Yesterday, Arsenal were ruthlessly exposed and while I’m not angry that we lost, I’m frustrated by the performance.
Let’s get this out of the way: Liverpool dived twice to win two penalties. But the good news is that there was contact so these dives were just gamesmanship and were not the types of dives that are real dives, the ones which ruin millions of children according to Sean Dyche. Also, if these are the new standards for penalties, I’ve seen 7 penalties not given in the last 20 minutes of watching football.
Let’s also get this out of the way: Lichtsteiner isn’t good enough. We all knew that Mustafi wasn’t good enough but there were a fair few out there who said that signing Lichtsteiner was good business this summer. I wasn’t one of them. I think I said something like “You know that he will be a 35 year old man in January, right? As I have said now since I made up my mind on this: the best case scenario is that he doesn’t play very often and we are just paying him for the insurance and the worst case scenario is that he has to step in for half a season because Bellerin gets injured. My nightmare lineup is Lich – Mustafi – Sokratis – Monreal up against one of the top teams like City or Liverpool and all of their speedy forwards.”
Ahh yes, that is exactly what I said. People said “but he was free” and I remember saying “no he’s not, he will cost us” and he did cost us, not just money but goals. And also, unfortunately my imagined nightmare situation came true and the Lich did play with Mustafi and Sokratis and Lich gave away two goals with amateurish defending. I don’t say this sort of thing very often but I hope I never have to see Derelichtsteiner in an Arsenal shirt, ever again.
But here’s another truth: Sokratis was also awful. The whole back line was awful. And while I know that we have had an injury to Bellerin, other than that, these are all players that are supposed to be starting for Arsenal. I think we paid something like 35m for Mustafi, Sokratis was brought in this summer, Kolasinac was bought to replace Monreal, Leno was bought to replace Cech, and Lich was purchased to back up Bellerin. If we go even further up field, we also bought Torreira to be our firefighting midfielder. So, of those six guys at the back, who let in 5 goals, 4 of them are Emery/Mislintat/Sanelhi purchases.
Not only that but Unai Emery was brought in with the specific remit to make players better. And all that I wanted from him, the only thing I expected, was for him to make the defense better.
I know that we have a lot of injuries – show me an Arsenal season where we haven’t had a lot of injuries – but the problem as I see it with Arsenal isn’t just the individual poor performances. Yes, Mustafi is crap. Lichtsteiner is a disaster. Sokratis is kind of crazy. And I have never been impressed with Kolasinac’s defending. And while I know that Arsenal have an unusually good record when Holding is on the pitch (they have allowed just 1 goal per game when he plays) I find it highly unlikely that Bellerin and Holding are the difference between allowing 57 goals in a season and allowing 27 goals.
For me, the problem isn’t injuries, it’s the overall lack of organization, the gaping holes in defense, the lack of pressure up top, the inability to hold the ball in midfield when pressed, and just overall raggedness of Arsenal’s organization on the pitch. Add to that there is a problem with Arsenal’s attack (which no one believes because we have scored 40 goals) and it’s really puzzling that after 6 months, Unai Emery still hasn’t found a starting formation that he likes, still hasn’t figured out who his best forward players are, and still hasn’t organized the defense.
To be clear, I’m not suggesting that Emery needs to go. I am honestly perplexed as to why Arsenal lack organization in almost all aspects of the game. And why Arsenal’s midfield is still a huge problem.
This isn’t going to win me any fans but I’m going to say it anyway: Arsenal’s midfield is still a mess. I am a firm believer that defense starts in midfield and I’m a huge fan of Torreira and the work he does there. But he can’t do it all. Yesterday, he made just 2/7 tackles and was targeted for pressure, for fouls, and Firmino just turned him and dribbled right past him several times.
That’s where your team defense needs to step up. That’s where his midfield partner needs to step up but Granit Xhaka was missing as he is in almost every match. I mean, missing defensively, though he did try to get himself sent off with a dumb tackle.
Xhaka is a beautiful passer, no question, and also a defensive midfield nightmare. He’s a lot like Jorginho at Chelsea or (and don’t be weird) like Pirlo was at Juventus: fantastic with the ball, makes the team tick, but needs two midfielders on either side to cover for him.
It’s interesting that Chelsea and Arsenal have a similar midfield problem and that they both try to solve it in the same way: Chelsea often deploy Kante in front of Jorginho, a shield for the shielding midfielder, in the same way that Torreira is asked to play in front of Xhaka. But lately, Emery has been trying out both Guendouzi and Torreira along with Xhaka which I honestly think is better. Maybe that’s the solution. But let me step back a bit here in my own ego: I haven’t got a clue.
If I knew how to fix this problem I would be making £8m a year managing a top club. And surely that’s the point of all this, that’s Emery’s job and I would truly appreciate it if he could figure all of this out and I could go back to writing poetic hamfisted garbage about my life instead of angry crap about how the team isn’t working right. I was really looking forward to a bucolic post-Wenger life of cucumber sandwiches and kind of very corporate Arsenal, never really impressing but also never really being an utter shit-show.
I’m not even mad that we lost to Liverpool. We were supposed to lose to Liverpool. What I’m upset about is that 6 months into his tenure, Arsenal don’t have any identity. It’s a real worry that Emery hasn’t found a formation that he likes. Regardless of injuries, there needs to be some consistency of formation. It’s also a real worry that he keeps subbing players off at half-time. He did it again against Liverpool and frankly he took the wrong guy off. And.. I was blown away when he brought on Lacazette for Aubameyang in the 70th minute, down 5-1. I’m going to be honest, when I saw that, I literally said out loud to no one “fuck you, dude.”
(Deep breath)
Ok, there I said it. It’s frustrating. But hey, we have to keep trusting “the Process”. We have to give Emery 2 years. We have to keep muddling through this. Because. Oh yeah, because it’s Wenger’s fault. I forget that bit. Even though Wenger’s out, he’s still not out.
I think Emery has been bought in to try and polish some young Sven gems into Auba style players that can then be traded for more gems.
In the short term, CL is the only goal, do not believe we are aiming for the title.
I think he has a 3 year project to restructure Arsenal so that we have a better balanced and younger playing squad with lots of sale value.
After that, we may hope to keep the odd gem and maybe compete, but I honestly believe that is moe medium term planning.
To be clear, I mean CL qualification, not winning!
I think it’s easy to see how well the younger players have taken to his management. Virtually every player under 25 has played better this season, and a few of them are playing at career best levels. If Liverpool could build this possibly title winning squad, I don’t see why Arsenal couldn’t do the same… our budget is larger than theirs. But we need to make a series of excellent moves, like they did, easier said than done.
These are very good and overlooked points. I’m sure the management team – Gazidis aside, perhaps – have looked at the situation and realized we’re not close at all. CL qualification is the goal, and it sits somewhere between realistic and ambitious. But in the longer team it is to build a team that can compete.
They’ll have looked at the age profile and realized it’s all wrong. Our defense are aging out quickly. Buying Auba was a great short term move, but he’s like 29 and will have no real resale value. He’s being wasted because the rest of the team isn’t good enough or set up we’ll enough to make use of him. All that amazing ability will be wasted fighting for 5th rather than for trophies. And they’ll look at how we’ve pissed at least 150m or more on players like Ozil, Sanchez, Ramsey, Wilshere, and Welbeck leaving on frees rather than for some dosh. As I reminder, Pool used that amount to buy VVD and Alisson. They paid a lot, but you can’t say they overpaid.
Who is left you can cash in on in this squad? Currently nobody, at least nobody dispensable. There’s nobody we could sell for a tidy sum that we wouldn’t miss, ala Coutinho. Anyone we sell would cost at least as much to replace, except maybe Miki (and he wouldn’t go for much) for Reiss.
Main concern is if we have the team to do this. Is Emery the man for this rebuild? Is Sven worth all the hype? Do the Kroenkes buy in?
Some reasons for optimism. Our recruitment policy this summer has been pretty darn successful. Licht aside – a necessary gamble made under a tight budget, which did not pay off – we signed 4 other players who have met or exceeded expectations. Guen went from nothing to capable if raw starter in less than half a season. Torreira is indispensable already. Some has been ok, and easily an upgrade on Mustafi. Leno has displaced Cech and while not amazing, has allowed us to play out from the back.
This bodes well for the future. We spent 70m on 5 players. 2 will have no resale value by the time their done. Leno hasn’t done much to increase or decrease his resale value. Torreira has likely doubled his already, Guendouzi probably tripled his. So just those two are probably worth the amount we paid for all 5. Asset appreciation, and value added to the team. Now go do it again, and suddenly you have most of a team bought by the new management and not broken by years of non coaching. Suddenly you have a team that maybe looks good, looks organized, looks like it can probably compete.
We also have the kids. A few look good. Reiss, AMN, ESR. I hope they all make it.
It’s a strategy, and it could fail. But Liverpool are years in the process – and while I dont think that team has peaked yet, it’s much closer rhan us. I do think we’ll be closer to Pool than Utd in terms of our longer term performance, but it depends on 3 things: successful coaching, proper investment, and good scouting.
Excellent post.
I was feeling pretty down after reading so many arguments insisting this team couldn’t be compared to Klopp’s forst Liverpool team. This is the first well-reasoned argument for measured optimism that I’ve read. It gives me some hope while still acknowledging we are not in the same position as early Klopp Liverpool and we could still fail. Bravo.
The man was a genius at getting players to rise to the occasion until they took away the team….it takes more than just coaching to make top 4. UE and fans have alot to learn.
We’ve been more or less s$&t since the NLD. That 22 game unbeaten run had back lot of people fooled, including me.
CL quality is off the table unless there is radical improvement and I can’t see how that’ll happen
Man U is ascendant. If we keep playing this haphazardly and without organization they will overhaul us in 5th and we we struggle to finish in the top ten, which h is befitting as we are playing like midtable team.
Let’s look at what we really have for this game:
1. A makeshift defense missing two starters and two fullbacks who have been unreliable defenders all season, anchored by a CB who has been unreliable his whole career, oh and a GK who is new to the team and to the league
2. A Liverpool team at their very apex playing their best football for 30 years, at home
3. A referee gladly willing to point to the pelanty spot for minor infractions by those helter-skelter Arsenal players
4. A midfield anchored by one new summer signing not used to playing in the PL and one player who has never been very good defensively
5. The Liverpool opener came after a clearance ricocheted off of our own player and bounced gently into his path with no Arsenal player nearby
So to me, saying that there were mitigating circumstances is like saying the US Government may not be completely unified. What do you want the coach to do differently? He knew Licht and Kola would be weak spots. He knew Mustafi was a risk. Can you name a single coach that would’ve gotten anything out of this game given these players and given those events? I don’t. And I’ll admit, I was angry after that game… it’s really emotionally tough to see your team get the floor wiped with them to that extent. It was the hardest time I’ve had watching an Arsenal game since Wenger’s 1000th game and the 6-0 against Chelsea. It’ll go in the pantheon of awful games we’ve played for sure. I also don’t think we need to panic. Klopp’s Liverpool was blown out several times in his first season in charge. Pep’s Man City didn’t get close to the title in his first season either. We need to stay unified and we need to support the team and its staff through this transition period. We always knew it wouldn’t all be butterflies and 22 game unbeaten runs.
Liverpool and Manchester City have had bad moments just like us, but it’s the identity that has helped them get to where they are now. If we want to become a top club at any point in the future, we need an identity to not only build around, but to also recruit around.
Everyone speaks about Emery not having his players or not having good players, but that’s a pretty pointless defence because “his” players are Sevilla level players, the exact type of players we have at the club right now.
He will not get an overhaul like City or Liverpool have Klopp and Pep. We do not have the finances and never have had the finances to spend 150 million in a single window. We are not a draw as long as players cannot ascertain where they will fit in within a team that isn’t consistent in selection or formation. We definitely can’t get the best players out there because we haven’t created an environment that is conducive to these types of players, we haven’t done well for those already at the club so why would anyone good want the same treatment.
I hope Emery gets things in order, or maybe I am missing the point of the process, but we can’t just be running a lot. We need more than that to succeed at this level, you can’t go six months and still not have a formation. Even Southampton already have a distinguishable style, and their manager has been around for only a couple of weeks.
Spam filter, why??
😭
Even though it’s still early (although it probably isn’t), I would say the answer isn’t in the organization, or the formation, it’s in the moneys.
Because for a team “lacking in organization”, but having two almost world class strikers, we are very high in the scoring charts which probably goes to show that buying proven players equals results.
So, that means that if we bought someone else and someone proven to bolster the defense instead of a 100 year old Lichtsteiner, an unproven Torreira, average Sokratis and probably Leno, maybe we would’ve had a better defensive record. Add to this the rest of the wobbly rear guard and we are where we deserve to be, especially since Emery is still at the beginning.
The point is, you get what you pay for. And until we start buying from the upper shelves we probably will be right where we deserve to be, as the fifth (or maybe sixth) best team in the country.
And given that we are signing Gary Fricking Cahill in January, I reckon that is exactly where we are ending this season.
There is no defensive Messi. One player can beat 5 players and score, but one player will never stop 5 players from scoring at this level. Defending is a team thing, not a defence thing. So the moment you collect quality players and do not organise them, you expose your player’s weaknesses and they end up being declared as flops.
Think of the best defenders on the planet, they all probably play within a identifiable system. Koulibaly plays in a Sarri inspired side, that plays aggressive pressing and allows him to do what Kiscielny used to do alongside Mertesacker.
Sp*rs do not really have great defenders, they have an organization that makes them greater than the sum of their parts. They work as a unit and not as individuals. Their true quality shows in the mistakes they sometimes make, but for the most part, they are hidden because the system allows them to cover the right spaces or press up high and win the ball high up.
So organization is very important, probably the most important thing a good defence is built on. Tony Adams was great, but he is always mentioned as part of a great defence and they were acclaimed for how organized they were.
We could go out and buy as many good players as possible (which we can’t because we are on a self sustaining model if you forgot) and it still won’t make us a good defensive side.
We should be asking why we keep talking about individuals doing well this season, but not the team. So a great defender can come in and do well, but we will still be a bad team defensively.
I agree that defense requires organization. You mentioned that to attract talent we require an identity. Doesn’t forming an identity depend in some part on the types of players that fit in your system? True, Hassenhutl has his team pressing like he wants in the first few weeks of his reign, but without reinforcements and an increase in fitness his pressing system will lead to injuries and fatigue. Of course in the first couple matches his players work their a***s off for a manager they believe in. My point is, I believe Emery has a defensive identity in mind, but doesn’t have the pieces to implement it. Over-the-hill CB’s, excepting Holding, and midfielders that, under the previous regime, were either told they didn’t need to defend, or refuse to defend. The process doesn’t just need time, it requires the right players. We’ll see if the club gets Emery what he needs.
The first pen wasn’t too divey…Salah was pretty clearly clipped from behind. If that had happened to Auba or Laca, we’d have been screaming for a pen. The second was certainly softer, but it was a shove, and done as blatantly as that one was, you’ll get called some of the time. Their first goal was pretty much down to bad luck. If you chalk that off, the second pen, and give us the one on Laca, the score would have been 3-2. But that would have flattered us and not reflected how thoroughly we were outplayed.
Even if we had Bellerin and Holding back, we’d still need 3-4 more good players brought in to be competitive.
Is Bould still on staff? For someone who was known for their defending, he’s either terrible or not used as a coach. Either way, not sure what he is bringing.
As far as the offense went yesterday, it wasn’t terrible. But it wasn’t very good either. We actually got a number of half decent crosses in. The problem is that neither Laca or Auba is known for aerial ability. And we were so nervous about the counter, we could rarely get enough players forward to break them down, especially without a precision passer like Ozil.
I will say that while I’ve not been an Iwobi fan lately, he was better yesterday. But still no end product.
What is making me nervous is that all the other leading teams seem to be frequently in a position to dominate games. We’ve had very few of those in recent years. We’ve probably been blown away by the other top teams more frequently than we’ve blown away teams from the lower half of the table. That’s a worry.
Uh, no. We need to panic, not that it will help except in some emotional sense as a release of some sort. The exposure is complete. We are s$&t. And we will stay that way the rest of this season at least.
And I will keep saying we are s&$t until Tim gets so annoyed that he blocks me or bans me or whatever you have to do to pick someone off your website.
Why?
Because we are s&$t.
You can have an opinion here. I only ban people for calling other people names, being racist/sexist/homophobic, or being a bell end.
You thought I was being serious? Shame on you…
To the tune of “Sweet Child O Mine”:
Now and then, when I see our kit
I realize we are…
…utter s&#t
And if I stare too long
I’ll probably break down and cry…
Ok I’ll stop now. Just broke down this again to play on New Year’s Eve and yes, Slash is a God.
Thank goodness the penalty divers’ names aren’t Pires and Eduardo or there would’ve been petitions for lifetime ban to proper authorities.
The fact the 34 year old Lich is too slow for the PL is no surprise but coming over from Juve, one would’ve thought he could at least hold the off -side line, especially when he’s got a clear view of it. Nope.
How do you blame that on Emery though, or Mustafi sporting a pair of skates instead of cleats?
I mean, any coach at a youth level will tell his defenders to stay on their feet unless there’s no chance of staying with a ball carrier and a tackle looks a better option.
Firmino is not a speed merchant so why go to ground and tackle air?
Does knowing that require coaching at this level or is it a case of players not being up to the task.
There’s a difference between players ball watching , something that used to happen in Wenger’ later years a lot, and too many player’s converging on a play, pinging the ball off each other , like for Firmino’s first goal.
I’m with Doc on this.
Arsenal are in a bad moment playing Liverpool at their best, without a single injury to their first and preferred 11 I would add.
Take those two “ stone wall” pens away and maybe give Arsenal one at the other end, and instead of an epic thrashing it’s just another run of the mill poor defeat on the road to a title contender.
And just to add this , I haven’t got a clue if Emery is the answer but people need to calm the fu#k down.
Arsenal weren’t title contenders when they went 22 without a loss, and they are the same work in progress after losing a couple of games lately.
People asking for team’s clear identity need to understand that we don’t have one right now.
It’s called evaluation and it takes a season to figure out what works and what doesn’t.
Hear hear!
Where has that ever happened though? Where has a team played without a sense of identity for a whole season, the changed their team at the start of the following season and started playing with an identity?
Not having an identity IS wrong in itself. How do you evaluate wether players can play for you kf you don’t put them into your system and see if they fit? How will you know how suitable a player really is if he isn’t put into the system you are trying to implement?
Does that mean next season will be used for building a team? Or should we be competitive next season? We have only finished outside the top 4 twice in an era that has 6 top sides, it won’t take much to get us into top 4 contention again.
But we already know what players don’t fit into Emery’s future plans.
Welbeck, Ramsey, Ozil Elneny , and probably anther three or four most of us can name without fail.
The question isn’t how you find out what players don’t fit your desired style but rather what style do you play with players you know don’t fit the style you want to play.
And that style is?
I think it’s highly uncharitable to say there is no discernible style to Emery’s teams. There are clear trends we can point to and clear tactical trends that we’ve seen since day one:
1. Play out from the back. Granted, this has been abandoned to some extent lately, but the installment of Leno over Cech and the purchase of excellent passing CB’s points to a clear change of direction here. This was being built under Wenger as well but in the last few months of his tenure, Wenger completely abandoned the buildup from the back due to the frequency of individual errors being made, and because we absolutely capitulated when pressed. Emery has a really tall task in this regard.
2. Change of focus in attack from the middle to the flanks. Instead of attempting central overloads with elite passers, the gunners now look to find overlaps on the wings for killer cutbacks. This requires putting fewer bodies forward and has obviated the need for a specialist #10, instead elevating hard working wide players. This has led to rifts with Wenger’s favorite centrally drifting creative types Ramsey and Ozil but has elevated direct runners and dribblers like Iwobi.
3. The ball over the top and the counter attack. There is still a frustrating tendency for many of Arsenal’s forwards to come short time after time but Arsenal have clearly put a premium on breaking forward with numbers following a set piece in their half which has paid off with some breathtaking counterattack goals already this season. Problem here has been that we are seldom in the lead lately and thus seldom able to play on the counter.
4. Conservative play in central midfield. Unlike years past, Arsenal’s CM’s are asked to play conservatively with their positioning and with their passing. When they spread the ball wide they do so with long diagonals which have a small chance of being intercepted. They seldom try the through pass or pass to a striker’s feet centrally because those passes often lead to high leverage transitions. And when midfielders don’t stay positionally disciplined, they get subbed at halftime like we saw with Guendouzi once or thrice.
5. The high defensive line & offside trap. This is an old Wenger staple and part of the reason we can still be opened up so easily with one pass or a busted offside trap. But it has been consistent and the alternative is not very palatable IMO. This is the most expedient way for opponents to beat us and has been exacerbated by needing to play from behind so often.
6. Pressing. We were doing this under Wenger in bits and pieces and while there have not been leaps and bounds made, I do see green shoots. Even against Liverpool we won possession back in their half often enough to look dangerous and several of our goals this season have come from intercepting passes out from the back. This took Klopp and Pochettino at least one year to hammer out with their squads as well.
7. Set piece routines. Wenger never did much work in this area but Emery’s gunners have shown they can be inventive and dangerous from multiple types of dead ball scenarios. Our first two set pieces against Liverpool come to mind, Xhaka changing the angle to roll it to Kolasinac who delivered a vicious curler that was almost scored, then Torreira doing the same thing from the other side. Then there were Xhaka’s direct free kick goals.
I hope I’ve convinced you that there is a structure and a style in place, at least the start of one, even if it can be difficult to see when we play so poorly.
Look, I can easily recite the formations Emery close watchers have put forth as his favorite ones but that’s not the point.
I can also be persuaded he’s not the man for the job based on facts but not after six months after taking over what was a highly unbalanced club that couldn’t beat a pub team away from home last season.
Apart from winning three consecutive EL titles with Sevilla I didn’t see a lot in his CV to suggest he was the best candidate for the job, but maybe he was the best we could’ve gotten at the time.
I’m a glass half- full kinda guy and fifth in the league in his first season was my prediction.
I was aiming high I thought.
Tough game, and agree on the sentiments. Would have preferred some of the substitutions were to bring on new / young kids. We need to see what we’ve got and rotate deeper, more proactively and not just based on formation.
Also, this: get a grip and find a way to play our best players — at the same time. Feels like selection based on the transfer ledger more than winning games.
Benitez would organise this team so much better.emerys job was to fix the defence.he researched arsenal.ranieri has stopped the shipping of goals at Fulham, he won the league at leciester with Morgan and Hugh. It’s organisation first then players next
Marcos above, has a point.
A big part part of the narrative behind Emery’s appointment was down to how impressed the club were over his deep research of the current squad and the individual players.
If this is indeed the case, what gives? How can we be so out of sorts, especially defensively, halfway through the season?
Xhaka and Mustafi play in the spine of our team, remember?
The other defenders are either injured, recovering from injuries, new to the league, or not quite good enough.
Even Emery is new here. It’s incredibly weird for a club that kept the same coach for 22 years to have fans that are so impatient with a new coach.
One thing that Liverpool did well in regenerating their squad is buying players with Premier League experience. Mane, Van Dijk, Wijnaldum, Robertson, Henderson, etc. Resilient battle-tested players who arrive ready to compete on day one. Arsenal (and Wenger) almost never do that anymore. Was Sol Campbell the last significant player we signed with Premier League experience?
‘Top four’ has become so institutionalised but it’s such a soulless money-grubbing target to aim for. Qualifying for the CL with a good but not great team is pointless imo.
Things got so bad over the last few years that we had to fire a coach for the first time in two decades. But somehow the club thought Torreira, Sokratis, Leno, a CM that’s too young, and a RB that’s too old, would be enough to bridge the quality gap. The club’s hierarchy is still in denial about the current standard of the competition, so we need hard lessons like the one Liverpool gave us.
That’s a great point, Kaius, and it’s something Fergie also did with his successful United teams. Seems like Liverpool have followed suit: gathering together proven PL talent, while expensive to do, gets the results.
That is a great point. Does that mean Cahill would be a good buy? I used to criticize Pool for buysing so many Southampton players that never seemed quite good enough. No more. VVD has to be the buy of the season. I wonder what it will take for this club to learn that lesson.
You are regularly a very reasonable guy, but I think this ire is unreasonable.
I think Emery is playing a hand he didn’t draw, except for Lichsteiner, and who would you have bought instead, given what our finances were/are?
I think his fiddling with formations, is him trying to fit round pegs in holes of various shapes, and seeing if he can hammer them in. His substitutions are troubling; I don’t understand why he can’t play Aubameyang and Lacazette together, but I also came to hate that Wenger didn’t sub until the 70th minute regardless of the game.
I do think that he is thinking that a top four finish is unlikely; that he will do his best to get to the CL via the EL, and he is willing to live with the criticisms of the impatient. I am willing to reserve judgement until he has a few transfer periods behind him, and has gotten rid of those players that don’t work. As much as I like Ramsey, I take some comfort in our willingness to let him go (I’m assuming that Emery has to have been part of the withdrawing of the offer).
In the meantime, I will celebrate an occasional glorious goal; enjoy seeing some young players get playing time and hopefully improving, and try not to read too many reddit threads that suggest Emery should leave at the end of the season.
I feel like it’s the club’s job to identify and develop talent. Buying Lichtsteiner did none of that. So, who should they have bought? There are a lot od options but the last option on the list should have been “oh hey, he’s on a free, sure he’s 34 and clearly been broken for a few years, and he would have to adjust to a completely different league with a massive difference in speed and talent level, but what could go wrong???”
Seriously, this is an indefensible signing.
I think you’re right on the output and I was wrong but I think the logic is decent. Provided there is a young RB in our reserves who is expected to make it soon. Sign an experienced player on a 1 year deal and hopefully get some leadership/nous into the dressing room while being a placeholder for the young kid.
(If we had a greater budget then of course sign someone else. But backup RB was the lowest priority in our list of needs)
I think we had two young RBs who were well regarded (Osei-Tutu one of them?) , but I’ve not followed the youth team so no idea if they are any good, or even still with us.
Isn’t Steve Bould primarily responsible for coaching our defense? And if not, what does he do? Seems like our defense went downhill after Pat Rice left and he came in. I don’t dislike Bouldy, but it doesn’t seem like he adds much to the team these days…
Should be pass around a tin for January transfers? I’m serious. If every Gooner around the world could scrounge up a tenner we could pitch in 10% of the cost of both a certain Franco-Senegalese defender, and golden boy winger of similar origin.
In other news I’ve been kinda “Bouldy out” for most of the year, and I’ve felt bad about it (why having legendary player as coach can be a liability?). Was shocked he was held over, honestly.
Finally: Bournemouth was our first look at “Emery’s preferred structure”. One indelible image was his double overhead fist pump through the tunnel post match. I pondered why was he so psyched. And it was because, GIVEN THAT THIS SEASON IS THE BEST CHANCE TO EXPERIMENT LIKE CRAZY, I think he finally had his chess pieces in place, that worked how he wanted, and it was a perfect proof of concept run for NLD. He was probably in a state of Nirvana after seeing it work a charm on that glorious day. Losing Holding and Bellerin completely fucked it up. Now Bad Mustafi would be off the leash again and, up front, we’d have no leverage on the wings draw people out and loosen things up in the middle. I was convinced of that three weeks ago and yesterday’s epic bed shitting was just more evidence. I mean look at how utterly useless Kola is in a back four, how headless our back line was overall.
I know I said finally, but I emphasize the above in caps (sorry) because I think a shocking amount of people are just not really getting the kind of guy Emery is and how he views this season, and how normal it is that he sees it this way. He sees it as a series of experiments and tinkering to *his system*. That might comprise a handful of preferred formations. And a big part of that is sussing out who stays and who doesn’t, i.e. who we need to bring in, and he can’t discover that without getting people minutes and trying things out. For example I think he’s really focusing on figuring out Iwobi. He sees a potential linchpin of his offense who’s just inconsistent as hell and lacking in confidence. Same with Mhki. I think he’s decided on Ozil and Ramsey. He’s pushing Guendouzi to develop. He’s diffident about Laca fitting in. He loves Auba and Xhaka. And so forth.
When we win with all this, it’s “a ride to enjoy”, when lose it’s “Emery is a clueless fuckup”. But win or lose, it’s what it is: Arsenal’s first new coach since 1996—who happens to be extremely thoughtful, passionate about the game, and a proven winner—-figuring shit out.
Here’s how my thinking on Emery has gone.
1. Surprised no one is mentioning him for the job after PSG
2. Surprised he was actually hired
3. Disappointed because he’s too similar to Wenger, and probably not as good at certain things Wenger was, so what’s the point.
4. Seems to be a dedicated coach, tactical, and did a great job at Valencia and Sevilla. Learnt at PSG what the pitfalls of a big club are. Hopefully will keep the best of Wengerball and curb its excesses.
5. Ok it’ll all take time.
6. This still not working, but at least results are there.
7. Top 4 or not, what is our identity?
This last has to do with the club too. The way we made our moves in January to balance our books was great transfer management. Even the summer moves were good in that we tried to shore up the midfield and defense to support the great attack we’ve had, and we supposedly hired an offensive minded coach who would also drill defense.
But we’ve since pushed Ramsey out, and whether Ozil is injured or not, something is up there too. Is the previous rebuild going to be wasted? Are we going to throw it all out and start over with youngsters? Is Emery really the coach for that?
We’ve not settled on a formation and used fully the partnership Auba and Laca have. I don’t think youngsters (apart from Guendouzi) have been given enough of a chance. (Are the youngsters not good enough yet?) Instead of keeping the best of Wengerball, we seem to have short circuited it, but not found any midfield control or defensive security, despite new personnel. 6 months is a short time overall, but it’s more than half a season so is not insignificant. I had hoped for, and expected better. I can’t say I’m not disappointed.
Too early to be disappointed, because before now the quality of the players available was obvious. If they had been great we won’t have lost to Liverpool with the same margin last year, people screaming about the identity fail to realise we don’t have an attacking midfielder for a 4-5-1 or 4-2-31, we don’t have a left back, so we switched to 3-4-3 to accommodate Sead as a left wingback, we don’t have a winger and we manage Mhkitaryan whose career is on a downward trajectory. Mustafi and Xhaka are both defensive liabilities waiting to happen and a youth player would be better than Lichsteiner stepping in long term to happen. Do you seriously think our current squad is on par with Sevilla? A team with Ever Banega and Nzonzi in midfield? that would be over rating our current squad because both players were mentioned in the summer as targets that could strengthen our midfield and we seem to be equating our current squad to them? That’s crazy.
Secondly we need to get experienced premier league players as that’s the only way to get ready experience for our team. When last did Arsenal buy an english player or with premier league experience? The Mhki swap or else 2014 was the last time. Now do you realise we’re not beyond the average teams because we have stopped buying proven premier league players from smaller clubs and this is necessary to buoy our team.
My response isn’t to Shard alone, but some points mentioned above.
It’s all very well saying we don’t have the players for how Emery wants to play. My problem is that I have no idea how he wants to play.
4-2-3-1 is how Emery wants to play, Ramsey cant be the 10 and Ozil is not as aggressive as necessary, so we are trying to play based on the players in our squad and for all of Xhaka’s good points, he’s a a part of the problem in midfield.
So we are not playing the preferred system. Instead trying to play to the players in the squad. But somehow this means not playing two of our best attacking players because they don’t fit the system?
And Xhaka is such a problem that he’s being played in every game, even at CB sometimes.
I’m sorry. I don’t say that Emery doesn’t have a plan. I’m sure he does, and it’s great that you see it. To me, it makes no sense.
I wonder what Wenger is going to do. He said he’ll start working again in the new year. Is he going to manage, or become an executive somewhere?
We need a centre back, left back, winger, central midfielder, attacking midfielder and back up right back with at least 3 of the mentioned positions being British players. In addition to Reiss, AMN &ESR in the first team.
If we sign Ever Banega as rumoured then Elneny and Xhaka must be sold, while Willock, AMN, ESR and Guendouzi would benefit from working with a player who can play all over the midfield just the way Emery likes at dm, cm or am. We are far from being a complete team, we just over achieved because we could score more goals.
We need to do better as a fanbase and look at issues in context.
1. I don’t think it’s correct to say Emery doesn’t have a preferred formation, he started out the season with 4-2-3-1 and I remember Guardiola predicting confidently before the first game what formation Emery would play.
2. He’s been changing and testing out different formations lately because it became obvious that we currently lack the resources to effectively play this formation (as Tim pointed out, most of the issues with this formation is from the imbalance in our midfield).
3. If Ramsey or Ozil was Emery’s choice to make, I think he would have picked Ramsey. You need an energetic 8/10 to play behind the striker.
4. Finally, while I agree that there’s a big room for improvement in the teams organization, we lost the Liverpool game to individual errors and not due to the teams organization.
Arsene was jazz, and Emery, apparently having no identity, is jazzier than jazz.
I can live with that! Happy new year folks!
Imagine how hard it is to succeed someone after he’s been 5 or 10 years in office??what about after 22 or so years!!!its a big challenge,lets give Emery time to get things in order
If Lichsteiner is costing points why not try an academy player? Play ‘bad’ we release him; Play ‘ok’ we move him but for some fee because he has PL minutes (those count); Shows ‘promise’ we send him on loan; Plays ‘good’ then he competes with the starter next season. I understand going into the season you dont take such risks and we signed him as cover. But now we have all the freedom to do and it might even be good PR (club cares about it a lot) among fans!
100%.
Would rather see a youth player starting in his correct position than a weak squad player being used out of position.
Yesterday, with City 3 -1 up away at Southampton, Raheem Sterling was back in his own box defending and bringing the ball out of danger.
Who, in the Arsenal forward line would you see doing that? All-action Aaron Ramsey, probably. Mhki, likely. Not Mesut, not Iwobi, not the strikers, even though both work hard off the ball.
We have a collection of players who don’t graft like City and Liverpool from front to back, or know how to. Many of them busybody-press, but dont really put a foot in. Take Iwobi. A decent player, but add to my disappointment in his finishing, is my disappointment in his defending, which is half-hearted.
It runs through the squad, Torreira, Sokratis etc excepted. Speaking of which, Torreira didnt play well against Liverpool this time. He looks exhausted. Needs a rest. Sokratis was bull-in-a-china-shop awful, but he’s generally played well since joining us