Unai Emery

[PeterWithesShin]

Which has nothing to do with this season.

[London Villan]

We're approaching 3 years of Unai being here, yesterday 9 of the starting 11 were here before him.

And we looked like a Gerrard team.

[Ian.]

So maybe it’s signings not bedding in as quickly as hoped, having to sell certain players, loss of form, player unrest, Emery losing his magic touch, not being able to be in the market for players in the calibre we require to make the next step up. So ultimately a whole combination of reasons why we are struggling.

[Mister E]

It's the approach to games which is killing us: lack of intensity, exploration of pace, speed of transition, etc.
I wonder whether UE is pursuing a strategy that is no longer valid, given teams are pressing so much more effectively these days.
Sorry if I'm stating the bleedin' obvious or repeating comments made earlier.

[ChicagoLion]

So maybe it’s signings not bedding in as quickly as hoped, having to sell certain players, loss of form, player unrest, Emery losing his magic touch, not being able to be in the market for players in the calibre we require to make the next step up. So ultimately a whole combination of reasons why we are struggling.

wasting money on players that are either not good enough or injured most of the time.

[Chris Harte]

No goals in our opening four games for the first time in our history, but I don't get a sense of panic.

If it went to, say, eight games then let's see. Not that I expect it to do so.

I think we just need to get behind the manager and his team, the ones on the pitch and off it. When Unai came in we were starring at the trap door. He's since taken us to the last eight of the Champions League. He's the best manager we've had at this club in at least thirty years, almost certainly longer.

[Monty]

If a manager goes 8 games without his team scoring (9 incuding the end of last season) then even Ferguson would be hardpressed to complain about having his employment situation looked at.

[PaulWinch again]

Its not as simple as this, but whilst Mings and Digne are clearly more solid, better defensively minded defenders, I honestly think we have to get Pau and Mastsen in the side now, in terms of moving the ball up the pitch quicker. This would be helped if we can get Kamara back in alongside Tielemans, with McGinn a bit ahead. Whilst I know people have palpitations about Pau and he’s been off form, we simply can’t create any less or move the ball from back to front any slower.

I think there is something in that. I said yesterday that Pau not starting I think is a really big indicator of uncertainty/fear from Unai. I’m not getting into the Ty vs Pau debate, because it’s tired. But whatever anyone thinks Pau has always been Unai’s guy, because of what he can do on the ball. I think it’s clear Unai is in a negative mindset right now and that is clearly manifesting on the pitch.

[Chris Harte]

If a manager goes 8 games without his team scoring (9 incuding the end of last season) then even Ferguson would be hardpressed to complain about having his employment situation looked at.

Very true. I just don't see it coming to that.

[SamTheMouse]

We're approaching 3 years of Unai being here, yesterday 9 of the starting 11 were here before him.

I suppose you could look at it as evidence that Lange did a far better job than he was given credit for.

[Toronto Villa]

We're approaching 3 years of Unai being here, yesterday 9 of the starting 11 were here before him.

That’s a problem. By now we should have a couple more of those starting players transitioned out. Cash and McGinn probably two of them but kept as squad players. Up for argument. Either way, if anyone is going to criticize Monchi for the recruitment it’s fine, but we all know he brings the players to Emery and they decide as group who to pursue. It’s a collective effort where I’m sure Emery holds a strong say in who he wants. Clearly we could have done better with the players who are now at the club. But in a number of instances, PSR/SCR rules have also forced us to sell players we probably didn’t want to, buy players we didn’t want to but because we had to (Dobbins or Tim as an example) or bought only with an eye to selling on or long term developing. And as this summer not qualifying for the CL made the whole thing a lot worse. That’s not on Monchi. Refereeing disaster aside, had we shown up at Man U and won the game vs playing so pathetically it would have looked so much different.

[algy]

Unai has consistently got more than you’d expect from the players he’s had at his disposal. It now feels like he’s hit a brick wall with that.

Have the players stopped believing? Are they bored with all the analysis? Has Unai concentrated so much on tightening the defence that he’s completely blunted our attack? Has he stopped believing himself?

I hope it’s just a bad run and it’ll all click again, but it doesn’t have a good feeling about it.

I’m nowhere near wanting him to leave, nor do I think he’s on “borrowed time”. I have had my first real thoughts about what happens after him though, and I’m not seeing how it ends well.

I’m inclined to believe that concentrating on the defence at the moment is just a byproduct of the disruption over the summer (causing a bit of a disconnect with the players), and so something that just needs to be fixed and he’s sorting that out first. No problem there.

My worry is that we have a tough run from mid October to the middle of November, and we really need to be hitting our stride before then, otherwise it’ll look grim going in to Christmas.

[algy]

We're approaching 3 years of Unai being here, yesterday 9 of the starting 11 were here before him.

That’s a problem. By now we should have a couple more of those starting players transitioned out. Cash and McGinn probably two of them but kept as squad players. Up for argument. Either way, if anyone is going to criticize Monchi for the recruitment it’s fine, but we all know he brings the players to Emery and they decide as group who to pursue. It’s a collective effort where I’m sure Emery holds a strong say in who he wants. Clearly we could have done better with the players who are now at the club. But in a number of instances, PSR/SCR rules have also forced us to sell players we probably didn’t want to, buy players we didn’t want to but because we had to (Dobbins or Tim as an example) or bought only with an eye to selling on or long term developing. And as this summer not qualifying for the CL made the whole thing a lot worse. That’s not on Monchi. Refereeing disaster aside, had we shown up at Man U and won the game vs playing so pathetically it would have looked so much different.

It’s going to be progressively harder to buy replacements that are genuine upgrades the further up the table you get. Cos you’re probably looking at randomly stumbling on one of the best 10-15 players in the world in their position (given the general dominance of the Premier League) *and* them settling in. I think that part is underestimated.

That’s been exacerbated by the PSR/SCR requirements which mean we can’t just spend large amounts of cash to bring in those players - we have to do it to a budget.

[ChicagoLion]

Pretty sure £100+ million to sb spent by a CL team should get you more than the contributions of Onana Maatsen and Malen.

[Toronto Villa]

Anyone know who this bell end is? Comparing us to Lambert’s Villa. Fuck me. We’ve just come off a CL campaign. Not circling the drain to relegation year after year.

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