Unai Emery

[Chris Harte]

Safe, Successful, Superb, Stable, (at times) Sexy also works

Señor?

[Brazilian Villain]

Safe, Successful, Superb, Stable, (at times) Sexy also works

Señor?

I was aiming for something to do with an FFP thing.

[Drummond]

I thought it was something to do with an FFP thing not something is super obvious as that

It can mean Solvent Under Emery, if you prefer.

Not to be sniffed at.

[usav]

My first criticism - the inexplicable decision to not start Bailey in the last 2 games.

[SoccerHQ]

My first criticism - the inexplicable decision to not start Bailey in the last 2 games.

I could understand it for Chelsea just to freshen things up but staggered tonight he didn't start and the cameo rubbed that in a bit.

To not even bring him on at half time when the game was still salvageable was very poor from the manager.

Bailey's been our best player at Villa Park in 2023 and last month he was in amazing form v Arsenal and Man. City.

Unless he's carrying an injury or has some issue with UE he should be starting every single home game we have left in all competitions.

[pauliewalnuts]

What he needs to do now is whatever it was he did after the successive home losses to Arsenal and Leicester last season, because, although every team goes through bad patches, and that is what this is for us, there's a feeling that there's a bit of momentum gathering behind this one.

[Villan82]

2023 was one of the best years I can remember. I went into pretty much every game thinking we could win and feeling very confident. Even the blip 12 months ago against Leicester and Arsenal did not phase me.

Whatever that sprinkling of magic was has been absent since Christmas. I don't know but it hasn't felt the same, even accounting for injuries. But I trust him to fix it and get us back into gear. We have had rotten luck with injuries it must be said

On a wider point, there has been too much nonsense around the club too. We fought our way into the title race in mid December and for some inexplicable reason the new CEO at the club start dicking around, making silly statements about next season (asking for a jinxing), the badge and the ground. Maybe he should have zipped it, paused his big mouth, and let the entire club and support base focus its entire energy on seizing the opportunity of a lifetime.

[Footy-Vill]

Regards the CEO there is a cultural tendency for american businessman to sound off and make proclamations .
Even if this is sports it's business so Heck was always going to have his voice heard
 

[brontebilly]

We had one of these games at home last season, Leicester I think. Emery learned a lot from it and we went again as a former manager used to say. Let's hope it's the same tonight as tactically we were a farce tonight. Playing a high line works if you have someone like Torres who effectively plays like a midfielder. It doesn't work if you have Carlos or Lenglet. Gambling on playing Diaby into form has simply not worked either. Thought we showed Newcastle no respect tonight playing two up top and letting both full backs get rinsed repeatedly. No pressure on ball anyway so why didn't we just retreat the defensive line a bit.

[PaulWinch again]

One thing from tonight is it’s the perfect illustration of everything going wrong that SUE can use to analyse the failures. Without picking on individual players a few things that jumped out to me -

- Back line was completely misaligned when playing the high line
- midfield were too slow to close down meaning Newcastle always had too much space and time
- both full backs, particularly on the left, were completely isolated when they attacked so had to keep going backwards
- Forwards didn’t hold up the ball at all


Lots of very obvious stuff to fix.

[Risso]

What he needs to do now is whatever it was he did after the successive home losses to Arsenal and Leicester last season, because, although every team goes through bad patches, and that is what this is for us, there's a feeling that there's a bit of momentum gathering behind this one.

The difference then is we actually played OK in those matches last season. We made four mistakes against Leicester but otherwise had enough chances to win the game. Similarly we were beating Arsenal 2-1 with half an hour left and could have got something out of the game. In the last few games we've just been really bad. Sloppy passing, mistakes at the back and offering very little going forward.

[Toronto Villa]

I liked his comments after the game that this has been a super run, it had to end eventually and that he and the team would continue with the long term plan. It’s important he calms the room and cools the temperature. But it also can be true that this defeat has been coming a while. We’ve not looked great since Man City. It was brilliant beating Arsenal but truth be told we could have lost that game given how much they had the ball. It seems we reached the pinnacle of our performances that week and it just took everything out of us. We need to hope there is a second wind yet to come because right now, we look out on our feet and lacking ideas. The injuries certainly haven’t helped one bit either. It would be so terrible if we didn’t have enough about us to keep this great season going.

[Risso]

Why would they be out on their feet? They’ve all just had a load of time off.

[Toronto Villa]

Why would they be out on their feet? They’ve all just had a load of time off.

I have no idea. But we were second to everything. It doesn’t have to physical. It can be mental too. You hear of these intense video reviews of games and tactical discussions coupled with the training sessions. We certainly don’t have the zip we had earlier in the season. Look at how intense we were vs Man City. We haven’t seen that since even if we have controlled possession in games much has been in our own half and not impactful in the final third. It’s hard to explain the drop off. We’ve scored 2 times in the past 4 games also.

[Drummond]

I think we should change shape more frequently.

4-3-3
3-5-2

Whatever, something new needs to happen.