Unai Emery - our manager

[Villan82]

Congratulations to SUE winning his 1000th game.

Whatever happens here on in, the man is class.

I'm very defensive of him and all the players because quite frankly we have had the sort of 18 months I thought we'd never see again during the dark days in the championship. For context, 5 years ago we were celebrating a win against Rotherham. Tonight, we beat a team who have won the French League twice since we last finished 6th in the top flight.

We have made unbelievable progress in a short time

[RamboandBruno]

Please, please, please target a DCM in the summer and get Tyrone and Konsa back into the heart of the defence.

Torres has been superb, what has he done to deserve to be dropped for you?

Pau will probably be our captain in 2 years time

He's a fine player, but still finding his feet in this league.  Is he better than Mings? Not in my view.  I am not saying we sell him, he's a good player and needs to be in the squad to rotate with others, given how many games there are.

I love Mings and we really miss his leadership. But all things being equal Torres is a far superior footballer. If Mings, Konsa and Torres are fit and the manager has to have two of them as his first choice CBs, my guess is it would be Torres and Konsa

[Brazilian Villain]

Looks like a lot of the players call him 'Mister'. https://twitter.com/AVFCOfficial/status/1778454526392988038

Not just his 100th game as manager, but Villa's 100th game in Europe. https://twitter.com/AVFCOfficial/status/1778443776454787402

We'll probably lose.

Missed a 0 for the first stat.

I won't be able to sleep tonight.

[Toronto Villa]

He is squeezing every last drop out of this group. We might stagger over the line by the time it’s all said and done but we will achieve something by the end. Through sheer desire and willpower of nothing else. It likely won’t be that pretty as we have sometimes seen in the last few weeks.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

He is squeezing every last drop out of this group. 

I thought up until recently he's tried to keep the whole squad involved so that should they need to be called up they'll know what to do and will be up to speed. Now I'm not so sure. I think he's put too much faith in players who he thought were mature enough to handle the responsibility and at the same time ignored players that have the potential to play their part. It's obvious he prefers mature players, even if short term; our unsuccessful chase for Marcos Acuña being a classic example. The type of player you'd bring in on loan but never on a contract.

Playing Tielemans as a defensive midfielder is a classic case of square peg round hole. It does nothing for the team yet he persists. Diaby, if you ignore his £50m price tag should be no where near starting. I can see what he's trying to do with Rogers but he'd be better off impacting games from the bench rather than expecting miracles from the deep end. Good experience may come with an expensive short term price.

Defensively we look all over the shop yet again he persists in playing our best central defender as a right back. Tonight was yet another opportunity to give the job to KKH, keep it tidy, focus on defending and keep the shape of the team. Maybe the reason we haven't looked half the team we were compared to the first half of the season is we've lost our shape?

Did something happen at Arsenal that made Unai give up on the kids? Easy answer is he doesn't rate our kids but remember this is the coach that introduced the diving, England international Soka, the £40m+ Villa target Smith Rowe, among others. What happened? Has he already targets in those positions so he doesn't want second rate youngsters blocking his targets? I've no idea.

We all loudly agree that Unai has done the most amazing job since arriving, we all love him and are proud to have him as our manager. But when you ask is he is squeezing every last drop out of this group, my gut instinct is to say no. He's boxed himself in. Of course it may be part of some master plan but right now I'm not seeing it. We appear to be threading water rather than heading towards the Promised Land which is a bit of a pisser when we don't even need to tread water, our feet are already touching the sand.

[RamboandBruno]

He is squeezing every last drop out of this group. 

I thought up until recently he's tried to keep the whole squad involved so that should they need to be called up they'll know what to do and will be up to speed. Now I'm not so sure. I think he's put too much faith in players who he thought were mature enough to handle the responsibility and at the same time ignored players that have the potential to play their part. It's obvious he prefers mature players, even if short term; our unsuccessful chase for Marcos Acuña being a classic example. The type of player you'd bring in on loan but never on a contract.

Playing Tielemans as a defensive midfielder is a classic case of square peg round hole. It does nothing for the team yet he persists. Diaby, if you ignore his £50m price tag should be no where near starting. I can see what he's trying to do with Rogers but he'd be better off impacting games from the bench rather than expecting miracles from the deep end. Good experience may come with an expensive short term price.

Defensively we look all over the shop yet again he persists in playing our best central defender as a right back. Tonight was yet another opportunity to give the job to KKH, keep it tidy, focus on defending and keep the shape of the team. Maybe the reason we haven't looked half the team we were compared to the first half of the season is we've lost our shape?

Did something happen at Arsenal that made Unai give up on the kids? Easy answer is he doesn't rate our kids but remember this is the coach that introduced the diving, England international Soka, the £40m+ Villa target Smith Rowe, among others. What happened? Has he already targets in those positions so he doesn't want second rate youngsters blocking his targets? I've no idea.

We all loudly agree that Unai has done the most amazing job since arriving, we all love him and are proud to have him as our manager. But when you ask is he is squeezing every last drop out of this group, my gut instinct is to say no. He's boxed himself in. Of course it may be part of some master plan but right now I'm not seeing it. We appear to be threading water rather than heading towards the Promised Land which is a bit of a pisser when we don't even need to tread water, our feet are already touching the sand.

Im not just defending Unai for the sake of it, but there a number of things wrong with this post.

Diaby largely hasnt been starting, including last night.

Tielemans was one of our better players, particularly in the first half.

Ditto Rogers and we looked weaker when he went off.
Irogebunem has been coming off the bench in nearly all games for the last month or so.
The only kid therefore that he could feasibly play is KKH and there is no real evidence that he could step up at this crucial stage of the season.

Mings, Lenglet, Cash, all injured. Again other than the overtly risky tactic of throwing in KKH, what was he supposed to do defensively last night?

[Clampy]

Agree. There's only so much he can do with players out and suspensions. We've got Doug out for the next two league games which is going to create another problem. I think we've done amazingly well so far for our first season back in Europe. All this treading water and Unai boxing himself in is unfair. Some fans want the moon on a stick.

[Sexual Ealing]

Agreee. There's only so much he can do with players out and suspensions. We've got Doug out for the next two league games which is going to create another problem. I think we've done amazingly well so far for our first season back in Europe. All this treading water and Unai boxing himself in is unfair. Some fans want the moon on a stick.

[algy]

Emery's not infallible by any stretch but he's the best manager we've had in my lifetime.

He's looking good, but he's behind Ron, Ron and Brian for me yet. It's hard to compare over a 30-40 year period because the game has changed so much, but winning something has got to mean something. Obviously top 4 and/or the Conference trophy would change things a lot.

I agree with Risso here. It's difficult to compare and the only real way to do it is by trophies won. We win the conference league then he's 2nd only to Tony Barton in my lifetime*, and the best manager I can actually remember


* Saunders resigned 3 months before I was born

[ChicagoLion]

Of course he is not beyond criticism, he is human and I think he has made some mistakes with selections and team set up. But considering where we were when he came in and where we are now the bloke is a genius.

[Clampy]

Of course he is not beyond criticism, he is human and I think he has made some mistakes with selections and team set up. But considering where we were when he came in and where we are now the bloke is a genius.

I am with one or two about the subbing of Rogers for Zaniolo. I kind of get that he wants to ease Rogers in but Zaniolo in that position is not the answer.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Im not just defending Unai for the sake of it, but there a number of things wrong with this post..

You make valid points, Rambo though the jury's still out for me on Tielemans despite him having a decent game last night. I'm seeing all these kids breaking through up and down the league and for what's going to be a second consecutive season we have none. I take it we've cashed in on a few but as I'm sure you recall, we always had at least one player every season breaking through.

Where have all the kids gone? From the wrong angle Unai could be confused with the childsnatcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and all our kids are hiding in a cave somewhere.

[RamboandBruno]

Im not just defending Unai for the sake of it, but there a number of things wrong with this post..

You make valid points, Rambo though the jury's still out for me on Tielemans despite him having a decent game last night. I'm seeing all these kids breaking through up and down the league and for what's going to be a second consecutive season we have none. I take it we've cashed in on a few but as I'm sure you recall, we always had at least one player every season breaking through.

Where have all the kids gone? From the wrong angle Unai could be confused with the childsnatcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and all our kids are hiding in a cave somewhere.

You are right in that. What happened to that lad who was on the bench a few times last season, Young was it? A winger I think?

[ChicagoLion]

The concern  is that he has stuck in a MON way and picking the same players week in week out.
We can only assume that he didn’t rate all of the other options.
Not sure how much more he can get out of this bunch.

[Risso]

I'm guessing we've sold the ones who were most able to step up (Archer, Philogene) to assist with FFP.