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Author Topic: Unai Emery - our manager  (Read 660777 times)

Offline PaulTheVillan

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Re: Unai Emery - our manager
« Reply #2685 on: January 25, 2023, 02:19:19 PM »
Managers performance so far out of all 28

Emery is number 5/28
Gerrard is number 27/28

Link

Quote
27. Steven Gerrard, Aston Villa
We genuinely thought he was going to be good because he was good at Rangers. We’re mainly disappointed in ourselves for falling for it. A lesson learned. The big problem, as well as just the general ropeyness, was that no matter how much he insisted otherwise, Gerrard clearly viewed Villa as a means to an end and loaded the squad with short-termist oldsters and left quite a mess for Unai Emery to sort out. To make matters even worse for Gerrard, Emery has promptly gone and done precisely that. It’s a double whammy.

Quote
5. Unai Emery, Aston Villa
We don’t want to be pricks about this (we do) but the alarming thing about comparing Unai Emery’s Aston Villa to Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa is that it almost seems like appointing someone who is a good manager is a better plan than someone who was a good footballer? We’re pretty sure it can’t be that, but gosh it looks like it.

Our prickery is aimed at us as much as anyone else because as we’ve said Gerrard had us fooled as well to our eternal shame. We honestly thought he might be good because he was good at Rangers. We will redouble our suspicions of both great former players and Scotball. Consider ourselves upbraided.

Emery’s done lovely work thus far, with 16 points from his seven Premier League games with thoroughly convincing beatings of Manchester United and Spurs among his five wins already. It’s a significant upgrade on the three wins and 12 points Villa had amassed in their first 13 games.

Emery has lifted Villa out of a relegation scrap and to within touching distance of the top six and done so in barely two and a half months that included a six-week break for a World Cup. Fair play.

Offline eamonn

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Re: Unai Emery - our manager
« Reply #2686 on: January 25, 2023, 02:25:26 PM »
Slow day at F365 Towers - I'm surprised they're still going tbh, but yeah, wouldn't you wait til the end of the season to write such a feature?

Online Brazilian Villain

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Re: Unai Emery - our manager
« Reply #2687 on: January 25, 2023, 02:27:48 PM »
I never felt we had control of the Leeds game. Our attacks came from counters, we were struggling against their pressing and intensity. We improved in the second half, probably because they tired themselves out a little plus their wildcard on the wing, while still causing problems, was more of a known quantity when the coaches reviewed the first half with the team in the dressing room

I was similarly unimpressed and if we hadn't got the early goal would have been very nervous at HT. Think we're got the results recently without playing particularly well which is fine but it's not sustainable going forward. Wouldn't be that surprised to see us play "better" against Leicester but only get a draw.

Offline boozey182

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Re: Unai Emery - our manager
« Reply #2688 on: January 25, 2023, 03:10:52 PM »
It's interesting that our more comfortable wins have come against the teams higher in the league. I think that the way Emery likes to play, or at least how he is using our current players, is more suited to being the underdog - let the other team try to come up with a way to break you down, but pick them off when the time is right. This might also explain why our away form has been better than our home form under him so far.

What gives me most hope and optimism is that I don't think many of our players are playing out of their skin at the moment - there is still plenty of room for improvement. Players like Buendia, Bailey and Watkins could improve and get a bit sharper with more coaching, but I am also certain that we will buy players that are better than them anyway. Tyrone and Konsa have improved a lot, and I think that will continue as they get more confident on the ball.

We will have setbacks, of course. It's unlikely that we'll continue this form (2nd best in the league) for months on end, but we have to hold our nerve when that happens - players and fans. We've been given a glimpse of what can happen with proper organisation and coaching, and if things tail off slightly, our we need to still believe. The way we play at the moment is pretty high risk, inviting the pressure in and around our own box - you can only pull that off if you commit to it. Any doubt, or nervous energy from the crowd, and it could all fall apart. I think Emery knows this, and is working to get everyone on side.

Two or three quality signings this window and we could have quite a fun half a season ahead of us.

Offline eamonn

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Re: Unai Emery - our manager
« Reply #2689 on: January 25, 2023, 03:15:34 PM »
We're skilled at the art of falling apart.

Offline paul_e

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Re: Unai Emery - our manager
« Reply #2690 on: January 25, 2023, 03:48:35 PM »
I never felt we had control of the Leeds game. Our attacks came from counters, we were struggling against their pressing and intensity. We improved in the second half, probably because they tired themselves out a little plus their wildcard on the wing, while still causing problems, was more of a known quantity when the coaches reviewed the first half with the team in the dressing room

I was similarly unimpressed and if we hadn't got the early goal would have been very nervous at HT. Think we're got the results recently without playing particularly well which is fine but it's not sustainable going forward. Wouldn't be that surprised to see us play "better" against Leicester but only get a draw.

There's a lot of this that I don't agree with.

Against Leeds our problem wasn't a lack of control as such, they were playing in front of us most of time and Martinez didn't have a huge amount to do outside of a couple of saves that you'd back him to make 9 times out of 10 (or more).

What happened is:
We lost a defender very early and had to bring in someone who'd managed 1-2 training sessions so things were a bit disjointed.
We also had a very long break in play as a result of that a couple of minutes after we took the lead which gave them a chance to regroup.
We then lost a key part of our attack with 30minutes on the clock (but because of the injury a lot less had been played and he'd been trying to run it off for a few minutes).

Despite all of that we kept them at bay and didn't look like conceding until a challenge that could easily have been given as a foul left our full back out of position and they took advantage. The 2 early subs also limited our options for tactical subs and made it a lot harder for us to adjust to their changes.

In the circumstances it was a fantastic win where we did a great job against adversity and I, rather than worrying it's not sustainable, think the game is a great example of why a good manager with a clear plan is so important because a lot of teams fall apart in games where they lose 2 players to injury that early.


We're skilled at the art of falling apart.


We have been in the past but as above I think we've shown a lot more resilience than that under Emery so far.

Offline Smithy

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Re: Unai Emery - our manager
« Reply #2691 on: January 25, 2023, 03:59:25 PM »
I never felt we had control of the Leeds game. Our attacks came from counters, we were struggling against their pressing and intensity. We improved in the second half, probably because they tired themselves out a little plus their wildcard on the wing, while still causing problems, was more of a known quantity when the coaches reviewed the first half with the team in the dressing room

I was similarly unimpressed and if we hadn't got the early goal would have been very nervous at HT. Think we're got the results recently without playing particularly well which is fine but it's not sustainable going forward. Wouldn't be that surprised to see us play "better" against Leicester but only get a draw.

Do you not think the early goal also changed the way we played (or we planning to play)? Emery doesn't strike me as the sort of manager who asks his teams to play the same way regardless of the score.  I could obviously be very wrong, but I suspect scoring so early meant we actually played slightly differently, allowing them a little more of the ball in areas they couldn't hurt us, than if we'd been level throughout the half.

If we hadn't scored that early goal, I suspect the style of our first half play might have been different.

Offline Paul.S

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Re: Unai Emery - our manager
« Reply #2692 on: January 25, 2023, 08:06:20 PM »
I never felt we had control of the Leeds game. Our attacks came from counters, we were struggling against their pressing and intensity. We improved in the second half, probably because they tired themselves out a little plus their wildcard on the wing, while still causing problems, was more of a known quantity when the coaches reviewed the first half with the team in the dressing room

I was similarly unimpressed and if we hadn't got the early goal would have been very nervous at HT. Think we're got the results recently without playing particularly well which is fine but it's not sustainable going forward. Wouldn't be that surprised to see us play "better" against Leicester but only get a draw.

Do you not think the early goal also changed the way we played (or we planning to play)? Emery doesn't strike me as the sort of manager who asks his teams to play the same way regardless of the score.  I could obviously be very wrong, but I suspect scoring so early meant we actually played slightly differently, allowing them a little more of the ball in areas they couldn't hurt us, than if we'd been level throughout the half.

If we hadn't scored that early goal, I suspect the style of our first half play might have been different.



Offline Paul.S

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Re: Unai Emery - our manager
« Reply #2693 on: January 25, 2023, 08:10:57 PM »
I never felt we had control of the Leeds game. Our attacks came from counters, we were struggling against their pressing and intensity. We improved in the second half, probably because they tired themselves out a little plus their wildcard on the wing, while still causing problems, was more of a known quantity when the coaches reviewed the first half with the team in the dressing room

I was similarly unimpressed and if we hadn't got the early goal would have been very nervous at HT. Think we're got the results recently without playing particularly well which is fine but it's not sustainable going forward. Wouldn't be that surprised to see us play "better" against Leicester but only get a draw.

Do you not think the early goal also changed the way we played (or we planning to play)? Emery doesn't strike me as the sort of manager who asks his teams to play the same way regardless of the score.  I could obviously be very wrong, but I suspect scoring so early meant we actually played slightly differently, allowing them a little more of the ball in areas they couldn't hurt us, than if we'd been level throughout the half.

If we hadn't scored that early goal, I suspect the style of our first half play might have been different.

I agree. He’s a coach who is flexible dependent on injuries, who we are playing and how the game is  going. He’s got this current squad winning games we wouldn’t have done before he came. I’d say that this current squad isn’t capable of getting us above 10th but with a few additions this month who knows?  Over the next few windows we’ll see a massive difference and a consistency we’ve not seen for a long while.

Offline Percy McCarthy

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Re: Unai Emery - our manager
« Reply #2694 on: January 25, 2023, 08:58:52 PM »
We’ve got the facilities, the goalkeeper, the CDM and the manager we need to go all the way I reckon. Everything else we need to be getting on with quick sharp.

Offline eamonn

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Re: Unai Emery - our manager
« Reply #2695 on: January 25, 2023, 09:00:18 PM »
Wolves pinned us back before their early goal and after, and Leeds did it for a lot of the game at VP.  I doubt Emery wanted to see so much of that.

It's great that we're mostly winning at the moment but I think there's a lot of work to be done to get us playing high-tempo and pressing with confidence if we're to dominate teams ourselves and keep winning.

Offline brontebilly

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Re: Unai Emery - our manager
« Reply #2696 on: January 25, 2023, 10:02:21 PM »
Wolves pinned us back before their early goal and after, and Leeds did it for a lot of the game at VP.  I doubt Emery wanted to see so much of that.

It's great that we're mostly winning at the moment but I think there's a lot of work to be done to get us playing high-tempo and pressing with confidence if we're to dominate teams ourselves and keep winning.

I think we were very fortunate in both those games. Second half in both we improved a lot with Buendia switching back into the middle but there were times in first half of both those games we were getting battered. As bad as any time under Gerrard and it shouldn't have taken until half time to change things tactically either. Sometimes snap judgements can be made about new managers on a small sample size of games. The general narrative seems to be look at Villa now after getting in a proper coach but it's far too early to make any kind of conclusion.

I like a lot of what Emery is doing and let's see how the recruitment goes over next few weeks. I think our performances do need to improve to maintain these decent results.

Offline RamboandBruno

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Re: Unai Emery - our manager
« Reply #2697 on: January 25, 2023, 11:12:56 PM »
Wolves pinned us back before their early goal and after, and Leeds did it for a lot of the game at VP.  I doubt Emery wanted to see so much of that.

It's great that we're mostly winning at the moment but I think there's a lot of work to be done to get us playing high-tempo and pressing with confidence if we're to dominate teams ourselves and keep winning.

I think we were very fortunate in both those games. Second half in both we improved a lot with Buendia switching back into the middle but there were times in first half of both those games we were getting battered. As bad as any time under Gerrard and it shouldn't have taken until half time to change things tactically either. Sometimes snap judgements can be made about new managers on a small sample size of games. The general narrative seems to be look at Villa now after getting in a proper coach but it's far too early to make any kind of conclusion.

I like a lot of what Emery is doing and let's see how the recruitment goes over next few weeks. I think our performances do need to improve to maintain these decent results.

I think Wolves were much the better team first half and we were marginally the better team second half, a draw was fair but if one team was going to win it it felt as if it would be us. Martinez made one great save against Leeds but i dont really feel we were lucky, i thought it was a bit of scrap but we had marginally more quality. I suppose the excitement around Emery is he has been there and done it and is still in his prime in manager terms, I don’t think we’ve had a manager of that calibre and deserved reputation since BFR. So in that respect and given the points haul, despite some dogged disciplined rather than slick performances, I completely get the buzz and im there too. Obviously Gerard started ok, looking back he won 4 lost 3 of his first 7 compared to 5 wins, 1 draw, 1 defeat for Emery. But Gerard very quickly got rapidly worse performance and results wise, his next 7 was 2 wins, 2 draws, 3 defeats and then 2 wins, 1 draw,4 defeats. And then this season was a shambles.
Emery may well have a sticky pat h, especially with Arsenal and Man City two out of the next three, but although he’s not beyond criticism, more than any manager we’ve had for such a long time, he deserves plenty of breaks from us. He just carries himself so well as well, no bollocks im all in, bullshit bingo and all the rest, he’s just understated, says the right things and gets on with job.
« Last Edit: January 25, 2023, 11:15:04 PM by RamboandBruno »

Offline brontebilly

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Re: Unai Emery - our manager
« Reply #2698 on: January 26, 2023, 01:20:38 AM »
I like the way he carries himself for sure. He's like a man with a real point to prove in the PL and has huge experience around Europe, some good, some not so good. Tactically I thought we had a shocker v Liverpool too but he addressed it immediately for the Spurs game. Deano or Gerrard just wouldn't have, we would have drifted for weeks before eventually trying something different. I like the way he has been decisive about Ings leaving and letting squad players go without much drama.

With Gerrard, like most I was totally against bringing him in. It might have been harsh but I think he was very fortunate to survive that Palace game early on. That was soon after Bournemouth and it was clear for everyone to see we had a huge problem and a possible mutiny considering the way the players downed tools. I think he scrambled somewhat ok after that to hold onto his job for a while. Leeds away for one we battered them but couldn't score. But we lost weeks of the season really until that Fulham game finished it.

Offline Percy McCarthy

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Re: Unai Emery - our manager
« Reply #2699 on: January 26, 2023, 06:27:56 AM »
Not sure if this is by THAT Nick Timothy. Good article anyway.

https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/february-2023/how-to-manage-up-with-emery/

 


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