Unai Emery

[pauliewalnuts]

I would rather stick by the the manager than (some of) the players.

I suspect we'll finish mid-table, and at the end of the season have a massive clear out. Too many of this lot are not up to it, or on their last legs (or will be, come May).

However, two things worry me. One is that, if you look at the players he usually starts, the majority of them are players who were here before he was. That does not give me confidence we'd sign players of the next level quality following any clear out, Monchi's hit-rate is so fucking poor. The other is, Unai will have been here a fair while by then, and is he going to be up to the challenge of totally rebuilding, and doing so under strict financial controls?

[Mister E]

The players were very much a part of it but combine the no show and blown opportunities at Wembley and Old Trafford and then the mess that was the summer, it’s knocked the stuffing out of our belief and confidence. We need to fucking get past it. Yeh sure, players heads got turned, every agent and rival club knew we needed to raise funds and so fucked with us. And the Emi stuff at the end to cap it all off. But despite all of that we still have a very talented players playing miles below their ability. And a manager who can’t figure out why and that’s concerning too.

A brief analysis of the way other teams are playing would lead the manager to the point that we lack intensity, we're not making the pitch wide enough and there's a lack of movement. We could do with some pace and physicality. We're not seeing a reaction to these glaring issues

[ChicagoLion]

The problem with the team being made up of those that were already here is that they are all 3 years older and not as good as they were then.  As paulie says, we are hamstrung by the shit business done by Monchi.

[Toronto Villa]

I think Emery is suffering from being very underprepared because of how the summer went. Ideally we bring in new players early in the window so they can settle in. We then have time to sell players to balance out the squad. This summer was chaos from that perspective. So not know what players we have and wanted to be at the club cannot have been easy for a manager who demands structure. Emery isn’t going anywhere so we can only hope this very shit start will calm down and eventually improve. The question is will too much damage have been done by then? We are out of one cup, we have a Europa League challenge starting soon and we are already off the pace for a top 6 spot. It’s all recoverable but the longer this goes the harder the climb back will be.

[KevinGage]

Who is the manager's choice, let's not forget.

The tail wagging the dog.

[ez]

Stubbornness can be a blessing or a curse.

Unai’s refusal to change tactically might be his undoing. We keep doing the same thing, and it ain’t working.

It's strange because when he arrived he was changing things around mid game if it wasn’t working. Now he plays it one way and one way only.

[Crown Hill]

Strange quote:

Unai Emery: "Some players need to adapt, for example Harvey Elliott was getting the ball and passing behind the defence without options. He needs to understand that he has the skills to play more passes and then do the [final] pass with options."


Obviously Liverpool don’t play it sideways and backwards for eternity.

[tomd2103]

Strange quote:

Unai Emery: "Some players need to adapt, for example Harvey Elliott was getting the ball and passing behind the defence without options. He needs to understand that he has the skills to play more passes and then do the [final] pass with options."


Obviously Liverpool don’t play it sideways and backwards for eternity.

Maybe they should try it.  Might win something then.  Oh, hang on .....

[Sexual Ealing]

The thing I don't get is that there seems to be a consensus that players get burnout with his methods after a while. If that's true, he must know it's true, he's really smart. So if he knows that, why the fuck is our team so Johan Lange-shaped?!

Is this his achilles heel, that he doesn't know when or how to refresh?

[jwarry]

The thing I don't get is that there seems to be a consensus that players get burnout with his methods after a while. If that's true, he must know it's true, he's really smart. So if he knows that, why the fuck is our team so Johan Lange-shaped?!

Is this his achilles heel, that he doesn't know when or how to refresh?

No his Achilles heel is he hasn’t been allowed to refresh

[Sexual Ealing]

The same at his other clubs?

[LukeJames]

Strange quote:

Unai Emery: "Some players need to adapt, for example Harvey Elliott was getting the ball and passing behind the defence without options. He needs to understand that he has the skills to play more passes and then do the [final] pass with options."


Obviously Liverpool don’t play it sideways and backwards for eternity.

We'll soon coach that forward thinking out of him.

[PaulWinch again]

Indeed - you’re missing the point Unai, why aren’t there options there? That is entirely our problem.

[ChicagoLion]

The thing I don't get is that there seems to be a consensus that players get burnout with his methods after a while. If that's true, he must know it's true, he's really smart. So if he knows that, why the fuck is our team so Johan Lange-shaped?!

Is this his achilles heel, that he doesn't know when or how to refresh?

No his Achilles heel is he hasn’t been allowed to refresh

And Monchi blowing the transfer budget.

[Mister E]

The thing I don't get is that there seems to be a consensus that players get burnout with his methods after a while. If that's true, he must know it's true, he's really smart. So if he knows that, why the fuck is our team so Johan Lange-shaped?!

Is this his achilles heel, that he doesn't know when or how to refresh?

Very good point.