Unai Emery

[purpletrousers]

Seeing it, saying it and actually doing it so so quickly are such different things. This man does this rare thing and walks the talk, or maybe just walks the walk.

As much as we were under-performing (and no doubt he saw that and felt confident he could shift up some gears, well, maybe even start the engine) did we really think so many of the same players could take us so far?

SJM is perhaps the symbol of all this, as had been stated enough times. He was so so poor, I was sadly falling out of love with a favourite.

I don’t think the praise can be overdone.
As a child I saw Ron’s last team a lot.
As an adult I’ve never had it so good.

Waiting for the next chapters…

I’ve not watched the football documentaries that are popular save some of the Sunderland one, but surely it’d make fascinating viewing to see him in full flow…

[KevinGage]

As much as we were under-performing (and no doubt he saw that and felt confident he could shift up some gears, well, maybe even start the engine) did we really think so many of the same players could take us so far?

SJM is perhaps the symbol of all this, as had been stated enough times. He was so so poor, I was sadly falling out of love with a favourite.

True. Of the many fuckwitted decisions under Geebag, having McGinn play as an auxillary fullback was way up there.

Even though Emery dropped him from his first squad, he apparently told SJM straight off the bat that from what he'd seen he could play many positions - even up top. But he wanted him in attacking midfield.

He does his best work in the final third. That's as true now as when he joined. His combative nature means we defend from the front.

[olaftab]

Well, Unai you said you wanted to win trophies with the Villa and now in your third season you have once again given up meekly on another chance.

[SaddVillan]

Zorionak Unai

[Tuscans]

[eamonn]

Happy Birthday Unai. No scruffy fivers in birthday card envelopes required, all he wants is three points today.

[olaftab]

A fully rested team has let him down or he got it massively wrong. Either way an awful day.

[PaulWinch again]

Bit of both. Some of the mistakes were just awful, but Unai got it wrong in the second half and it allowed Spurs to exploit the defensive mistakes we constantly make.

[Paul.S]

There isn’t a coach that can do anything about the mistakes we continually make at the back.
Perhaps having Mings back and competing for a place will wake some up. Now Kamara is back maybe playing him with Onana protecting the defence wouldn’t be a bad idea either.

[BC Villain]

Bit of both. Some of the mistakes were just awful, but Unai got it wrong in the second half and it allowed Spurs to exploit the defensive mistakes we constantly make.

He was rabbit in the headlights in the second half.  He needed to get a result today justify disregarding the league cup (yet again) and he didn’t deliver.

He's been brilliant, but he shouldn't be immune to criticism when he drops a clanger.

[PaulWinch again]

As pointed out on another thread he didn’t “disregard” the League Cup for this specific game.

[Monty]

In his post-match game he basically said that the plan was to keep things tight, control them off the ball, work on transitions. I mean, fine, but I think he really needs to find a new way of coping with these teams, because this stand-off-and-break 2.0 just isn't working. We need to keep the ball better, have a better plan to beat their press and expose their line as other teams manage to do, expose their gaps and impose, to coin a phrase, our idea.

[eamonn]

Wonder if he bothered with a birthday cake this evening.

[Beard82]

In his post-match game he basically said that the plan was to keep things tight, control them off the ball, work on transitions. I mean, fine, but I think he really needs to find a new way of coping with these teams, because this stand-off-and-break 2.0 just isn't working. We need to keep the ball better, have a better plan to beat their press and expose their line as other teams manage to do, expose their gaps and impose, to coin a phrase, our idea.

We just dont break very well with Bailey off form - we seem to go direct but more often than not its straight back at us

[SoccerHQ]

A fully rested team has let him down or he got it massively wrong. Either way an awful day.

Just one of those days where he got a few calls wrong.

Given Kamara has played 100 + minutes in last two games I'm not sure why we didn't put him on in the 70th minute when it was still 1-1. The warning signs were there that the midfield was struggling at that point.

Maatsen has hardly played in the prem so far, unused sub given how the game went today is also a complete headscratcher to me.

Also think with the Romero injury he was a little too impulsive with going for Duran upfront. Him and Ollie just dosen't work. It has to be either/or as it was for the first six games this season.

That and failing to strengthen the right hand side over the summer is starting to hurt us with Bailey massively off it. Last season we could've just stuck Diaby there for instance.