Are you worried?

[ez]

I'm worried that we only have one tactic and that's not working and hasn't for a while now but Emery seems reluctant to change it.

[SoccerHQ]

Depends what people are worried by.

I still think we can finish 6th-7th as us, Man. United, Newcastle and Spurs all verge through wild inconsistency as reflected by one point between all currently.

Brighton are better but already they haven't beaten any of Ipswich, Wolves and Southampton at home so hints they don't have a ruthless edge to dispatch relegation contenders which we still just about have.

If people were just expecting top 4 consistently from now on when we pretty much weakened our first 11 this summer through necessary sales then it was naive thinking.

You'd at least hope next summer we can have more of a go again and sign a couple of top level players like we did in summer 2023.

[Risso]

I'm worried that we only have one tactic and that's not working and hasn't for a while now but Emery seems reluctant to change it.

He clearly doesn't know how to. You can't go on being this defensively bad for 12 months if it's just not a deep-rooted underlying problem. He spent £30m on his first choice defender in Torres, a defender who cannot defend, let alone organise anybody else. The odd nice 30 yard pass is great when things are going well, when they're not as now, it's a luxury you can't afford.

[tomd2103]

The only caveat I would maybe consider is the impact that the Champions League games have had.  We've been flat after most of the Champions League games so far and I do wonder how much it is taking out of them all.

[Risso]

The only caveat I would maybe consider is the impact that the Champions League games have had.  We've been flat after most of the Champions League games so far and I do wonder how much it is taking out of them all.

We've been flat for most of the season, Champions League or not.

[ChicagoLion]

I am now officially concerned, this is a hell of a slump. So many things are wrong, set up attitude, selection and tactics.

[pelty]

I'm worried that we only have one tactic and that's not working and hasn't for a while now but Emery seems reluctant to change it.

He clearly doesn't know how to. You can't go on being this defensively bad for 12 months if it's just not a deep-rooted underlying problem. He spent £30m on his first choice defender in Torres, a defender who cannot defend, let alone organise anybody else. The odd nice 30 yard pass is great when things are going well, when they're not as now, it's a luxury you can't afford.

This is 100% correct and I have been saying it over 12 months. When there was no other choice, like last year, you live with it, but now you have to bring on Mings who actually is good at defending (when he is not handling the ball in the box).

[PaulWinch again]

I'm worried that we only have one tactic and that's not working and hasn't for a while now but Emery seems reluctant to change it.

He clearly doesn't know how to. You can't go on being this defensively bad for 12 months if it's just not a deep-rooted underlying problem. He spent £30m on his first choice defender in Torres, a defender who cannot defend, let alone organise anybody else. The odd nice 30 yard pass is great when things are going well, when they're not as now, it's a luxury you can't afford.

You do keep honing in on Torres, how do you explain the bit where he played last season and we were exceptionally good? He isn’t the common denominator in our fall away defensively. The break up of Doug and Kamara’s partnership is where we started to struggle.

[SoccerHQ]

All of this stems back to Kamara’s original injury that ended his midfield partnership with Doug. Since then the midfield has failed to do the fundamentals. That is the main problem.

That and not replacing the directness Diaby gave us means we’ve got no flexibility. We cannot change a game.

Diaby had his critics and wasn't in great form 12 months ago but he still kept Bailey on his toes and we could rotate given he could get the team up the pitch quickly with dribbles.

I fully understand why he took the money but just thinking Jaden could replace him comfortably was very wishful thinking that is backfiring now.

[SoccerHQ]

The only caveat I would maybe consider is the impact that the Champions League games have had.  We've been flat after most of the Champions League games so far and I do wonder how much it is taking out of them all.

People did predict this in August. It happened to Newcastle last season so not sure what is special about us that it wouldn't impact on us as the season went on.

[PaulWinch again]

I'm worried that we only have one tactic and that's not working and hasn't for a while now but Emery seems reluctant to change it.

He clearly doesn't know how to. You can't go on being this defensively bad for 12 months if it's just not a deep-rooted underlying problem. He spent £30m on his first choice defender in Torres, a defender who cannot defend, let alone organise anybody else. The odd nice 30 yard pass is great when things are going well, when they're not as now, it's a luxury you can't afford.

This is 100% correct and I have been saying it over 12 months. When there was no other choice, like last year, you live with it, but now you have to bring on Mings who actually is good at defending (when he is not handling the ball in the box).

And again how do explain Torres playing when we were at our very best? He’s struggling in the context of the team, and in particular the midfield just being a mess at the moment. Torres was brilliant, including defensively, when the team functioned. Dropping Mings into this side won’t make much difference. Unless the structure and midfield is fixed it’s just shuffling deck chairs.

[Villan82]

The only caveat I would maybe consider is the impact that the Champions League games have had.  We've been flat after most of the Champions League games so far and I do wonder how much it is taking out of them all.

Last season we were in the groove, playing Thursday and Sunday.

This season the Champions League has really knocked us out of our groove in the league.

[Demitri_C]

I'm worried that we only have one tactic and that's not working and hasn't for a while now but Emery seems reluctant to change it.

He clearly doesn't know how to. You can't go on being this defensively bad for 12 months if it's just not a deep-rooted underlying problem. He spent £30m on his first choice defender in Torres, a defender who cannot defend, let alone organise anybody else. The odd nice 30 yard pass is great when things are going well, when they're not as now, it's a luxury you can't afford.

This is 100% correct and I have been saying it over 12 months. When there was no other choice, like last year, you live with it, but now you have to bring on Mings who actually is good at defending (when he is not handling the ball in the box).

And again how do explain Torres playing when we were at our very best? He’s struggling in the context of the team, and in particular the midfield just being a mess at the moment. Torres was brilliant, including defensively, when the team functioned. Dropping Mings into this side won’t make much difference. Unless the structure and midfield is fixed it’s just shuffling deck chairs.

Torres has gone backwards as player the last year.but not just him. Add bailey, mcginn, cash, konsa amd even ollie to that list.

This teams not working or gelling. Even when we beat sides like Everton  and wolves this year we were far from convincing.

We saw warning signs earlier in season and now we just look awful in eveey department.

[tomd2103]

The only caveat I would maybe consider is the impact that the Champions League games have had.  We've been flat after most of the Champions League games so far and I do wonder how much it is taking out of them all.

We've been flat for most of the season, Champions League or not.

I had a look back at our results the other day.  Played well against Bologna and then were mostly OK against Bournemouth until we got stung at the end.  There were probably a few signs by that point of players starting to struggle a bit though.

[Villan82]

How about a change from four, four fucking two? There's a reason most other managers ditched it around 1996.

It's not exactly the same 4-4-2 played in 1996 though. When deployed as he wants it it has one full back wide and high, a double-pivot in front of the back line, the two 'wide' midfielders quite narrow and one forward pulling wide on the opposite side. Worked a beauty for a long time.

But the shape is different now, he actually tweaked it and I think that's the main problem