Unai Emery

[andyh]

Because 'tippy tappy' is a cliché, and so spares the kind of angry bloke who regards anything less than Bobby Gould's Wimbledon as at best needlessly effeminate the migraine-inducing burden of thinking for themselves.

What an absolute load of utter bollocks.
I would expect better of someone like you who posts sense most of the time, to not resort to being insulting, others maybe not so much.


‘Tippy tappy’ refers to backward, sideways, slow and pedestrian football.
I fully comprehend the idea and plan for the way we play. I fully understand that we enjoy a possession style of football, try and get the opposition out of position and expose the gaps at take advantage.

The problem is, so does everyone one else.

Our slow build up allows the opponent to reset, get everyone back into position and make it doubly hard to break them down.
I have lost count of the amount of times we have broken out at pace to the halfway line, wth the opposition out of position and we have STILL checked back, held the ball and played backwards, invariably it’s Cash to the nearest CH.

What is the point of possession based football if you don’t do anything with it.
That approach has served us well for a few years, but the game has changed in that time. The best teams don’t try play like Man City in their pomp anymore.

They are slowly evolving and changing their style. Maybe, just maybe, the reason Man City have a poor year also, is because ‘tippy tappy’ isn’t effective for them either anymore.

The best team in the country, generally plays with pace, movement and flowing football.

But if you think Liverpool and Arsenal and Forest and Brighton and Palace and many others play like Bobby Goulds Wimbledon, maybe you are the one who is out of touch.

Unai will get it right, I’m sure he will.
My original point that hiding behind PSR is the easy way out.

Blaming external factors (however ridiculous they are) is the easy thing to do.
Like blaming the Man U ref for us not qualifying for the CL.

Sometimes you have to look at yourselves first before blaming others.

[Mister E]

We don't play "tippy tappy" football. We hold a shape and play patiently for channels to appear so we can pass through them and then the tempo/directness increases as we punch through the gap. This happened 3 times in particular on the weekend and Rogers bungled every attempt. It happened when Buendia nearly scored from a deflected shot too.

We have played, broadly, the tactic of a patient crocodile for the past 3 years; attacking the half space. This is why we have signed the profile of player we have. Rogers, who can run into that space (rather than pass through it) and he really needs to be higher up the pitch. Torres, who has good passing through the lines (see Bayern Munich), Tielemans who can find space to pass in a phone box. Onana, who is meant to be a crash ball style hit the box type with his athleticism and size (the lack of this in Luiz is why he was picked to leave). Maatsen who has tremendous pace and running from full back, as displayed en route to the European Cup final, to replace Moreno who did a similar job. Elliot is an archetype; industrious pressing, can play in the spaces or maybe (probably hopefully) at 10.

We also sometimes and often go long from Martinez.

It has not happened so far this season, because we can blame SCR given the significant constraints and disruption that has clearly been felt. Confidence isn't there, which impairs execution. We have injuries, as usual, by the bucket load. We are also not getting close enough to Watkins and we're not using the ball well when we find that space.

We do not play "tippy tappy football" and it baffles me the conclusions people come to from what they must have been watching for years.

The fact that you have diagnosed so succinctly the way we play might also explain why teams seem so capable at closing us out. When we get it right, we do so at pace and precision, with incisive movement (it's the only way to break the low block and massed defences we're facing) - and these factors have been absent from our play thus far.

[Monty]

Pretty insulting to say I post 'sense', but anyway:

 - you can mean that when you say 'tippy-tappy' if you like, that's not what most people mean (most people instead are expressing anger with a cerrtain 'bald fraud')

 - the thing you're talking about is also called the 'walking football', probably a better critical label

 - as Ads points out, however, it's not accurate, as we actually have a gameplan that depends a lot on physicality

 - it's possible to imagine tweaks, such as returning to the higher line, which would make a big difference

 - Brighton and Arsenal do plenty of tipping, tapping, and walking, they just also play with different wrinkles and details that perhaps we could learn from (or perhaps not, perhaps we need other things)

 - again, your reasonable self might mean something else, but generally you hear it meant something massively less interesting

[brontebilly]

Bronte your confusing Rogers being powerful and that implying a lack of finesse. He does some brilliant technical stuff on the ball, he’s not just a powerful runner.

No, absolutely Rogers does have the technical ability. Wasn't trying to imply he doesn't. It's more the tactical shift really, Rogers is a lot more powerful than Diaby who I guess he replaced in the team somewhat. But we have lost something with Diaby/Bailey gone too.

[Drummond]

Ads has summed it up rather well.

And andyh, I'm not blaming others. PSR has restricted us, but we also know the rules and they are the same for everyone, it's just that PSR and SCR in their current formats stop the likes of us from improving in the way we'd like.

We can't afford the sort of players that will improve our squad in the way we want.

We're also now playing with new signings that aren't yet fit, and with our solid midfielders out. It's tough.

[Somniloquism]

[Monty]

Always liked Clery, and I think he's got that spot-on. We have to find a new way of getting into our attacking phase, because the build-up has been a) sussed, and b) hobbled by Torres' collapse.

[Ads]

Aggressive pressing is a solution because you cannot block out channels in a part of the pitch the game isn't being played in. Equally I felt we had that spell of pressure second half when Digne was getting his highest. The example used in the video shows why Buendia isn't the answer, despite his work rate and why Cash infuriates.

Having Konsa at right back and pushing him into midfield from deep positions would be a solution; we'll find that longer pass and force you to disconnect your midfield to account for it. Having Torres in there is vital too. Alternatively you push Maatsen into a wide position and move Sancho centrally to try and pick up a midfielders attention. You can't ignore the overload. Lots of small tweaks we can and I am sure will do.

Where we did struggle is Bogarde not having the ability to move the ball around the corner while facing his own goal. Not a criticism, just not his skill set.

[Rigadon]

Always liked Clery, and I think he's got that spot-on. We have to find a new way of getting into our attacking phase, because the build-up has been a) sussed, and b) hobbled by Torres' collapse.

c) when we do break the lines we are fouled which stops the attacking move (and is hardly ever yellow carded)
d) Morgan Rogers form

[London Villan]

He misses the other point though... when teams have done this before - ie let our centre halves have the ball, we have been able to go long to Bailey, Diaby, Rashford, Duran - with Torres picking long passes. This bypasses the press, which in turn means the opposition have to start closing the defenders down again, which creates space for the midfielders to play and turn...

[paul_e]

Yep, he's mostly right  but the problem of teams backing off the press is exactly why we need Torres back in and the width issue is why we need to get Guessand, Malen and/or Sancho in the team and playing for a run of games to find their feet, and why I want Maatsen to start a few games.

It feels right now like Emery has spent the summer trying to work on reducing the amount of goals we concede (and aside from Palace it's clearly helped) but in doing so it has removed too much of the attacking dynamism we are built around.

The biggest issue for me is McGinn out wide. He's fine there if we're pushing the fullbacks right up into the forward line but if we're not doing that it makes us narrow because he just doesn't want to stay out wide. Buendia/Rogers on the other side also want to come inside but they're at least willing to pretend to be wide players at times, McGinn just plays as a central midfielder and rarely even tries to occupy space, let alone work down the wing. I'm not singling him out because I have an issue with him, he's just not capable of doing the job we need on that side. On the left in front of Maatsen he'd be ok as an option and he's fine in centre mid or at 10 but we need one of the wingers to step up and make themselves a guaranteed starter on that side.

For what it's worth I thought Guessand did enough of the dirty work on Saturday to give himself a chance of forcing his way in and hopefully getting a few games in a row will give him the confidence to start playing more of his natural game.

[Tony Daleys Shorts]

Lot's of really good tactical analysis here, a lot more detailed and insightful than you would ever read in the main stream media.

I think we'll find out in the coming months if Unai is a very good manager whose peak years with us are in the rear view mirror, or he's an elite manager who will find a through the current tactical malaise and still have us in and around the top 6 at the end of the season.

Let's hope it's the latter.

[Ads]

He might miss things though, but it is a good watch and I think he really does highlight what the issue is with the towel image.

Cash much too deep, McGinn and Buendia too central, Rogers too detached from Ollie. It has to be inch perfect passing and it wasn't, so we waste the chance.

[paul_e]

Lot's of really good tactical analysis here, a lot more detailed and insightful than you would ever read in the main stream media.

I think we'll find out in the coming months if Unai is a very good manager whose peak years with us are in the rear view mirror, or he's an elite manager who will find a through the current tactical malaise and still have us in and around the top 6 at the end of the season.

Let's hope it's the latter.

I think it will be, this is just a combination of us losing all the players who were used to providing width in our system and Emery trying to strengthen the defence. Guessand and Sancho are the players we need to see come in and make a difference but both were signed pretty late in the window and Emery doesn't like throwing new players in.

[Dante Lavelli]

Bronte your confusing Rogers being powerful and that implying a lack of finesse. He does some brilliant technical stuff on the ball, he’s not just a powerful runner.

Not questioning Rogers' power but I wonder whether he needs to increase his stamina with the objective of him having more touches of the ball, ie more mobile.  Its a weird trade off as his power is undoubtedly impressive, but more touches may mean the whole team plays 10m higher up the pitch.