Unai Emery

[Rudy Can't Fail]

From the little I've seen of him Sancho looks like a show pony with very little end product. Yesterday was another example where he got the ball in space, Maatsen all set up in space to receive the ball yet Sancho farts about for ages before eventually passing the ball to Maatsen who no longer had the space and opposition players on him.

I'm not writing him off but the signs are there. As Paulie used to refer to Spurs all those years back, 'all fart, no shit' seems to fit Sancho like a glove.

I was there yesterday and to be honest I don’t this is accurate of his performance. He played Mastsen in numerous times and also put in the best delivery of either team all day, for Ollie to massively fluff his lines, it was on a plate for him.
Who knows what he’ll be like in the mid to long term, but yesterday he showed more in 10 or 15 minutes than Rogers has also season.

I'm a hard crowd to please. I hope you're right and he can build a solid and productive partnership with Maatsen. Showing more in 10 15 minutes more than Rogers all season though is a very low bar. Having an attacking option down the left would be a welcomed return especially as Unai introduced the invisible electric fence that stops any of our players crossing the halfway line on the right.

The most positive thing about a Sancho-Maatsen partnership is it would bring us genuine width and hopefully pace so things open up elsewhere. It's why I was so pissed off with Sancho holding the ball for so long. It's not like we haven't tried the patient build up stuff enough to know it rarely works.

[brontebilly]

Why does this "Smith and Gerrard" thing get thrown around here regularly?

Because it's true and is also revealing of our transfer strategy over the last 3-4 years.  Liverpool have won the league and changed half the team.

"9/11 players that effectively got Smith and Gerrard sacked" . Thats complete reactionary shite and ignores three successive seasons of European football achieved since under Emery.

Those same players were utterly mismanaged by that charlatan Gerrard and a sadly out of depth Smith. Sure, some of them might be on the slide now but bringing two previous coaches into the mix is nonsense.

The main reason we are on the slide isn't down to any of these players anyway. It's because as a club we were living way beyond our means chasing CL football. We handed over the keys to Emery who brought in his mates like Monchi who rather than running a tight ship did the exact opposite. Last January, despite "winning the transfer window" , we brought in 5 players, two of which we couldn't even register for CL football. Emery lost Malen then I think.

For all we know (and likely could come out shortly), the club have been trying to shop many of that core group of players around. No wonder they seem pissed off. Emery can hardly play the innocent victim in all this either. He's doing himself no favours with the group with the blatant favouritism he is showing to Rogers either.

[kippaxvilla2]

Maatsen and Sancho should be our left side.

I think it’s probably just a matter of fitness with Sancho, he’s basically in pre-season mode so will need managing from that point of view but if yesterday is anything to goby he clearly has a lot to offer.

It was a barren featureless desert until he came on.

[algy]

Maatsen and Sancho should be our left side.

I think it’s probably just a matter of fitness with Sancho, he’s basically in pre-season mode so will need managing from that point of view but if yesterday is anything to goby he clearly has a lot to offer.

It was a barren featureless desert until he came on.

It's nothing like back in the day when we had John Karoo up front.

[Villan82]

I can't recall a time before where I was prepared to side with the manager in a situation like this. Possibly Little in 97-98.

If players have to be sold in January so be it.

[PaulWinch again]

It’s on all involved to shake off this flatness. I’d be tempted to say whatever the reason, no matter how valid, get over it. This continued malaise is not going to make anyone feel better.

[N'ZMAV]

I'm also with Emery on this - sell the lot of them - they'll never have it any better than this.

Unai ❤️

[Toronto Villa]

I really thought we would never be here again with Unai in charge. Sure, we would have bad oerformances and results. Every team does, even the really good ones. But this isn't that. It's deep rooted, like the fucking days of Lambert, Gerrard. Pricks like those two. I liked TSM2 as a person so I won't say that Mcleish. But how did we get to the point where some of the chief reporters covering Villa are essentially saying that "something is rotten in the state of Denmark".

[Smirker]

I'm also with Emery on this - sell the lot of them - they'll never have it any better than this.

Unai ❤️

Me too.

[AndyB6]

I agree with all of the pro-Emery sentiment. He got these players punching way above their weight. They need to start putting a proper shift in and get over themselves.

[Smirker]

During the 2020/21 season, when Liverpool were the reigning champions, they also went five league games without winning (drew three and lost two) then followed that with two wins, and then six losses from the next 7 games, including five losses in a row at home.

That is a worse run than anything we've had under Unai.

They stuck with Klopp.

I don't even think it's a crisis. I just think it's a bad run. We're way too quick to panic and think the wheels are falling off imo. It's been pretty much non stop progression for three years under Unai. It was never going to be possible to keep that up, especially with the restrictions and financial challenges.

I hope the club and fans stick by Unai because he will sort it. Even if this season is a write off I don't care. Unai goes nowhere!

[Rory]

During the 2020/21 season, when Liverpool were the reigning champions, they also went five league games without winning (drew three and lost two) then followed that with two wins, and then six losses from the next 7 games, including five losses in a row at home.

That is a worse run than anything we've had under Unai.

They stuck with Klopp.

I don't even think it's a crisis. I just think it's a bad run. We're way too quick to panic and think the wheels are falling off imo. It's been pretty much non stop progression for three years under Unai. It was never going to be possible to keep that up, especially with the restrictions and financial challenges.

I hope the club and fans stick by Unai because he will sort it. Even if this season is a write off I don't care. Unai goes nowhere!

I fully agree.

Criticisms are, of course, valid, but he's done enough to deserve our trust.

[jwarry]

Im in the sell, sell, sell camp for January and get some ‘young and hungry’ players in selected by our new DoF

[algy]

During the 2020/21 season, when Liverpool were the reigning champions, they also went five league games without winning (drew three and lost two) then followed that with two wins, and then six losses from the next 7 games, including five losses in a row at home.

That is a worse run than anything we've had under Unai.

They stuck with Klopp.

I don't even think it's a crisis. I just think it's a bad run. We're way too quick to panic and think the wheels are falling off imo. It's been pretty much non stop progression for three years under Unai. It was never going to be possible to keep that up, especially with the restrictions and financial challenges.

I hope the club and fans stick by Unai because he will sort it. Even if this season is a write off I don't care. Unai goes nowhere!

Absolutely, Smirker. It’s a poor run in part caused by a disrupted summer. If it were mid-way through the season nobody would be questioning Emery’s position.

[Paul.S]

I’m backing Emery. He’s come and out and said what he did so he’s obviously seen standards are dropping. I can’t be having players moaning and dropping hints to how bad they’ve got it.
Come January I hope there’s a few players standing by the door waiting for Emery to open it. Time to freshen things up and let Emery work his magic on a few others.