Unai Emery

[VillaTim]

We are becoming incredibly dull to watch, the slow build up play is monotonous and tedious if it is not interspersed with rapid periods of transitional attacking play which we were seeing in the 1st half of the season and now is nowhere to be seen.

Yeah last Saturday was a bore fest, never have I seen such a dull Villa team. Bring back Stevie G, all is forgiven.

Look at who we were playing , there's a reason they have 10 points and are marooned bottom of the league. We have become flat track bullies

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What by last lookimg good against Man City and defending well against Arsenal? While losing to mid table shite like Man United, Chelsea and Newcastle? Cooper's Injury is on form again.

[VillaTim]

What by last lookimg good against Man City and defending well against Arsenal? While losing to mid table shite like Man United, Chelsea and Newcastle? Cooper's Injury is on form again.

Man City / Arsenal week was the last decent performances (bar Sheff utd )

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That's the point.

[Smithy]

Win against Man Utd and all will be forgiven.  But that's a long way from a forgone conclusion.  Another defeat in the manner of Newcastle and Chelsea and questions will be asked.

We had a similar wobble last year at a similar time losing to Leicester, Man City and Arsenal on the trot, but we came out of that to win 8 of the next 10 to end the season really strongly, so I'm hoping this will be similar!

[VillaTim]

That's the point.

exactly, i said 1st half of the season we were good at it but now its virtually non-existent from our play. We've been poor since Sheff Utd (H) in late Dec

[tomd2103]

My biggest concern is that is two home games in a row where we have gone in at half-time two goals down and very obviously second best. But we’ve come out in the second half and done exactly the same as we did in the first, which can only leave me to conclude that Unai is looking at the first half and is thinking everything is ok. Regardless of the the score line, the performances have been miles off it in both instances, and it should have been clear change was needed.

He’s done a brilliant job, and we all have bad days at the office, but I really hope he’s reflecting on the underlying issues and also thinking about being more proactive when it isn’t working.

To be honest though Paul, he hasn't got many options to change it.  I've calmed down a bit after last night and although I'm still very disappointed to be out of the FA Cup, we now have total focus on the league and Europe.

We've just been hit by a 'perfect storm' of injuries, loss of form and additions to the squad not working out at the moment.  As angry as it would make me, I hope that last night and Newcastle were a case of players not really fancying midweek games, as it least that would point to it not being a more wider reaching problem. 

Sunday is a big game now as we can do ourselves a big favour by winning it.

[SamTheMouse]

Emery seems very focused on getting one way of playing working well, but his strength last season was very much the ability to set us up in different ways. I think he needs to go back to a low block in some games to get us more on the counter. We've been rattled behind the full backs and teams going man to man across the pitch at home, and we have to do something different to break it, if we don't Garnacho is having another field day on Sunday.

Yep, in some games last season eg Spurs away, we effectively had a back 6 out of possession. It wasn't pretty, but it was effective. To be honest, this football isn't pretty either and it's completely ineffective.

Agreed. I've thought this about our away games most of the season.

It feels like Emery wants us to play like Abu Dhabi in every game, but we just don't have the quality throughout the team to do it - especially away from home against the better teams. We looked rock solid in so many tricky fixtures last year.

Sometimes you have to cut your cloth accordingly.

[Dick Edwards]

As angry as it would make me, I hope that last night and Newcastle were a case of players not really fancying midweek games, as it least that would point to it not being a more wider reaching problem.

Jesus Tom! I hope that isn't the case or we can write off the Europa Conference League straight away.

[Risso]

What difference does the day of the week make? Man City was a Wednesday, in any case.

[Clark W Griswold]

I'm not going to whine about anyone associated with the club at this point, they've all done brilliantly over the past 12 months or so. There is so much competition these days and the FFP situation isn't going to do us any favours in the longer term if the rules stay as they are. I would agree that we peaked at home to Man City and barring last Saturday against a very poor team we have not really played very well since. We've seen it many times before, built up a really good side looking like it could win something only to see it start to disintegrate after a relatively short period. It's starting to feel like that again, and i just hope that those in charge now are made of sterner stuff than previously, and will keep building and can come up with new ideas to get back on track.

[VillaTim]

What difference does the day of the week make? Man City was a Wednesday, in any case.

it makes no difference , the thing that differs is EPL games vs the cup games and Conference . Emery has indicated very clearly where the priorities will lie

[villa `cross the mersey]

Unai couldn’t win with the team selection last night.

If he had started Iroebugnam, Zaniolo etc and we lost by the same score then some on here would say “why didn’t he pick the strongest team”.

He played the strongest team and lost.

The players seem too pedestrian just lately, too slow in the build up and the last 2 home games the opposition have taken note of this and just press us as far into our half as possible.

We need to change something as it’s not working at all at the moment.

Pretty much this - in addition I think some fans have been "taken in" by all the talk of "Fortress Villa Park" and maybe the players too
In all my many years of following this club we have always seemed to be the club to play if you are on a "bad run" or need a result" - or am I being over reactive?
The last two home games are indicative of this .

Has Emery been "sussed" out by other managers/coaches or is the long list of injured players taking its toll?

As ever - i am not looking forward to playing Newton Heath  - this Sunday is no different.

Like most posters on here I have never witnessed Villa win the FA Cup - I was born in 1957 - two months after we won I am beginning to think I wont see us win it - oh well there is always the Europa Conference (yawn)   I think this is Emery's` main focus right now

[dekko]

Re the comments about our slow build up not breaking into fast transitions like it used to:

I'm sure that someone with more tactical nous than me can enlighten us, but it feels to me that we're still trying to do that, but a couple of things are preventing it:

a) Teams know we're going to try it, and so their pressing/marking is based around stopping us from pinging the ball low from one of the back 4 into the 2 midfielders (see Newcastle basically marking McGinn out of the game so he couldn't turn and play in one of the forwards like he would earlier this season).
b) No Torres.  Having him in the side can mitigate the first problem because he moves the ball so quickly, precisely and with the kind of vision you'd expect in a midfielder.  Lenglet is decent technically and can pass but he doesnt have the speed of thought or vision Pau does.
c) Fatigue (Physical and mental) and loss of form.  Yeah, I know they've had some time off recently but this isnt a big squad, they've played a lot of games already this season, and injuries and form mean we've not been able to rotate as much as we probably should.  Those fast transitions and play from the back require players to be really at it or the whole thing breaks down.  And you can't expect players to put in 8s or 9s every game of the season.

Am I wrong?

[Beard82]

I have been thinking about this today having calmed down.  I’m still gutted about being out the FA Cup - but I think only the fans really care about the FA cup. 

When we outplayed Man City - all there fans would have thought they were shit.  But we were also absolutely amazing - the best I have ever seen a villa team play.

A big part of last night and Newcastle is they both played really well - and they are both good enough to do that to any team in the world on there day. 

Ultimately we have done amazing this season - but as things stand our back line - and much vaunted high line have gone because we have a make shift back 4.  We have no backup striker, and only about 16 fit first squad players.  This includes Zanilio, Diaby and Ramsey who are all hideously out of form. 

I don’t really see what else Emery could do - we can’t mix things up as we don’t have the squad noir would FFP allow us to have the squad.

I know his tatics were wrong last 2 games and led to us losing the game in middle of the park.  But we don’t really have any options other than knee jerk changes in approach and I don’t think unai fancies those