Unai Emery

[SaddVillan]

In amongst all the xG, gials scored from insude/outside the box, surely, the perfect season would be:

P 38
W 38
D 0
L 0
F 38
A 0
Pts 114

[andyh]

Just watched his pre Brighton press conference.
I just love Unai Emery ❤️

[mrfuse]

It’s a bit more nuanced than that though - at least from my perspective - we’ve clearly tightened up which is very welcome and hopefully sustainable. But as a result we’re not as relentless in attack. Now at the moment it’s ok because we’re balancing it out with loads of goals outside the box - they look brilliant and are really welcome, but clearly the odds are we’re not going to keep scoring that volume of long range goals. So to sustain our attacking output, we need to start producing and finishing more chances in the box. That’s all it is.

Why can’t we keep scoring goals like that? We’ve got the quality and the players to do it. If the opposition tries to press us higher and close us down quickly, it just creates more space and more options for us. We don’t play a relentless style, and missing chances isn’t the real issue—as long as we’re creating them, we’re fine. The real problem comes when the chances dry up, not when we’re still getting opportunities but failing to convert. I trust Emery to make adjustments when needed, but he clearly believes in the players’ ability to score from distance, and so do I.

We shouldn’t be worrying about what happens if that approach stops working. Instead, we should be thinking positively about how we can keep creating more long-range opportunities when teams choose to sit deep against us.

[olaftab]

It’s a bit more nuanced than that though - at least from my perspective - we’ve clearly tightened up which is very welcome and hopefully sustainable. But as a result we’re not as relentless in attack. Now at the moment it’s ok because we’re balancing it out with loads of goals outside the box - they look brilliant and are really welcome, but clearly the odds are we’re not going to keep scoring that volume of long range goals. So to sustain our attacking output, we need to start producing and finishing more chances in the box. That’s all it is.

Things don’t happen by accident in an Emery team so it is likely a deliberate ploy to put people in position to shoot from 20 yards as a counter to a packed defence. Of course they’re not always going to go in but as teams attempt to counter that then in theory it should provide opportunities elsewhere.

As Chris said, its difficult to penetrate packed defences  with little through balls so make them break the line by coming out to block our  long range shots that in turn will create more space  behind them which we will exploit. It's all in the plan.

[dcdavecollett]

Unai knows how to vary our methods of playing, rather than being a Postecoglu clone.

[PaulWinch again]

It’s a bit more nuanced than that though - at least from my perspective - we’ve clearly tightened up which is very welcome and hopefully sustainable. But as a result we’re not as relentless in attack. Now at the moment it’s ok because we’re balancing it out with loads of goals outside the box - they look brilliant and are really welcome, but clearly the odds are we’re not going to keep scoring that volume of long range goals. So to sustain our attacking output, we need to start producing and finishing more chances in the box. That’s all it is.

Why can’t we keep scoring goals like that? We’ve got the quality and the players to do it. If the opposition tries to press us higher and close us down quickly, it just creates more space and more options for us. We don’t play a relentless style, and missing chances isn’t the real issue—as long as we’re creating them, we’re fine. The real problem comes when the chances dry up, not when we’re still getting opportunities but failing to convert. I trust Emery to make adjustments when needed, but he clearly believes in the players’ ability to score from distance, and so do I.

We shouldn’t be worrying about what happens if that approach stops working. Instead, we should be thinking positively about how we can keep creating more long-range opportunities when teams choose to sit deep against us.

I’m not saying we won’t keep scoring some long range goals, I think it’s pretty unlikely though that relying on such a high proportion of goals being long range will give us enough to sustain a push at the top.

It’s not really about quality, it’s just a reality that it’s harder long-term to keep scoring long range goals than in the area. There are only a handful of teams who truly pack the defence, we do need to be better at creating easier chances.