Unai Emery

[Dave P]

We've played 6 cup games under Emery.  He's won 2 and lost 4.  The two he won were against Hibs.  The 4 he lost, he fucked around and found out.

[Monty]

Sigh. Now look here.

Newcastle beat Man City with ten changes.

The Villa u-18s should be able to beat Stevenage!

Everyone's been talking about growing the squad and competing on all fronts and yada-yada, and the fact is you can't go at it in four competitions with a MON-style fixed first eleven scrawled on the back of a fag packet. You need to use the squad.

You can argue about the transfer policy or the gaps left in that squad, I'm up for that, but the idea that changing the side for a cup game is some sort of feckless sin is prehistoric horseshit, I'm afraid. Shit of an ancient horse.

[Clark W Griswold]

You cannot deny that the league form since Unai came in has been remarkable, really brilliant. The cup form is the polar opposite, P6, W2 L4, ok we played Man Utd away as one of those but the other three losses against Stevenage, Warsaw and Everton at home who we beat 4-0 a few weeks before. Pretty disasterous, i'm sure most of us would sacrifice a few places (a fair few in my case) in the league to win a trophy, that's what it's all about surely? I thought he was supposed to be a cup specialist.
I'm particularly frustrated because on our day, with the squad we have and that manager i'd fancy us to have a chance anywhere except maybe Man City away and they went out last night. It'll feel like a big opportunity missed if we don't at least go close rather than going out in games that we should be winning.

[Brend'Watkins]

Sigh. Now look here.

Newcastle beat Man City with ten changes.

The Villa u-18s should be able to beat Stevenage!

Everyone's been talking about growing the squad and competing on all fronts and yada-yada, and the fact is you can't go at it in four competitions with a MON-style fixed first eleven scrawled on the back of a fag packet. You need to use the squad.

You can argue about the transfer policy or the gaps left in that squad, I'm up for that, but the idea that changing the side for a cup game is some sort of feckless sin is prehistoric horseshit, I'm afraid. Shit of an ancient horse.

The peripheral players are simply not stepping up. It’s a major disappointment.

[OCD]

For as frustrated as we are, my bet would be that Emery is more frustrated.

He's given players chances and they've let him down. If they keep doing that, they'll be marking their cards and they could find themselves sold next summer.

You watch some teams and they're able to make changes and they play exactly the same. Emery talks about this as structure and it's clearly something we lack but need to develop.

We've got the right coaching staff to get there but it's going to take time, and until we're there, there will be some frustrating performances.

[Toronto Villa]

There shouldn't be a first XI. There will be players who play almost all the games. But what Emery is trying to arrive at is finding out which players when given opportunities rise to the occasion. Our drop off from what most might perceive as our best XI is still a little too steep in quality but also mentality. When Man City (who have been fine tuning this for years now), change out their players rarely does the quality dip below their high levels. But it happens on occasion even to them. Last night was awful, but for Emery it will provide him data on the players/systems/formations he can work with or trust, and who/what doesn't. Performances like last night set foundational pieces for the future. Defeats, though shit if used properly are building blocks to success. If this manager has proved anything at all he has used negative performances to improve us. And he will be the first to look himself in the mirror at things he can improve also.

[usav]

Sigh. Now look here.

Newcastle beat Man City with ten changes.

The Villa u-18s should be able to beat Stevenage!

Everyone's been talking about growing the squad and competing on all fronts and yada-yada, and the fact is you can't go at it in four competitions with a MON-style fixed first eleven scrawled on the back of a fag packet. You need to use the squad.

You can argue about the transfer policy or the gaps left in that squad, I'm up for that, but the idea that changing the side for a cup game is some sort of feckless sin is prehistoric horseshit, I'm afraid. Shit of an ancient horse.

The peripheral players are simply not stepping up. It’s a major disappointment.

100%

[AV84]

Sigh. Now look here.

Newcastle beat Man City with ten changes.

The Villa u-18s should be able to beat Stevenage!

Everyone's been talking about growing the squad and competing on all fronts and yada-yada, and the fact is you can't go at it in four competitions with a MON-style fixed first eleven scrawled on the back of a fag packet. You need to use the squad.

You can argue about the transfer policy or the gaps left in that squad, I'm up for that, but the idea that changing the side for a cup game is some sort of feckless sin is prehistoric horseshit, I'm afraid. Shit of an ancient horse.

The peripheral players are simply not stepping up. It’s a major disappointment.

Some of the problem may lie in the idea that some players haven't bought into the fact that successful clubs utilise their entire squad. And that means that some players will play a lot more than others, but the ones playing less are not B team, or backup, they're there to do a specific job at specific times. Some players don't have the correct mentality to be part of that kind of set up and still give 100% whenever they're called on. I can understand wanting to be the player that plays the most, but giving half arsed performances when you are called on isn't going to get you playing more.

[Paul.S]

We haven’t played as well as last season yet but sit 6th averaging 2 points a game. A win on Saturday would take us level with Brighton who everyone are raving about. With the injuries we’ve had and still have that’s not a bad start at all. There’s a lot more to come from this team but there will be bumps in the road. Emery is a class act and I have every faith in him.

[ez]

I do think his comments about wanting to win cups is just him makingthe right noises. The league is very much the priority.

[PeterWithesShin]

I reckon we took last night seriously, I think i'm right that 14 of the 16 players we used are full internationals. The exceptions being Konsa and Kellyman. They just played shit.

[AV84]

I know everything on an Internet forum should be treated with very little seriousness but last week people were saying we should be prioritising the Chelsea game, and were happy with an obviously weaker side when it was announced for Legia.

 90 minutes later we'd lost and it was Emery's fault for not taking it seriously, for underestimating the opposition.

A few days later and it turns out he was right because we beat Chelsea and the league is priority again.

Nobody wants to pay £40 to see Villa's B team play Everton reserves, but it ends up being 2 pretty strong sides and we lost and somehow Emery is to blame for not taking it seriously but also Brighton is a big game and we should be prioritising that.

[john e]

It’s all about the Premier League nowadays
We all worship at the Premier League’s feet

Look what it’s like on here when there’s an international break and we don’t get our fix, we might moan about the Premier League but it’s an addiction

Three points on Saturday are what it’s all about, every thing else takes second place,
There’s mealymouthed words of wanting to do well in cups, and yeah we’ll go out to try our best, but the reality is Dendoncker won’t be playing centre half on Saturday and Olson won’t be flapping around if Martinez is fit, because this is the world where cups don’t really matter, no matter what they say it’s all about the 3 points

 the Premier League is King

( I hate that mentality, give me a cup any day, but I have to accept the new reality)

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Can we go back to well drilled and organised, please Unai? Right now we're anything but.

[Clampy]

As shambolic as last night was, we've won 4 out of 6 in the league. We're not usually that much of an unorganised rabble.