Unai Emery

[ChicagoLion]

Blaming Emery is futile, yes he has fucked up in some critical matches , but the recruitment is the problem 3 years of transfer dealing to put us back to where we started.
He now has to find a system and formula to get the most out of a squad consisting of players that don’t fit, players that are regularly unavailable, players that look like they dint want to be here , players that are out of form and some who’s best days are behind them. Then there are a few that are not good enough.
Not long ago we would probably have all come up with virtually the same players when picking our best X1, right now I have no idea what that is and nor does Emery I suspect.

[RamboandBruno]

We were obv open to offers for Watkins, Emi, Rogers and poss even McGinn.

Everton made a bid for the latter, and clubs don't normally go that far unless (a) they ascertain that the player may be available and (b) the player himself is open to the offer.

That's four of our key players who we've effectively confirmed we are not mad to keep on board.
So it's a bit mental to say after Sep 1 -when we haven't moved them on - that actually we love you and you are part of our long term plans. Who would honestly believe that shit.

Under Smith, Gerrard and Emery for the first half of his stint with us, a big part of our recruitment seemed to be based on improving our squad but -crucially- also keeping our better players onside with the quality of incoming arrivals.

You'd imagine we'd want to keep Douglas Luiz, Emi and Kamara onside, and TF deals were done - at least in part -with that in mind.

But when you sell Luiz and try to move on Emi, that's less of a concern.

It's also an issue that the President of Football Operations is an Emery pick. Meaning that any scheming between the higher ups doesn't afford Emery plausible deniability. The four key players we were open to moving on + the players we actually moved on were agreed by Emery. All the playing staff know this.

So he can't play the distant head coach role who just tries to make the best of the squad he's inherited.

I get your premise, but its also based on presumption on who was up for sale. If Rogers was up for sale he’d be gone, snapped up, he’s just badly out of form and has been before last season finished. Watkins, maybe in January but no indication we were prepared to sell our only first team striker. I also don’t buy McGinn was open to a move, Everton were making noises about lots of players.
I think we knew we had to sell two or three and Ramsey was one because of the money we could grt and Bailey was another because of his form for a year, with Martinez being the optional one.
I think there has been some disruption, which needs to settle, thats impacted on performance, which has in turn impacted upon results, which has affected confidence, which has impacted on performance and so on, age old football cycle.
I do think Emery is also trying to tighten up the defence which is unbalancing our attacking intent and he needs to look at this. 

[Ian.]

When Emery first joined his first job was to tighten up our defence and we had a few grumbles back then if I remember correctly.

Listening to his interview he’s obviously fully aware it’s not clicking in our offensive play so that’s surely the next step to address, hence Elliott and Sancho joining the ranks.

[aj2k77]

He's been hamstrung by Monchi.

[ChicagoLion]

He's been hamstrung by Monchi.

Exactly, although I doubt the signings were made without his acquiescence.

[PaulWinch again]

Without wishing up open up this can of worms, but if Monchi is truly the whole problem (I don’t think he is) wasn’t Unai instrumental in bringing him here? Now I’m in the camp of Unai can turn this round - but if he doesn’t and leaves for whatever reason we don’t exactly appear set up well in terms of next steps.

[RamboandBruno]

Without wishing up open up this can of worms, but if Monchi is truly the whole problem (I don’t think he is) wasn’t Unai instrumental in bringing him here? Now I’m in the camp of Unai can turn this round - but if he doesn’t and leaves for whatever reason we don’t exactly appear set up well in terms of next steps.

I agree in the longer term Paul, but I think having these conversations after 5 poor games is premature.

[Monty]

I can't help but feel our attacking might improve if we, you know, did any.

[PaulWinch again]

Without wishing up open up this can of worms, but if Monchi is truly the whole problem (I don’t think he is) wasn’t Unai instrumental in bringing him here? Now I’m in the camp of Unai can turn this round - but if he doesn’t and leaves for whatever reason we don’t exactly appear set up well in terms of next steps.

I agree in the longer term Paul, but I think having these conversations after 5 poor games is premature.

Oh yeah, don’t get me wrong I’m firmly in the camp that this will turn round. If you think about it’s almost impossible to continue to be as bad as we have been going forward. My point is more when people leap to “it’s all down to Monchi” I just find it a bit daft. If things go wrong he’s part of it, but it is one part.

[Ian.]

He's been hamstrung by Monchi.

I’d say we’ve been hamstrung by PSR.

[Clampy]

He's been hamstrung by Monchi.

I’d say we’ve been hamstrung by PSR.

Well yes, but people like to blame somebody.

[PaulWinch again]

PSR has made things difficult, no doubt, but even accounting for that we are way less than the sum of the parts we do have.

[Rico]

I think Unai is on borrowed time sadly. Football is a results business, and we're not getting results. Quite frankly we're stinking the place out, and this goes back to the FA Cup Semi Final and the Man Utd match. I love what Unai has done for us, but his absolute confidence in his system will be his undoing. It's not working, and before long we will be in a relegation fight, if we're not already! Not scoring, and not even remotely looking like scoring for four games should have alarm bells ringing, but we just keep doing the same shit game after game. After all of the money invested by the owners, they can't allow relegation, and this is why his days are numbered. I hope he proved us wrong, but I just don't see it happening. His utter faith in his system will be his undoing.

[andyh]

He's been hamstrung by Monchi.

I’d say we’ve been hamstrung by PSR.

More like SCR now I think but……

SCR/PSR doesn’t tell us to take 10 passes to get to the half way line.
It doesn’t tell us to play at walking pace and consistently let the opposition get back into position and thereby make breaking them down even harder.

Yes, there is no doubt we have been battered by the financial constraints, but we can still attempt to play the game with a little pace, energy, movement, enthusiasm with the players we have.

[Clampy]

I think worrying about relegation after four games is a bit premature really.