Unai Emery

[ChicagoLion]

He I’ll be here next season, after that who knows?

[Somniloquism]

Yeah Bournemeouth was the case in point, we went from looking rock solid to shaky as soon as Mings come off and very nearly conceded from pretty much the same deep cross we did on Sunday, and that's the kind of ball that's never a threat with Mings playing.

Didn't we concede from the exact same ball against Newcastle at home with Mings playing?

Yeah, we did, after Mings had headed the first ball in away. But we also won 4-1 in our best performance of the season and they didn't get a sniff outside of that, that game in particular underlines the argument.

I thought your argument was we don't concede the first goal with Mings because those balls are never a threat with him playing. (Performance was not also solely down to Mings either but that we were playing at home so attacked them fast and moved with pace rather then sitting back and trying to play through them, but Mings definitely helped the defence out).

And everyone seems to forget that for 10 mins under Torres, Bournemouth was as much as a threat as they had been for 70 under Mings, THEN we went down to 10 men. Granted Mings being on the field might have meant we didn't panic as much, but that part is always missed.

Don't get me wrong, I would prefer Mings playing, just don't like seeing forgotten parts used to rubbish another one of our players.

[andyh]

I am convinced that Sunday was down to the midfield being less than useless.

We gave them 5 yards of space and time without closing or pressing or putting them under any pressure whatsoever.
And when we did get the ball, it was often gifted back far too easily.

Collectively, Onana, Kamara, McGinn and Rogers let us down badly.

[ChicagoLion]

I don’t rate Torres defensively and I do not think his better passing ability makes up for his defensive frailty.
There are games, mainly at home when Torres is the better option because we spend less time defending.

[ChicagoLion]

I am convinced that Sunday was down to the midfield being less than useless.

We gave them 5 yards of space and time without closing or pressing or putting them under any pressure whatsoever.
And when we did get the ball, it was often gifted back far too easily.

Collectively, Onana, Kamara, McGinn and Rogers let us down badly.

They pushed on to both our fullbacks and neither could cope, it meant SJM spent the first half covering for Maatsen and Rogers left Cash exposed and then Cash had his moment.
Under these circumstances Onana and Kamara will get over run.

[stevo_st]

I think Torres was brought in to give us the option to play 3 at the back. Unai struggled getting the team as a whole to adapt / evolve to an alternative system, with Torres being shoe horned a bit to suit the system.

[Dave]

I don’t rate Torres defensively and I do not think his better passing ability makes up for his defensive frailty.
There are games, mainly at home when Torres is the better option because we spend less time defending.

I'm pretty sure that people weren't going into Sunday afternoon against a team without a league win in two and a half months expecting us to spent most of the game pushed back into our own box either.

[ChicagoLion]

I don’t rate Torres defensively and I do not think his better passing ability makes up for his defensive frailty.
There are games, mainly at home when Torres is the better option because we spend less time defending.

I'm pretty sure that people weren't going into Sunday afternoon against a team without a league win in two and a half months expecting us to spent most of the game pushed back into our own box either.

I agree, I certainly didn’t.
I don’t think Emery did either.
Sadly he didn’t react when that became the situation.

[Dave]

I think Torres was brought in to give us the option to play 3 at the back. Unai struggled getting the team as a whole to adapt / evolve to an alternative system, with Torres being shoe horned a bit to suit the system.

Emery's never played three at the back has he?

He sometimes does his defensive right-back thing now and again, but he didn't really do anything else with Pau at Villarreal than what he does with us.

[VillaTim]

Think it needs a lot of reflection over the summer from Emery , some key fundamentals gone wrong in the big games with team selection / tactics and too many late goals conceded this season which have been very costly .

[Monty]

Think it needs a lot of reflection over the summer from Emery , some key fundamentals gone wrong in the big games with team selection / tactics and too many late goals conceded this season which have been very costly .

Yes, I wonder if Unai Emery will squeeze in the time to think about football.

[Drummond]

He has said himself that he's made mistakes. That's good because he recognises it, and knowing him. As we do he'll be desperate to put it right.

Every team loses, every manager gets tactics wrong, every player has poor performances.

Overall we're improving, and, hopefully, we'll start next season with a full squad. For the last two we've been severely disrupted losing Mings, Buendia, Kamara, Torres, etc.

[john2710]

In fairness to Emery, he changed his system for the away game at Palace & we still got overrun. I think it's about the tempo we play at & if teams press us to play quickly that we struggle. We can't get out & simply invite pressure & errors.

[VillaTim]

3 games Mings had to start he didn't for me and it cost us our season. We need Emery to get over his Torres love affair, and quickly.

He needs to be ruthless like he was with Moreno and realise it isn't working . Every great team is built on a rock solid defence / foundation .

[brontebilly]

Pinning the Man Utd debacle on Torres is a bit fucking demented honestly. As I said in the postmatch thread, if he rather than Cash had played that backpass there'd be nothing left of this forum but a smoking post-nuclear wasteland.

Sure he made arguably a worse error than Cash, caught in possession at start of second half near our goal. Should have been a tap in but we somehow managed to scramble it clear. Maatsen then completed the trifecta of crazy defensive errors with his header back towards Olsen. That's 4 of our back 5 including Martinez who made unbelievable mistakes on the day. They all seemed a bit jittery from the first minute - another reason Mings should have started! He settles the unit.