IS EMERY BROKEN (EVEN BEFORE THE WOLVES’ MATCH)?
@ njk 00:19, **[I would rather have Emery doing his press conference in Spanish so that we can understand him better.]** ——— I’ve read many of Emery’s Spanish interviews translated to English and I haven’t found them illuminating. His ideas don’t follow a straight line and I wonders if he is able to hold a line of thought through. It is troubling that the same seems a pattern in his tactics. When you think you’ve got a lead to his tactics and follow it, it ends in a blind alley. Against Wolves there was absolutely no sense in removing Lacazette before the hour mark as his play was unsettling the Wolves defence. It is tactically obvious that Aubameyang benefits from Lacazette’s ‘chaos’.
@Eris 20:48, **[As for today, I’d like to think that Emery must be a suicidal kind …… in the game where with the side 1 goal up he chooses to take off Torreira and bring on Bukayo Saka. ………. I am all for blood(ing) the kids but, apart from say Martinelli and Willock, I am not a fan of bringing them into league games when we are not in a clear lead]** ——– absolutely no logic in bringing in Saka for Torreira. We were leading but Wolves were threatening. If anything the logical thing was a reverse substitution: strengthen our defending at a small cost to our offense. Of course there was the option of a like to like substitution like Willock for Torreira, maybe for the sake of fresh legs. There is a chance the substitution might have been a tactic of attack as a form of defence but why the 18 year old Saka when Pepe the terror of defenders was sitting on the bench. Eris you needn’t be apologetic about it, but little Saka shouldn’t be the player Emery should be deploying to change our game. What a coincidence that Emery brought in Ozil, Martinelli, Saka (fans favourites) and left out Xhaka and of course Mustafi. Has he come to the end of his wits? Is he a broken man, now being blown about by the wind?
@LE GALL 17:02, **[just want to keep that happy feeling for seeing Mesut play again; he’s not a player, he’s a musician, just makes the ball sing]** ———– and why on earth has Emery kept 0zil of all players out of the squad. Illogical. Against Wolves, Ozil brought intelligence to our midfield. There are two categories of people that operate outside the comprehension of normal folks: the geniuses and the dunces. Am unable to conclude to which category Emery belongs. Am still hoping it’s the former.
@jw1 17:43, **[Never might have guessed this disparity ……. Shots = ARS 10/4 — WOL 25/8]** ——–just doesn’t rhyme with what Emery promised us: protagonist, controlling the game, energy, intensity, structure. Do the words just tumble out, meaningless?
@17HT 17:01, **[Not a lot to get excited about, I fear…]** ——— the typical British understatement, I think.
@TA 17: 57, **[Well that is not good enough, but glad to see others more philosophical than me.]** ———- philosophical interlude. I get the drift.
@Admir 22:44, **[Emery’s birthday is tomorrow. P45 for birthday is what he deserved.
11 games, not a single one in which we outplayed our opponents.
11 games, just once we scored more than two goals.
11 games, we have already dropped more points than Man City had during the whole of last season.
11 games, we have won just four or a little bit over one third.
11 games, we still don’t have Best XI.
11 games, we have kept a clean sheet in just two occasions.
11 games, we have just 16 points yet I have feeling it’s at least five more than we have deserved.
Sack him in the morning]** ———— everything in a nutshell. How I and the players wish Emery can be as brief as Amir.
Already many want Emery out. On my part I want to hang on to hope till the 19th week. Who knows but things might soon suddenly click. Am forever hoping. After all football is about hopes whose flip side is fears. Football is also about pains and ecstasy and capriciousness. So be not surprised if after our next, crucial PL match v the Foxes I am fully with Admir in the growing chorus — ‘Tomorrow will be too late’.
Gooners lets hear of your hopes and your fears.
By PE.
Bergkampesque 
Cheers PE. Yes things could all of a sudden click into place and I applaud your optimism. I think structurally too much is not right but Emery may still put things right, but I doubt it very much. I guess a good win v the Foxes, just before the Interlul, could change the complexion…
Great collection of arguments and statistics, PE.
For me this is the saddest:
11 games, not a single one in which we outplayed our opponents.
Of course we are mostly pissed of because of this:
11 games, we still don’t have Best XI.
But what I am puzzled of is that we had our best XI last year when we had 22 games unbeaten in a row. Including the Fulham-Arsenal 1-5, when we played better on the road then this season at home.
And our team started this:
Leno
Bellerin-Mustafi-Holding-Monreal
Xhaka-Torreira
Iwobi-Mkhi-Welbeck
Lacazette
and after a balanced first half we introduced Auba and Ramsey to slaughter Fulham in this formation:
Leno
Bellerin-Mustafi-Holding-Monreal
Xhaka-Torreira
Ramsey-Mkhi-Auba
Lacazette
https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/1284814/Live/England-Premier-League-2018-2019-Fulham-Arsenal
Of course, this is a different team now.
But Tierney to Monreal was an improvement. So was Pépé to Iwobi. Luiz to Mustafi also.
And it would be hard to argue that Ozil to Mkhi wouldn’t be a downgrade either.
While I was a great fan of Ramsey I don’t think replacing him with Ceballos would account for all the poor performances this season.
If Emery would try to play this XI for just once…
for my sake…
for his sake…
for our sake…
Leno
Bellerin-Luiz-Holding-Tierney
Xhaka-Torreira
Pepe-Ozil-Auba
Lacazette
If it feels too offensive (which is by no means an insult in a home game), he can experiment with an Ozil/Pepe vs. Ceballos substitution, but shouldn’t touch the Xhaka-Torreira partnership!
PE, good way to gather all the related comments re Emery.
He reminded me of The Tinkerer Claudio Ranieri. However, he will come good if he got his thoughts and tactics sorted.
I will support him if he sees those weaknesses and changes them. Life choices are all about change.
Good collection of comments PE! I cannot believe that he is all of a sudden a terrible manager. He has a decent track record as a manager (and the much touted 3-in-a-row UEL). There were many who were lauding his tactical nous when he joined us.
To Pb’s observations, I agree. He has consistently not selected his best players this season so far. Perhaps his “issues” with some of the personalities in the dressing room is clouding his tactics to the point of being incomprehensible. Whether those issues are real or imagined, I guess we will find out at some point.
Does any BK’er know if this indecisiveness was evident at Sevilla or PSG? Or is this simply a reflection of the more competitive league (PL) and a struggle to cope on a weekly basis?
Fine compilation of some of the thoughts of BKers; very potent when seen this way and it just emphasizes the fact of supporter frustration going on, at the moment. I would not admit it anywhere else or to any rival fan so, I am grateful for this outlet to beef about the manager/team, at times.
I am afraid, I don’t see signs for optimism with this manager. He came in a wave of optimism which carried him through the first season; but I did not fail to notice how things started to go awry towards the end of the season…. a phase when most brilliant managers rather get it right, “squeaky bum time” and all that, culminating in that loss to Chelsea in the Uefa Europa league final. Who else thinks Wenger would have his team put up a better performance than that, in a cup final in Europe?
He had a good reputation for being a typical European manager, having taken Sevilla to 3 cup wins and we can’t scoff at that (I think St. Henry made that point). However, I can’t but recall how most teams will treat the Europa league as play ground for their 2nd string side then, especially after dropping out of the CL. That competition is a lot harder getting into the latter stages, now that the prize is a group stage place in the CL, than it used to be. I did say we cannot undermine the wins, but that needed to be said. Maybe, Emery isn’t all that (unless he proves his point by dragging this team out of the dumps, as it looks to be now).
For the sake of arguement, maybe, just maybe the players we have can’t adjust to what he wants. Does that absolve him? No, for two reasons. The first is that there has been a sizable import of players since his arrival that it can’t hold water anymore that he is being handicapped by the fact of inherited players: Leno, Luiz, Sokratis, Tierney, Torrera, Ceballos, Pepe, Martinelli are all post Wenger. The 2nd reason is that adjustment is a two way thing: players adjusting to the coach, the coach adjusting to the players. The latter is probably more important ie the coach knowing how to get the best from the players he has.
Still hoping though that it soon suddenly clicks.
Sorry PE–
Here’s the gist of the mash-up you attributed to me:
jw1 says:
November 2, 2019 at 17:43
Never might have guessed this disparity– even having watched:
Shots = ARS 10/4 — WOL 25/8
jw1
~and~
jw1 says:
November 2, 2019 at 22:17
~snip~
No rhyme in removing a top defensive skill set from the pitch– 16 minutes left, defending a one goal lead.
jw1
Pbarany, I like your view point as it relates to Emery and choice of a best Xi. I am excited about the selection you have up there. My only reservation will be with Holding and Bellerin. Much as it will be romantic to have them in that side, as they’ve shown, they really aren’t ready for the league yet. It will take time and patience to have them in this ideal team; but with the fans at boiling point, it won’t take too many errors to have them asking for the heads of both and slagging them off as “Average”!
Off topic (not so much, since this site is named after the great man, anyway). Nice to see an ex-player sticking up for his old teammate:
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/cesc-fabregas-destroys-talksport-presenter-20810300
jwl …. sorry if my arrangement isn’t very clear. Every quote is bracketed. After each bracket are my words …………… ” just doesn’t rhyme with what Emery promised us: ……..” are mine.
PE says
last weekend’s shared winners of the BK prediction competition are: Les Americans JW and 17HT 🙂
Five points have been added to your tally lucky bastards! 😀
You have missed out that after 11 league games we have not won one game by more than 1 goal.
@St Henry
His league record at Sevilla was…suspicious, to say the least. He never finished in Top 4 – two 5th places and 7th place in his last season when he managed to go through a season without an away victory (he made up by winning EL). His Sevilla usually had a slow league start with a solid middle part of the season.
In his first two seasons he had his Aubameyang – Carlos Bacca, a Colombian forward who was connected with us, was a real fox in the box and scored quite a few big goals for Emery’s team. Kevin Gameiro was his third season hero with his role in the Europa League Final comeback against Liverpool.
So, yes, his league form was always patchy.
With PSG, he lost the league to Monaco despite having a squad more expensive than the rest of the league combined (OK, it was a hyperbole). He only won the league when sugardaddy bought him Mbappe and Neymar. And that’s what I would have been able to do if I had been a PSG manager at the time. You just send those eleven on the pitch and reduce a pep talk to: “Score more goals than our opppnents.”
In a hindsight, his rare decent PSG performances where against us in the group stage 2016-17. We were lucky not to lose either of those two games and yet we could have won both (Iwobi’s sitter in Paris at 1-1, Iwobi’s own goal at 2-1 for us). He bottled top spot in the group against Ludogorets at home (the one we beat 6-0 in Santi’s last game for us).
Anyway, sack him.
Interesting perspective. Not buying all of it, though….
https://www.themag.co.uk/2019/11/simon-jordan-accuses-arsenal-fans-and-newcastle-fans-of-always-being-impossible-to-please-newcastle-united/
Hahahaha! TA, some of those goal celebrations were downright wacky. Hilarious stuff.
Good overnight comments guys. Doesn’t seem all comfortable to me regarding Emery, but i guess whether he needs to go or stay is up to the board.
Monsieur Wenger had his off patches during his 22 years. We had always supported the team in their darkest days and we should support them too this time. The impact on a change of manager is great on the players and backroom staff too.
Am conjuring a lot of things up ….. e.g, that Emery is like The Desert Fox (Rommel) who is at his most dangerous when cornered. I see a win against the Foxes …… can’t imagine 2 weeks of interlull with yet another poor result.
PE, unless Emery is aware that his only DM capable of protecting the midfield is Tor, we will keep drawing unless we get scoring boots for all the strikers.
@njk84sg
Out of last 24 league goals for Arsenal, Auba has scored 13. Joint second on the list have scored two each.
https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/1200171/Arsenal-Nicklas-Bendtner-Arsene-Wenger-news
A good article that Lord Bendtner wrote.
Admir, yes. We had not been sharing the goals and have been relying on Auba and Laca too much. We need to diversify.
Yes, mate. But that’s become even worse as we don’t share goals between the two (not just because Laca was injured) – Auba has been the only one scoring on a regular basis.
Not an overly long one from me this morning…too much on my agenda, but I’m curious how anyone can ask us to support Emery at this moment. (And frankly, from just about day one, watching the actual product on the pitch, I’ve wondered about being hopeful about “the project” at all…) The folks who are smarter than I (and whom I actually read) over at Arseblog and 7amkickoff can turn this thing over and over (like a forensic examiner might a dead body…) and explain the holes to you if you need that. I guess there was a superior points count at the end of last season. Even that’s gone (I’m pretty sure)… Our headline reads, Don’t Give Up on Emery but Foxes Game Will Be Crucial… Hmmm…
I know TA sometimes puts headlines on other folk’s writing, but this one must be PE’s…
That’s followed by a bunch of quotes from regulars on previous posts…and then by a few sentences–or maybe just phrases, if you leave out the subject–again, am pointing the finger at you PE, sorry… 😉 … PE, you don’t need to feel bad–nor even hedge your bets… There’s nothing worth trying to support here… 😦
Hope is not a plan, I’ve been told, though I also believe the Goonersphere has a place for a blog (like this one) that is more “supportive” and maybe questions posts (and comments) that heap blame on individual characters w/o examining the ROT that is at the CORE of our “club.” (Stan’s club, comparable to Sam’s Club, the place to buy even MORE of the crap Kroenke’s father in law is selling…) Stepping away from the blogging, as I do periodically, seems to encourage a few new characters to join in, so maybe just me quitting (rather than TA shutting down the blog) is the right thing. That said, this Int’l break–if it’s the moment when we get a new manager (who could EASILY be Jose Mourinho…) could be an exciting time. And that, IMO, should happen no matter what goes down in Leicester…
Bottom line: when it comes down to suggesting that one match (result) is everything (as the headline says) it IS already (way) too late…
Prediction: Leicester 4-Arsenal 1 (which, in truth, considering we’re gonna be playing an extra match in midweek tomorrow night in Portugal and just how much better Rodger’s Foxes are…really wouldn’t be such a bad scoreline…)
New Post 🙂
hahaha, 17 HT, the headline is mine based on the sentiment in PE’s post.