramsey.

[John F]

Our 1st half performances could be due to the opposition tactics who realise Arsenal have a crap defence and come out playing with a very high intensity which our players struggle to match.In the 2nd half they are knackered after playing all out for 45/60 mins sit back allowing Arsenal to get back in it.