Unai Emery

[LeeB]

It was only a short sample of course, but Traore looked to fit the team much better than Bailey in the last match. Bert has his downsides of course, but he appeared to be a connected part of the team, capable of being involved in the build up of play much more than Bailey. We looked more balanced with him in the team. Bailey does provide the potential for an out ball as others have said, but if the end result is that he loses it 95% of the time, then really there's not an awful lot of point.

I though the same re: Bert, I was actually really in encouraged by his controlled display.

It's been mentioned Emery has been encouraging players to take an extra touch, to not be so rushed, and that looks to be right up Bert's street as opposed to the 100 mile an hour 'gerrit in the box' stuff that came before.

[Brend'Watkins]

As someone else said, with Bailey it is very noticeable that if something doesn't go for him early on in the game, that's it, he might as well not be on the pitch for the rest of it.

It's mentality with him, and he just doesn't have it at this level.

He doesn't strike me as a player lacking in self belief.  In fact, I think he has too much as he thinks he's much more skillful than he actually is and much quicker than he actually is.  Will Emery persevere with him?  He is for now but he'll need a massive upturn in form and attitude if he's going to make it with us. 

[SamTheMouse]

With tricky, pacey forwards, when they get the ball facing up a defender, there should be a sort of air of anticipation - what's he going to do?

When Bailey gets the ball in that sort of position, I just expect him to lose it. He doesn't always, to be fair, but he doesn't produce anything like enough end product.

It's a shame for the lad as he's clearly trying very hard. I just don't think he can cope with the physicality and speed of English football. He'd probably be better off going back to Germany.

[Somniloquism]

He does strike me as the kind of player who'd be better suited to being given a specific role in which he has, like, eight exact things to do. He's not the first to struggle adapting from simple to complex roles and he won't be the last - I mean, look at Grealish or Mahrez struggling under Guardiola.

Did Mahrez struggle? He seemed to have very similar stats in his Manchester career as with his Leicester career (apart from the Leicester season champs where he definitely played well above his standard.)

[Monty]

IIRC he played less and his 'goal involvements' (vom) went down quite a lot, and was generally agreed to have not blended yet with the team. It got better after that.

[Risso]

He does strike me as the kind of player who'd be better suited to being given a specific role in which he has, like, eight exact things to do. He's not the first to struggle adapting from simple to complex roles and he won't be the last - I mean, look at Grealish or Mahrez struggling under Guardiola.

Did Mahrez struggle? He seemed to have very similar stats in his Manchester career as with his Leicester career (apart from the Leicester season champs where he definitely played well above his standard.)

Mahrez didn't really struggle no, he just didn't make that many starts, mainly due to the form of Sterling (25 goals that season) and Guardiola doing his thing of rotating his attacking players. Mahrez still got 7 goals in 14 starts though. 

[SamTheMouse]

By my calculations, we've got 23 points from 13 games since Emery took over. If you extrapolate that to a whole season that's 67 points.

Last year, that would have seen us finish 6th. The season before that, it would have been enough to tie for 4th place. The season before that, 3rd.

We do have a Champions League manager. Give him even better players, and we're going places.

[Rigadon]

By my calculations, we've got 23 points from 13 games since Emery took over. If you extrapolate that to a whole season that's 67 points.

Last year, that would have seen us finish 6th. The season before that, it would have been enough to tie for 4th place. The season before that, 3rd.

We do have a Champions League manager. Give him even better players, and we're going places.

Yep.  Should be exciting times ahead. 

[Sexual Ealing]

He does strike me as the kind of player who'd be better suited to being given a specific role in which he has, like, eight exact things to do. He's not the first to struggle adapting from simple to complex roles and he won't be the last - I mean, look at Grealish or Mahrez struggling under Guardiola.

Did Mahrez struggle? He seemed to have very similar stats in his Manchester career as with his Leicester career (apart from the Leicester season champs where he definitely played well above his standard.)

Mahrez didn't really struggle no, he just didn't make that many starts, mainly due to the form of Sterling (25 goals that season) and Guardiola doing his thing of rotating his attacking players. Mahrez still got 7 goals in 14 starts though. 

I'm not even sure that Grealish struggled too much last season. It took a bit of adjusting (for him as much as anyone, I suspect) to think of him having gone for £100m, having been our stand-out player to just being a cog in the machine. There are better cogs in that machine than him, but I don't think he failed as such.

[Somniloquism]

I would argue that going from a double figure assist creator behind KDB to assisting 3 is a major drop, especially in a team with better players to finish. As you indicate unlike for us, the play can go through different people but the drop in attacking creativity across the board from a player consistently played in attack compared to most others in the side does seem to indicate his main play has been reduced.

[Risso]

Who's smacked our Unai in the face, hell of a shiner he was sporting in the press conference!

[Toronto Villa]

Who's smacked our Unai in the face, hell of a shiner he was sporting in the press conference!

Just about to comment on that. Being able to speak Spanish, was probably spinning some fine yarns in that accent to the young ladies down on Broad Street and likely had them fighting over him. Not that they had a clue what he said. Took a blow to the brain for a good cause.

[Footy-Vill]

Who's smacked our Unai in the face, hell of a shiner he was sporting in the press conference!

Just about to comment on that. Being able to speak Spanish, was probably spinning some fine yarns in that accent to the young ladies down on Broad Street and likely had them fighting over him. Not that they had a clue what he said. Took a blow to the brain for a good cause.

We can all have our theories.

[Toronto Villa]

Who's smacked our Unai in the face, hell of a shiner he was sporting in the press conference!

Just about to comment on that. Being able to speak Spanish, was probably spinning some fine yarns in that accent to the young ladies down on Broad Street and likely had them fighting over him. Not that they had a clue what he said. Took a blow to the brain for a good cause.

We can all have our theories.

Nope. I made it all up. Like most conspiracy theories

[Drummond]

Who's smacked our Unai in the face, hell of a shiner he was sporting in the press conference!

Just about to comment on that. Being able to speak Spanish, was probably spinning some fine yarns in that accent to the young ladies down on Broad Street and likely had them fighting over him. Not that they had a clue what he said. Took a blow to the brain for a good cause.

We can all have our theories.

Nope. I made it all up. Like most conspiracy theories

I thought you were quoting an ITK.