Unai Emery

[colin69]

Our performances are so up and down it’s ridiculous.
Yes we’ve come along way in 3 years and we could go on and win a trophy this year, but I doubt it.
Emery has far too much control over this football club and he’s really not cutting it in the league with the players we have.

[Ian.]

Don’t you think playing with a very small squad mainly with players we’ve now had since Smith and Gerrard and performing well in the Champions League is probably the reason our league form is erratic?

[Steve67]

Consistantly inconsistant and it must be driving him mad. 

[Smirker]

Don’t you think playing with a very small squad mainly with players we’ve now had since Smith and Gerrard and performing well in the Champions League is probably the reason our league form is erratic?

Not really tbh. We were fine in the Conference League last season.

He's bought quite a few players now so if he's still using the same players Smith did that's on him.

Not saying they aren't good enough but if that's the problem he could have fixed it by now.

[SoccerHQ]

Don’t you think playing with a very small squad mainly with players we’ve now had since Smith and Gerrard and performing well in the Champions League is probably the reason our league form is erratic?

The issue with that is we didn't really rotate much in the first third of the season when most of them were fit.

We've eliminated the problem of Unai not really wanting to start Duran and being forced to eventually.

Could argue Barkley should've started much more in early part of the season and I'd say Maatsen aswell when we were winning just to make him feel part of things more. Now he's playing lacking confidence in a team lacking confidence.

We've had a hangover from CL games all season and really haven't rotated much either side of those games. Now we will have to simply due to the investment we've made in loan signings and Asensio and Rashford can't be on the bench much longer.

[Ian.]

We wasn’t fine though, it all caught up with us around February onwards and our form dipped.

Rogers, Torres and Tilemans have been excellent signings, losing Duran, Diaby and Dougie have been big blows and we’ve been working under very tight restrictions financially. It seems that’s being corrected slowly but also forcing our hand, like losing said players, so I’m not sure how you can throw the recruiting strategy at Emery.

[ChicagoLion]

Don’t you think playing with a very small squad mainly with players we’ve now had since Smith and Gerrard and performing well in the Champions League is probably the reason our league form is erratic?

Not really tbh. We were fine in the Conference League last season.

He's bought quite a few players now so if he's still using the same players Smith did that's on him.

Not saying they aren't good enough but if that's the problem he could have fixed it by now.

The 2 big summer signings Onana and Maatsen have been a let down.

[eamonn]

It's not a small squad, we have two senior players for every position (García coming in cold from Levante to cover for Cash possibly the exception). Whether the quality is strong enough throughout the 22 senior players is most important part.

If we can't trust Onana or Barkley to stay fit, the centre of the pitch is somewhere we might have to revisit in the summer.

[Demitri_C]

Anyone see unais post match interview. He looked furious at some of this stupid questions being asked the one about players not following instructions  really cheesed him off.

Unai too smart you fool, trying to start trouble

[Olneythelonely]

Is it my imagination or does he tend to struggle against 10 men?

Our slow methodical play against 11 men is used to pull players out of position and create space, but against 10 men completely defensively minded, this is unlikely to work. We turned it into a bit more of a chaotic approach, with Rashford and Asensio on the pitch and nearly snatched a goal, but he doesn’t seem to be particularly good at in-match tactical switches.

[danno]

It's not a small squad, we have two senior players for every position (García coming in cold from Levante to cover for Cash possibly the exception). Whether the quality is strong enough throughout the 22 senior players is most important part.

If we can't trust Onana or Barkley to stay fit, the centre of the pitch is somewhere we might have to revisit in the summer.

I hope we do revisit it. Kamara is undoubtedly first choice but who partners him is up for debate.  I don’t think McGinn Tielemans Barkley or Onana are the answer.

Unless of course there is a lot more to come from Onana.

I would like to see Kamara paired with McGinn for a few games. To see if it could work. But we do need to be looking for a younger profile of player. Tielemans Barkley McGinn are all the wrong side of 28 now.

[aj2k77]

His biggest downfall so far has been his inability as of yet to sure up a desperately leaky defence. Part of that can be put down to us not being able to build partnerships back there due to injuries but the problem has been ongoing for quite some time now and part of the blame lies on his shoulders.

Until we stop conceding every single game we aren't going to get more consistent. We've been pretty average in most games this season. Hence why were midtable.

[PaulWinch again]

I keep saying it, the individuals in the defence are obviously part of our defensive problems but it is a systemic issue more than it being down to individuals. We are not good as a side defensively, we regularly leave big gaps to allow opposition to run at the defence, we quite regularly fail to track runners. When we played the high line in a very regimented way the team seem to understand their responsibilities more than they do now. We’re quite incoherent as a team at times, and it hinders our attack too.

[Proposition Joe]

I am guessing in terms of percentage stats for which players of ours have had possession of the ball the longest, our centre backs would be miles aheads of anyone else. Ah, the glorious sight when there's 5mins to go, we need a goal and a CB walks with the ball, checks, walks a bit more, fakes a pass, checks, walks, checks and then just plays the pass that they just faked, only now said recipient is marked. Or they square it and the other CB does the same.

[PaulWinch again]

And that’s the point in a way, in terms of coherence - we regularly play in the manner of a side defending a two goal lead going into the final minutes of a game. When in fact we need to be finding a goal or two. We’re just muddled.