Unai Emery

[jon collett]

That is interesting and mirrors some of my views - at least in as much as the lack of control in midfield is a key issue.

Mine too and I think he's struggled to work out his best side. I think the Onana injury may well do him a favour this weekend and hopefully might lead to a more settled team onwards.

Someone's going to lock you in a room with Percy, Carlos and Konsa before long... 😀

My comment was more about the midfield than defence. I have struggled to see from the start how Onana would fit in with our style of play and I’m optimistic about tomorrow!

[Risso]

What I do know, is that I trust Unai and his team to figure out the required tweaks so that our current style becomes more effective, or to ditch it for something else.  What they won't do is keep doing something indefinitely that isn't working.

The defence hasn't been working for nearly a year now, when are they going to tweak/fix that?

Although that BBC article suggests is perhaps not quite as bad as we imagine, it’s individual errors rather than the way we setup that is the major problem.

 “ They’re making far too many errors leading to shots - nine already, compared with 11 across the whole of last season - but their expected goals against per 90 minutes statistic is actually down, from 1.56 per 90 last season to 1.08 (not including penalties).
That's the fourth best score in the division behind Arsenal, Nottingham Forest and Liverpool.”

We conceded almost two goals a game on average over the second half of last season, and this season it's 17 goals against in 11 games. Combined that's 53 goals in 30 games. You can't explain that away with "individual errors" or "aaah, but xG against says...." Only 5 clean sheets in that time too. Not good enough by a long way, we've been in mid table form for a year now and the defence is the main reason.

[Chris Smith]

What I do know, is that I trust Unai and his team to figure out the required tweaks so that our current style becomes more effective, or to ditch it for something else.  What they won't do is keep doing something indefinitely that isn't working.

The defence hasn't been working for nearly a year now, when are they going to tweak/fix that?

Although that BBC article suggests is perhaps not quite as bad as we imagine, it’s individual errors rather than the way we setup that is the major problem.

 “ They’re making far too many errors leading to shots - nine already, compared with 11 across the whole of last season - but their expected goals against per 90 minutes statistic is actually down, from 1.56 per 90 last season to 1.08 (not including penalties).
That's the fourth best score in the division behind Arsenal, Nottingham Forest and Liverpool.”

We conceded almost two goals a game on average over the second half of last season, and this season it's 17 goals against in 11 games. Combined that's 53 goals in 30 games. You can't explain that away with "individual errors" or "aaah, but xG against says...." Only 5 clean sheets in that time too. Not good enough by a long way, we've been in mid table form for a year now and the defence is the main reason.

Mid table, that’s a bit of a stretch. We’re a point of 3rd at the moment and finished 4th last season. I agree we need to improve but we defend as a team, or rather we should, and midfield players losing the ball in their own half or allowing breakaways from our own corners are not the fault of the back 4.

[dcdavecollett]

I wonder if our indifferent defensive record has anything to do with Ezri playing fullback? (opens popcorn, makes a hot drink, sits on sofa and waits...

[VillaTim]

That article on BBC highlights why we are struggling beautifully.

Its clear duran and watkins cannot play together so this must be dumped and not done again.

v Bournemouth watkins tee'd one up brilliantly for JD , i'm still wondering how he missed that one

[Beard82]

I wonder if our indifferent defensive record has anything to do with Ezri playing fullback? (opens popcorn, makes a hot drink, sits on sofa and waits...

I wonder if anyone knows whether we let in more or fewer goals when he plays there.

[Drummond]

What I do know, is that I trust Unai and his team to figure out the required tweaks so that our current style becomes more effective, or to ditch it for something else.  What they won't do is keep doing something indefinitely that isn't working.

The defence hasn't been working for nearly a year now, when are they going to tweak/fix that?

Although that BBC article suggests is perhaps not quite as bad as we imagine, it’s individual errors rather than the way we setup that is the major problem.

 “ They’re making far too many errors leading to shots - nine already, compared with 11 across the whole of last season - but their expected goals against per 90 minutes statistic is actually down, from 1.56 per 90 last season to 1.08 (not including penalties).
That's the fourth best score in the division behind Arsenal, Nottingham Forest and Liverpool.”

We conceded almost two goals a game on average over the second half of last season, and this season it's 17 goals against in 11 games. Combined that's 53 goals in 30 games. You can't explain that away with "individual errors" or "aaah, but xG against says...." Only 5 clean sheets in that time too. Not good enough by a long way, we've been in mid table form for a year now and the defence is the main reason.

Ah, so what you're saying is that we've improved.

[Toronto Villa]

His press conference today didn’t fill me with much confidence. We need a big game tomorrow and get back on track. A win and some favourable results could see us back as high as 3rd. I don’t see that happening so even top 6 would feel better. A very important run of games coming up.

[eye digress]

I wonder if our indifferent defensive record has anything to do with Ezri playing fullback? (opens popcorn, makes a hot drink, sits on sofa and waits...

I wonder if anyone knows whether we let in more or fewer goals when he plays there.

Or indeed Onana...

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

I wonder if our indifferent defensive record has anything to do with Ezri playing fullback? (opens popcorn, makes a hot drink, sits on sofa and waits...

I wonder if anyone knows whether we let in more or fewer goals when he plays there.

Jesus Christ, don't even joke!!

[Demitri_C]

That article on BBC highlights why we are struggling beautifully.

Its clear duran and watkins cannot play together so this must be dumped and not done again.

v Bournemouth watkins tee'd one up brilliantly for JD , i'm still wondering how he missed that one

One of the rare few occaions they linked up well. Thats one of the man examples of bad finishing costing us.

[eamonn]

We were a win over Sheff Utd from being top last Xmas. No midtable form since spring, Sir!

[Demitri_C]

We were a win over Sheff Utd from being top last Xmas. No midtable form since spring, Sir!

Ergh dont remind me of that game 😔

[Villan82]

Something isn't quite right. Not sure what it is. We look so different from 12 months ago. The whole mood is different.

[garyellis]

Something isn't quite right. Not sure what it is. We look so different from 12 months ago. The whole mood is different.

Well for starters we had a midfield pairing as good as any in the league 12 months ago. That takes some replacing with what we had to do and could not do in the summer.