Unai Emery

[Sexual Ealing]

I won't link to the piece for obvious reasons, but here is a link to a tweet about a Daily Heil article on Emery that echoes what a lot on here are saying.
https://twitter.com/TomCollomosse/status/1628078673764007936

[algy]

I won't link to the piece for obvious reasons, but here is a link to a tweet about a Daily Heil article on Emery that echoes what a lot on here are saying.
https://twitter.com/TomCollomosse/status/1628078673764007936

Here so you don't have to support the rag

Unai Emery is a man in a hurry but it's not the defensive errors that are winding him up - his team's inability to follow his instructions when in possession is why he lost his rag after the 4-2 defeat by Arsenal on Saturday
By Tom Collomosse For Mailonline
16:57, 21 Feb 2023 , updated 17:05, 21 Feb 2023

Unai Emery is a man in a hurry. The Spaniard did not collect 11 major trophies in an excellent coaching career without being fiercely demanding yet he may wonder if he is currently asking too much of his Aston Villa players.

Last Saturday’s home defeat by Arsenal was Villa’s third successive defeat – the first wobble of the Emery regime. The others were at Manchester City (no shame in that) and at home to Leicester.

After the loss to the Gunners, however, Emery lost his rag – and not only because Emiliano Martinez went rogue by charging forward for a late Villa corner, which ultimately handed Arsenal their decisive fourth goal.

After conceding 11 in three games, you might expect that defensive errors would be irritating Emery the most. Instead, it is his team’s failure to obey his instructions when they have the ball that is really winding him up.

‘We have to be protagonists and play with personality in our style,’ he said. ‘We have to play with ball possession. We are not doing it and we are doing more long balls.

‘Because when Arsenal had possession, they were progressing with passes and pushing us to defend low and I don’t want to defend low for a long time.

‘Maybe it’s because we were winning 1-0 and we are not taking risks. But football is to play. If a player is in front of you, you have to beat him and have to play with combinations.

‘Mentality is everything. Everything. You have to break lines, go ahead and to break lines… working to do more difficult things.’

Emery’s ambition is admirable but he may do well to remember that since returning to the top flight in 2019, Villa have finished 17th, 11th and 14th. Owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens sacked Steven Gerrard in October because they looked like they were heading for relegation.

The immediate bounce under Emery has propelled them to 11th but to put it mildly, this is no super team. The 51-year-old was hired because of his ability to improve players but this cannot happen instantly.

It is not easy to play progressive, expansive football with a squad of largely mid-table players, especially against the league leaders. How many of Villa’s squad would genuinely interest the Premier League’s top clubs? Emiliano Martinez and Boubacar Kamara, possibly Jacob Ramsey, Emiliano Buendia and Ollie Watkins. After that, not many.

Emery has used Brighton as an example to his players of how a team can overhaul their style. The Seagulls moved from dour percentage football under Chris Hughton to the enterprising approach of Graham Potter and Roberto De Zerbi. It took time, though, and there has been plenty of change in personnel since Hughton’s days.

Emery’s dream is have his goalkeeper operating almost as a third centre-back when Villa have the ball, allowing his other central defenders to split and the full-backs to push higher. Wide midfielders can then drift inside to link with those in the middle. Overloads everywhere, and very difficult to stop.

This is the grand plan, but it may have to wait. Emery will be backed heavily in the summer to reshape the squad and perhaps he is trying to make an early start by demanding his ideas are imposed rapidly.

Whether this is possible with the group of players at his disposal is another matter entirely.

‘I am frustrated with myself because they are not doing the game plan I am working on with them on the training ground,’ added Emery.

Maybe the answer is simple: the players are falling short of his standards not because they lack courage or discipline. Perhaps they are just not quite good enough.

[Sexual Ealing]

Thanks algy, I didn't even think of that!

[PaulWinch again]

He missed Douglas Luiz - who Arsenal actually tried to sign a few months back.

[Percy McCarthy]

We’ve gone from a manager who expected a struggling Chelsea to ‘wipe the floor with us’ to one who went as close to a blind rage as managers get in these sanitised times because we didn’t dominate possession and lost to a freak late goal against the league leaders.

It’s quite a shift in ambition.

[LeeB]

"Mentality is everything. Everything"

[Ian.]

I want him to want to go toe to toe with Arsenal. I want him angry we lost to them. Stuff the Daily Mail. Those that can’t adapt and play the way he wants them to will be replaced.

[pauliewalnuts]

We’ve gone from a manager who expected a struggling Chelsea to ‘wipe the floor with us’ to one who went as close to a blind rage as managers get in these sanitised times because we didn’t dominate possession and lost to a freak late goal against the league leaders.

It’s quite a shift in ambition.

Indeed, it is a massive difference.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

"Mentality is everything. Everything"

Indeed but I love the line, 'If a player is in front of you, you have to beat him and have to play with combinations.' For far, far far too long there's been this pooping of the pants any time a Villa player has the ball and is faced with an opposition player. I'm not just talking about facing Man city or the Liverpools, we did it against bloody Stevenage. Every time it's panic and play it safe rather than trying to beat the player.

Emery has his work cut out trying to change a footballing culture that has held us back for the last 25+ years. It will take time but it can be done. Kamara can do it, Tim on loan at QPR is doing it, Ramsey can do it even if he looks castrated right now, Coutinho does it for fun despite his troubled legs, even Buendia can and he's hardly the fastest player on the pitch.

[Toronto Villa]

"Mentality is everything. Everything"

He’s coming up against our culture of meekly accepting our place in the world. He’s going to have rip out what has been essentially 4 decades of mostly failure as a football club. You can see it’s driving him insane

[villadelph]

"Mentality is everything. Everything"

He’s coming up against our culture of meekly accepting our place in the world. He’s going to have rip out what has been essentially 4 decades of mostly failure as a football club. You can see it’s driving him insane

Totally agree, and I think he can do it.

I absolutely dread the 85th minute onwards. We put our tails between our legs and shit ourselves, and then we send out our "leader" in the post-game presser to say the boys are gutted and we'll learn from this to come back stronger. How about just have some pride and keep it together for 90 minutes.

When was the last time we won a match at the death instead of pissing away points?

[pauliewalnuts]

"Mentality is everything. Everything"

He’s coming up against our culture of meekly accepting our place in the world. He’s going to have rip out what has been essentially 4 decades of mostly failure as a football club. You can see it’s driving him insane

Years and years of meek acceptance of mediocrity. Absolutely agree.

[LeeB]

"Mentality is everything. Everything"

He’s coming up against our culture of meekly accepting our place in the world. He’s going to have rip out what has been essentially 4 decades of mostly failure as a football club. You can see it’s driving him insane

Years and years of meek acceptance of mediocrity. Absolutely agree.

Yep.

It's partly why I'm 100% on board with playing I out from the back. We've got to fucking change.

[OCD]

This summer should be interesting.

[FatSam]

We’ve gone from a manager who expected a struggling Chelsea to ‘wipe the floor with us’ to one who went as close to a blind rage as managers get in these sanitised times because we didn’t dominate possession and lost to a freak late goal against the league leaders.

It’s quite a shift in ambition.

Yes, well said (or rather written).