Unai Emery - our manager

[Baldy]

Surely the players realise or need to be made to that there's a time and a place for following an instruction to the letter and playing balls to midfielders inside the box with their backs to play and surrounded by the opposition is neither. I really struggle to understand how you can be so foolish.

Agreed 100%. Martinez has a great throw, he used it a lot for Argentina in the World Cup. When a 'press' is in place, he could use his throw to bypass the press.

I hope Unai works on variations in training this week!!

[algy]

You just need to look at the results from this weekend to see that things don't always go completely to plan, and I think that's what's happened here.  Nothing to be overly concerned about yet.  We're still only a couple of points off 9th and 6pts off 6th.  It's a bit of a bugger because, had we won, we'd instead be looking upwards and wondering about being only 3 wins away from the Champions League spots.

Do think that we need an overhaul come the summer.  Not a huge one, but 3 or 4 key players.  I don't mind so much the lack of activity in January.  To be honest, I think I'd rather Emery have 7 or 8 months experience of the players to make those decisions on, give a bit more time to the scouting team to identify the right players, and potentially get someone in to supplement/replace Lange*.



* I like Lange personally, but it does sounds like Emery wants his own man in there - which is fair enough, you'd want them to be on the same page in that respect.

[Drummond]

You just need to look at the results from this weekend to see that things don't always go completely to plan, and I think that's what's happened here.  Nothing to be overly concerned about yet.  We're still only a couple of points off 9th and 6pts off 6th.  It's a bit of a bugger because, had we won, we'd instead be looking upwards and wondering about being only 3 wins away from the Champions League spots.

Do think that we need an overhaul come the summer.  Not a huge one, but 3 or 4 key players.  I don't mind so much the lack of activity in January.  To be honest, I think I'd rather Emery have 7 or 8 months experience of the players to make those decisions on, give a bit more time to the scouting team to identify the right players, and potentially get someone in to supplement/replace Lange*.



* I like Lange personally, but it does sounds like Emery wants his own man in there - which is fair enough, you'd want them to be on the same page in that respect.

I'd piut it down to being one of those days to be honest. We played some good stuff, made some good opportunities but made some unfortunate (shit/crap/ridiculous/foolish) mistakes. However, I like the bravery of trying it. I like that we're not content with hoofball. It's higher risk in the immediacy of the moment and the proximity to the goal, but the gains are worth it.

In the future with some more pace in the team we'll really benefit.

[Risso]

You just need to look at the results from this weekend to see that things don't always go completely to plan, and I think that's what's happened here.  Nothing to be overly concerned about yet.  We're still only a couple of points off 9th and 6pts off 6th.  It's a bit of a bugger because, had we won, we'd instead be looking upwards and wondering about being only 3 wins away from the Champions League spots.

Do think that we need an overhaul come the summer.  Not a huge one, but 3 or 4 key players.  I don't mind so much the lack of activity in January.  To be honest, I think I'd rather Emery have 7 or 8 months experience of the players to make those decisions on, give a bit more time to the scouting team to identify the right players, and potentially get someone in to supplement/replace Lange*.



* I like Lange personally, but it does sounds like Emery wants his own man in there - which is fair enough, you'd want them to be on the same page in that respect.

This squad has proved time and time again that it's not good enough for the top half. Even a manager like Emery isn't going to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. I'd say we need four immediate first team starters, and another 2-3 strong squad players to improve the bench.

[Drummond]

You just need to look at the results from this weekend to see that things don't always go completely to plan, and I think that's what's happened here.  Nothing to be overly concerned about yet.  We're still only a couple of points off 9th and 6pts off 6th.  It's a bit of a bugger because, had we won, we'd instead be looking upwards and wondering about being only 3 wins away from the Champions League spots.

Do think that we need an overhaul come the summer.  Not a huge one, but 3 or 4 key players.  I don't mind so much the lack of activity in January.  To be honest, I think I'd rather Emery have 7 or 8 months experience of the players to make those decisions on, give a bit more time to the scouting team to identify the right players, and potentially get someone in to supplement/replace Lange*.



* I like Lange personally, but it does sounds like Emery wants his own man in there - which is fair enough, you'd want them to be on the same page in that respect.

This squad has proved time and time again that it's not good enough for the top half. Even a manager like Emery isn't going to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. I'd say we need four immediate first team starters, and another 2-3 strong squad players to improve the bench.

Four first teamers to achieve what though? Top half? Europe? Chumps League places?

[Risso]

Four first teamers to achieve what though? Top half? Europe? Chumps League places?

Europe has got to be the immediate aim, which most years means a minimum of 7th. I don't want to get in the habit of mentally selling our best players, but Martinez and Kamara aren't going to want to be playing for a lower half of the table team forever. There's absolutely no reason we should be behind the likes of Fulham, Brentford and Brighton in the table though, and it shows what can be achieved with good recruitment and a good manager. If we all agree we've finally got the manager right, then the board really need to step up and back him. This January was a disgrace, quite frankly.

[Bully2345]

I think it's fairly clear that squad players aren't on the transfer agenda. They'll want to bring first team players in that make some of the current XI the squad players rather than what we did with Dendoncker. Quality over quantity

[Smithy]

I think it's fairly clear that squad players aren't on the transfer agenda. They'll want to bring first team players in that make some of the current XI the squad players rather than what we did with Dendoncker. Quality over quantity

That's really how it should be every year for a team with genuine European ambitions.  Our first year or so back up, you could forgive a bit of squad building given what we had in the door the day we got promoted, but those days are behind us now.  Turning first-choices into squad players is how we improve.

[Dave]

I think it's fairly clear that squad players aren't on the transfer agenda. They'll want to bring first team players in that make some of the current XI the squad players rather than what we did with Dendoncker. Quality over quantity

Sure, but 'twas ever thus.

I can't remember a single transfer window where we were sitting here saying "the first team is absolutely fine, now we just need to fill the bench".

The fact that we want to sign better players than those we have isn't going to ever change, regardless of how well we do. And it's definitely not an excuse to spend half a season with only three-quarters of a squad.

[Bully2345]

I think it's fairly clear that squad players aren't on the transfer agenda. They'll want to bring first team players in that make some of the current XI the squad players rather than what we did with Dendoncker. Quality over quantity

Sure, but 'twas ever thus.

I can't remember a single transfer window where we were sitting here saying "the first team is absolutely fine, now we just need to fill the bench".

The fact that we want to sign better players than those we have isn't going to ever change, regardless of how well we do. And it's definitely not an excuse to spend half a season with only three-quarters of a squad.

Is it really three quarters of a squad? The people who've been shipped out were playing about 5% of the minutes. We don't have cup competitions or major fixture congestion so a similar XI will play most of the games from here. If there's injuries and KKH or some other youngster make up some minutes, it's not a disaster. I'd rather do this than have watched them panicked and signed Ayoze Perez or something

[Risso]

Subs aren't just for injuries, they're to bring on in a game, as Ings did to good effect when he won us four points against Brighton and Wolves.

[Dave]

I think it's fairly clear that squad players aren't on the transfer agenda. They'll want to bring first team players in that make some of the current XI the squad players rather than what we did with Dendoncker. Quality over quantity

Sure, but 'twas ever thus.

I can't remember a single transfer window where we were sitting here saying "the first team is absolutely fine, now we just need to fill the bench".

The fact that we want to sign better players than those we have isn't going to ever change, regardless of how well we do. And it's definitely not an excuse to spend half a season with only three-quarters of a squad.

Is it really three quarters of a squad? The people who've been shipped out were playing about 5% of the minutes. We don't have cup competitions or major fixture congestion so a similar XI will play most of the games from here. If there's injuries and KKH or some other youngster make up some minutes, it's not a disaster. I'd rather do this than have watched them panicked and signed Ayoze Perez or something

Well, our 25 man squad contains 21 players. So let's call it four-fifths of a squad.

And nobody was advocating panicking and signing Ayoze Perez, they were advocating going out and signing better players than the ones that we currently have.

[Drummond]

Four first teamers to achieve what though? Top half? Europe? Chumps League places?

Europe has got to be the immediate aim, which most years means a minimum of 7th. I don't want to get in the habit of mentally selling our best players, but Martinez and Kamara aren't going to want to be playing for a lower half of the table team forever. There's absolutely no reason we should be behind the likes of Fulham, Brentford and Brighton in the table though, and it shows what can be achieved with good recruitment and a good manager. If we all agree we've finally got the manager right, then the board really need to step up and back him. This January was a disgrace, quite frankly.

Ok, well in that case we agree! :-) Though I wouldn't have January down as a disgrace.

[Drummond]

Subs aren't just for injuries, they're to bring on in a game, as Ings did to good effect when he won us four points against Brighton and Wolves.

Absolutely, but we need to strengthen the first team, and make the players they replace the subs.

[Bully2345]

I think it's fairly clear that squad players aren't on the transfer agenda. They'll want to bring first team players in that make some of the current XI the squad players rather than what we did with Dendoncker. Quality over quantity

Sure, but 'twas ever thus.

I can't remember a single transfer window where we were sitting here saying "the first team is absolutely fine, now we just need to fill the bench".

The fact that we want to sign better players than those we have isn't going to ever change, regardless of how well we do. And it's definitely not an excuse to spend half a season with only three-quarters of a squad.

Is it really three quarters of a squad? The people who've been shipped out were playing about 5% of the minutes. We don't have cup competitions or major fixture congestion so a similar XI will play most of the games from here. If there's injuries and KKH or some other youngster make up some minutes, it's not a disaster. I'd rather do this than have watched them panicked and signed Ayoze Perez or something

Well, our 25 man squad contains 21 players. So let's call it four-fifths of a squad.

And nobody was advocating panicking and signing Ayoze Perez, they were advocating going out and signing better players than the ones that we currently have.

That weren't available.