Some stats:
10 – Shots by Aubameyang this season
5 – Goals scored by Aubameyang this season
20 – Percent of his shots that Aubameyang normally converts
20 – Percent of his shots that he’s currently converting from outside the 18 yard box (1/5)
13 – Shots per game Emery’s Arsenal are averaging
19.4 – Shots allowed per game by Emery’s Arsenal
12.3 – Shots per game by Emery’s Arsenal last season
13.1 – Shots allowed per game by Emery’s Arsenal last season
0 – Number of seasons under Arsene Wenger that Arsenal had a negative shot differential (took fewer shots than they allowed)
627 – Touches by Arsenal against Watford
361 – Touches in the first half
266 – Touches in the 2nd half
26 – Percent decrease in the number of touches by Arsenal from the first half to the second
40 – Touches by Xhaka in the first half
27 – Touches by Xhaka in the second half
35 – Percent decrease in touches by Xhaka from the first half to the second
35 – Touches by Ainsley Maitland-Niles in the first half
39 – Touches by Ainsley Maitland-niles in the second half
27 – Passes by A M-N in the first half
28 – Passes by A M-N in the second half
83 – Percent accurate passes by A M-N in the first half
71 – Percent accurate passes by A M-N in the second half
45 – Percent accurate passes by Pepe in the second half
63 – Percent accurate passes by Torreira in the second half
67 – Percent accurate passes by Sokratis in the second half
28 – Possessions lost by Arsenal against Watford
14 – Possessions lost by A M-N, Guendouzi, and Pepe (5, 4, 5)
7 – Possessions lost by Nelson and Willock (3, 4)
16 – Times Arsenal was dribbled by Watford
10 – Times A M-N, Guendouzi, and Ceballos was dribbled (3, 4, 3)
7 – Number of those 10 times that occured in the first half.. (It’s true, Watford were much more dribbly in the first half, and much more tackly in the second)
14 – Fouls committed by Watford
4 – Fouls committed by Arsenal
10 – Fouls committed by Watford in the second half
1 – Fouls committed by Arsenal in the second half (Luiz, penalty)
1 – Successful line-breaking long ball forward by Arsenal of 20 attempts
0 – of 4 long balls forward by Sokratis
0 – of 5 long balls forward by Luiz
0 – of 8 long balls forward by Leno
1 – of 2 long balls forward by Guendouzi (key pass)
0 – of 1 long balls forward by Xhaka
Some thoughts based on watching the game a third time.
A lot of the Watford shots were low percenters. 15 of them were outside the box. However, 16 of them were inside the box. Also, they had three big chances. And they had two shots which wouldn’t classify as big chances but were very good shots (one by Sarr and one by Deulofeu) and just missed.
Pereyra dived to win the penalty. If you watch the highlights (12:40 here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H21dIhD3oQ) you can see that he actually stops his run and kicks out at Luiz with his right knee to make sure that Luiz gets contact. Luiz was stupid for putting his foot out but tries to draw it back before contact and that forced Pereyra to actually halt his run, kick out at Luiz, and draw the foul. “Clever” play by Pereyra.
Anthony Taylor has now awarded the opposition a penalty in each of the last three Arsenal matches he has refereed: Watford, Liverpool, and Brighton. He’s actually given 4 pens for the opponents in the last 5 games and he’s given Arsenal 2 pens in those games as well. Both of those games he gave both Arsenal and the opposition a penalty (Brighton and Tottenham). He’s the referee who has awarded the most penalties over the last two years, 11 last season and 3 this season. Homeboy loves a penalty!
VAR needs to be overhauled, again. I thought VAR was supposed to stop bad goals from being scored? I thought it was supposed to look at every goal? But yesterday when Deulofeu was clearly inside the box when Arsenal took the free kick which he picked off there was no VAR review? No doubt that extra yard in the box was what allowed him to get a toe on Sokratis’ pass. This isn’t to absolve Sokratis for making that pass – it was far too casual from the elder Greek – rather just the facts. Deulofeu barely got a toe on the ball, the extra 24 inches he stole into the box on the free kick were what allowed that to happen. Bad call by the ref but ever worse call that VAR can’t rule on it because of some mysterious ruling that no one can find which states that VAR can’t be used on restarts.
I will also like to say “I told you so.” I told you that VAR wouldn’t be used fairly and that Arsenal certainly wouldn’t be the benefactors. Now, let’s see what happens when the PGMOL decide to change the way VAR is used and it starts being used to crack down on us. Guarantee it will happen!
There’s a stat making the rounds about how Arsenal are the team which gives the ball away the most in their own third. Yep. And it’s been this way for the entire time that Emery has been manager. There are two solutions: start play further away from your own box (which we can’t do because we don’t have a big forward) or get better at playing as a team. Watching the game again, you can actually see the problem: players aren’t working together in groups to break pressure.
Against Watford, Arsenal started play out to Guendouzi or Maitland-Niles an almost every short restart. Watford would pressure these two and they would have no one to pass to so there was either a turnover or the player was dispossessed. After the game, Emery blamed Guendouzi and his game plan:
“We have some young players, they need to have experiences like today. And also, I say to Matteo, Matteo is a very good player, he is improving, he is young, he is very emotional, he has personality and sometimes needs to make some mistakes to improve. In the first half he made a mistake and didn’t score. In the second half we continued trying because we need to do that work and that is my responsibility because also when we can change and have a second plan – it’s doing long balls and the second action – they were very strong and we didn’t earn balls in that planning also. The key was to impose and we are going to work for have and make better our build up with the goalkeeper, with the defenders and the midfielders and also, being well when we are doing long balls for breaking their lines with long ball for taking more chances. Because we tried and we didn’t have also chances with that second plan.”
Maitland-Niles leads Arsenal in lost possessions with 16.8 per game. I’m not blaming him or saying he’s bad, I’m saying that he needs two or three options around him to play the ball out. But for most of the game the only option was Guendouzi.
I was actually shocked to see Xhaka standing still for most of the game. In fact, it was very odd that he didn’t receive a single goal kick in this match. Time and again we saw the keeper or defender pass to Ainsley or Guendouzi. His touch numbers versus Ainsley’s touch numbers tell the whole story (THE ENTIRE STORY AND I WILL NOT HEAR ANYONE SAY THAT STATS DON’T TELL THE WHOLE STORY BECAUSE THEY ALWAYS TELL THE WHOLE STORY.)
Most of the angles I saw made it hard to see why Xhaka wasn’t getting the ball but when I watched again I noticed that there were a lot of times where he was being marked by the opponent and not moving. Also, Watford did a fantastic job of closing down the passing lanes to him. The only option available to reach Xhaka is the little chip pass but for whatever reason the Arsenal defenders didn’t seem comfortable making it. Maybe he was sick? Unfit? Or maybe when he said that the team played scared he meant that they were scared to pass him the ball? Unclear.
The Arsenal attack in the second half was awful. I’ve said this before and gotten a lot of stick but Emery’s attack is, for me, the real problem. Sorry, but he is far too conservative. It’s like we got a Mourinho who also can’t organize a defense. It’s awful.
Watch the second half again, time after time an Arsenal player starts an attack and no one follows him, there is no support, and the defenders take the ball away easily.
I’m not saying we needed to bomb all 11 players forward, but you can still build out an attack – even in a conservative way – through good spacing, passing, movement, and teamwork. But Emery seems to be too timid to do that. Instead he expects individuals to win him goals up top and the result is that players are often left on an island, and Arsenal turn the ball over a lot when we have the lead.
It’s funny too because Arsenal have a team which resembles a body builder who always skipped leg day: top heavy. Arsenal have an attacking lineup of Auba, Pepe, Ozil and Ceballos and we are trying to play deep block defense.
Except we don’t even really do that! Against Watford, we played a deep defense but it was so disorganized that you couldn’t tell what shape we were playing. The only player who seemed to keep a shape was Xhaka, who stood still for most of the game. And that’s not a dig at him, that’s a dig at Emery. I guarantee Xhaka was doing what he was told to do. Which begs the question, what was everyone else doing?
“It’s funny too because Arsenal have a team which resembles a body builder who always skipped leg day: top heavy”
It’s lines like these that keep me coming back.
So was it Xhaka following orders and the rest of the team a little rebellious/of their own minds? Or was it Xhaka being rebellious? They seemed to listen to him when he told them to go long. But he was annoyed after the game. At them? At Emery? Himself?
All is not right, which is a good thing. The worst thing would be the team not bothered by what is going on. I wonder what the next game will bring. Lots of personnel changes? More of the same? A change in approach?
Tune in again next time I guess.
I came across a stat on Twitter called ‘Pressing rate’. Any idea how this works, Tim?
Still. Two days on. No public comment from Emery since post-match.
Very un-Arsenal PR. Curtains drawn.
Eintracht on Thursday should have been a change-it-up, give-some-minutes match for Emery– following a solid win at Watford. Now it’s a litmus test. Faced with having to play a near-top-XI. Ostensibly, to get the team back on firm footing. He’s gotten himself snared into a vicious cycle. A Catch-22.
Think Aston Villa isn’t practicing a high-press all week?
Whether Pereyra play acted a bit on the penalty play is immaterial.
It’s criminal to stick out a lazy leg for attacker to go over in the penalty area.
I don’t remember Pereyra scoring with his left like……..ever , so once Luiz got too square on him but still succeeded in showing him on his weaker foot( rather fortuitously) , make him beat you with his left.
Lazy , brainless defending.
There are two themes being played out at Arsenal simultaneously:
one – Arsenal players are being asked to do things they aren’t collectively very good at doing.
Playing out the back under pressure requires good first touch and speed of thought. Out of four defenders on the day only Luiz has a decent first touch but what goes on in his brain is anyone’s guess.
Two- some of the instructions seen incoherent and confusing to players and that’s on Emery.
It only took three rejects from Barca, United and Tottenham to create havoc in our defensive set up and only Deulofeu can be described as any kind of talent.
Cleverly and Capoue are bang average.
Just sad.
Why is Luiz being asked to make a tackle at the edge of the box? The sin is the opposition is allowed to run at our defenders.
I go back to my past posts – you cannot allow teams to build through the middle. We are far too spread out when we lose possession and as a result we concede too much space for the other team to build through and then that puts our defenders directly in the line of fire.
Completely agreed. The central midfield is our biggest issue without the ball.
I don’t think Luiz is ask to tackle there at all.
There’s no need.
He had cover in LT and Sokratis and all he had to do was to keep his shape and his feet moving.
Three goals Luiz has cost us thus far with his reckless play and it’s not like he didn’t know Taylor would give a pen at any sign of contact either, judging how quickly he blew for the Salah shirt pull at Anfield.
The through ball to Salah would’ve taken him out wide , on his weaker foot ,and away from goal, and there was no other Liverpool player in the box to support his play.
Just plain stupid.
The mid failing to protect the back four is a separate issue.
Most of the playing out from the back were initiated through Sokratis. Yet Luiz is a more assured passer. Possibly Leno was discouraged from going left by the Kolasinac link through the left. He only passes backwards. Watford read it and we became even more predictable.
I’m reading between the lines of Xhaka’s “scared” comment. I wonder if this was implying that Emery set us up to sit back in the 2nd half, and that is playing scared? As you all know, I’m over Xhaka, but that comment could be telling about how the team feels about Emery’s conservative approach, especially with a 2 goal lead against a lower table team…
“Players aren’t working together in groups to break pressure.”
Thought this pretty much sums it up, and your supporting evidence/arguments back it all the way. Sigh. The worst of Mourinho and Wenger with none of the upside. Ouch.
I think the comparison to Norwich’s new-found play-it-out-from-the-back skillz have been hilariously apt as well. Shadows of the Wilshere ghost come back to haunt…
Finally, it’s actually weird and worth noting that these problems have persisted and worsened beyond any particular players or backroom personnel. Bizarrely, our funk has outlived Wenger, Andre Santos, Almunia, Mustafi, Mkhitaryan, Gazidis, etc etc… I’m suspicious Arsenal have discovered a weird little pocket in world football – a club where you have all possible comforts and $, but somehow without the consequences/pressures to grind it out week in week out. Whoops!
Sadly, on the heels of such a dismal performance, I think Emery will feel compelled to pick a reasonably strong side against Eintracht. That means Aubameyang starting. I hope he doesn’t, because we’re losing that game either way. Just play some kids and chuck that game. Seriously. We can win the rest of the games in the group and get out of it with our eyes closed. We don’t need this game. But we do need a strong performance against Aston Villa.
Put John-Jules up front and play him with Martinelli and Nelson. Done. The rest of the team, I don’t really care, but definitely rest Ceballos and Aubameyang. But…like I said, Emery may feel desperate to get a decent performance in before our next PL game, so…
The stat doing the rounds right now about us conceding 96 shots in the first five games of the season, more than any club in the world, is just so damning. Hard to look past that right now, but our table position is fine, and I’m trying to stay optimistic about the next few months. Fullbacks. Pepe finding form. Lacazette’s return. Ceballos adapting. Guendouzi having more of the Spurs performances than the Watford ones. These things can happen, and besides, it can’t get worse than that second half at Watford, CAN IT?
Arsenal are only 2 points off Man City after 5 games.
Who wouldn’t have taken that before the season’s start?
We’re in great shape 🙂
We have a good DM solution with English football sitting on the bench. Chambers was Fulhams MVP playing there. How he doesn’t play ahead of xhaka, guendouzi and torriera is starting to puzzle me. He should be able to add tackling in front of the central defense, and he’s a decent passer. And much taller than Torriera.
thanks for clearing up the var thing tim, it was doing my head in trying to find the relative rule.
I also thought luiz started to withdraw his leg on the challenge for the penalty but it was a difficult call.
these minor issues could be the difference between europa and champions league place next year.
seems like pgmol have still got enough roim to wriggle.
“Lazy brainless defending” by Luiz, Tom says, a guy running his socks off putting out a thousand fires all afternoon. Harsh. Very harsh.
It’s almost as if you didnt read a single stat that Tim provided. The Arsenal midfield was a Los Angeles freeway. You should watch the game again, and see how many times Luiz’ defending snuffed out a dangerous situation. His organising on set pieces (they had 7 corners to our 1). I was going to point out on this blog shortly before they pulled a goal back how well he was defending.
Tim describes well how the foul was engineered. Sure he shouldnt have been snookered, you can argue, but another ref wouldnt have given it. Just as another ref would have given Harry Kane a penalty for shoving his backside into Sokratis and going down., because Sokratis had his hands on him.
One second the ball is in the Watford final third, and the next it is on the edge of the Arsenal box, and Pereyra is running straight at him. I have A LOT of sympathy for Luiz. Much of the criticism is unfair, yours here, grossly so.
Context is important. Look again at Tim’s stats. The ball kept pinging back at our defence every few seconds. It was draining and energy sapping. You have to look at Luiz’ foul in context. Rash perhaps, “brainless” and “lazy” an uncharitable view, and ignores the context of the game. The defence wasn’t getting a breather at all. And I’m going to say it, and I don’t care who scoffs… Luiz, costly penalty notwithstanding, played well considering the organisational and tactical shambles in his ranks. I’d say that we were lucky not to lose, and he contributed to our not losing. It wouldnt be fair to sum him up with the penalty alone.
Similarly, Maitland Niles had an assist, but was overall rank bad awful. Those 31 shots? I cant say how many but most came from his side.
I never said Luiz had a bad game did I.
You mentioned context as if this was his first major Arsenal blunder.
I gave you context citing his Liverpool performance.
As for another ref wouldn’t have given it , I’m sorry that’s just pure nonsense.
Stone cold pen every time.
Sorry to pick on you Tom, but why are you so antsy about “playing it out from the back?”
You want to kick it long? Did you see our kick it long ball retention stats? One in 20. 5%.
To me, playing it out from the back or not is non-issue. HOW we do it is the issue. Even Second Division Spanish teams do it. We just do it badly with a lot of drama. Ederson, Neuer and other keepers can do lobbed passes to open midfielders and fullbacks in their sleep. And you beat a high press by movement and showing for the ball. Our two sentries either side of Leno (Buckingham Palace Beefeater style) literally had me laughing at how comical it was. That’s a firing offence for me (only slightly kidding). I swear to you that I chuckled when Sokratis passed it straight to Deulofeu. Who reading this DIDN’T see that coming?
Suggesting that we not PIOFTB is like suggesting that we make Route One plays every time. Five percent retention, remember? A moderately competently coached team should be able to work the ball from back to front, along the ground, with fairly secure possession. It’s not error free. But it shouldn’t be cold sweat panicky in the way that Arsenal make it look either.
Don’t worry about picking on me Claude. Pick away brother.
Worry about reading what I actually wrote.
I never said PIOFTB is something Arsenal should never do.
Claude, I fully agree- seeing how we line up with the sentries guarding Leno’s precious first pass is in equal measures baffling and comical. I would love an explanation for how that set up puts us at some advantage or who came up with that
I’ve never seen that before. Bizarre.
The rule is new and I guess Emery was trying something new as well. But it really was confusing. It’s ok that it didn’t work. But what was it supposed to do?
Claude, yes everyone is doing it , I agree.
I’m not against it , as I said on the other thread we should mix it up more but we do lack options up field for better ball retention.
AMN, Sokratis, Kola, Xhaka aren’t four names that spring to mind when thinking who are the guys I want to play the ball to in tight spaces under pressure, is all I was saying.
Not to beat the dead horse but since I’ve got some time to kill here are some of the things these aforementioned players excel at ,or as I see it anyway.
AMN- great pace and recovery speed and thaaats it.
Poor first touch, heavily one footed, poor positioning and game reading.
Sokratis- willingness to wrestle or hug anyone in equal measure, decent pace.
Poor ball control and rush of blood to the head.
Kola- good pace going forward , decent first touch.
Less than average positional awareness.
Xhaka- good passing range when afforded time
Poor first touch in tight situations, slow on a turn , easily outmuscled off the ball.
Arsenal’s favorite option seem to be Guen in these situations and you got to give him major props for always wanting the ball , but even he has been erratic mostly because of his age.
The biggest problem I have with Emery’s football, is the lack of ambition his team is showing. I do not mean, he doesn’t let his team bomb forward. There are three types of managers in football, and at their best, they can all bring a lot of success. There are different levels to all these managers.
1. The balanced manager.
Ancelotti, Conte and Allegri are an example of this type of manager, and in the past, Ferguson was an example of this type of manager. They aren’t too bogged down on a style of play or philosophy, they just try to maintain a balance of what the team prioritizes. This means they try to play to the strengths of their players, the pace of their league and the level of the opposition. These managers will try to dominate whoever they can, but do not mind dropping the side deeper if the opposition is too good for them. Hard work, team ethic and confidence are probably more important than particular instructions for the players. The best one of this, is someone who is mistaken by those who do not watch his side regularly, and that is Simeone. His side dominates everyone who they are better than, but they sit back and play on the counter against the top sides in Europe.
2. The conservative manager.
Benitez, Mourinho and Pulis. These are managers who always take the conservative route to everything that they are doing. That’s not to say they will always play defensive, but their default setting or go-to style when they are faced with adversity is that they take the conservative option. These are managers that are mistakenly dubbed as “tactical”, when their approach isn’t really that complicated. I will give them this though, the best one’s sides really know how to shut down gaps, have very good positional rotation defensively, hold great defensive shape during various scenarios and know how to use the “dark arts” to win mental games against the opposition. They do not change their sides a lot because it distabilizes their organisation and takes away the partnerships built in the side .e.g. Koscielny knowing that Per lacks pace, means that he learns how to cover for a slow partner. The biggest problem for these managers is that their football makes winning a necessity, because if they lose, it means they deserved to lose and the performances usually bear that out. Playing defensive and losing is a sure fire way of losing fans and that is why Mourinho becomes hated so much when things don’t go his way. The bad ones usually get relegated
3. The attacking/philosophy manager.
Klopp, Pep, Pochetino and Sarri, the four managers who finished in the top four are managers that have a defined style(philosophy) of play and at every turn, they look for an attacking solution to their problems. They defend on the front foot, to force the opposition to give them the ball. They also play on the front foot to dictate the way that the game will go. They do most of their work on the training ground because their football isn’t opposition specific, but more about getting the most out of their players. it is also important that they have their own kind of players to succeed. They are the managers that most legendary sides have had at their helm, to the point that even those that fail to win trophies could still be remembered fondly by the fans. It doesnt always work though, and Julen Lopeteguiat Real Madrid is an example, and yet his Sevilla side are top of the La Liga right now.
I have spent the last year trying to put Emery into a type, and I have failed to find where he fits. I have not been able to understand how a manger can be bad at coaching attack and defence. he is basically the inverse of a balanced manger. he isn’t really great at either and somehow is surprisingly bad (for an elite manager) at both.
As far as I see, Emery is a coach in instruction and does not have the drills to implement his way of playing into the players. Its very tough for footballers to receive the ball, remember the instructions of the coach in that particular situation and then make the right play, without slowing down the game. It would be tough in any league, let alone in the high intensity of the Premier League, which is why drilled play is always the best at this level.
Emery gets so involved in details as to lose sight of the central theme.
I loved this post! Thx!
Short and sweet comment here: Xhaka is just awful, for 3-4 games now I’ve watched his movement off the ball vs that of Ceballos. He is always standing still, easily marked out of being a passing outlet for his teammates. Ceballos on the other hand, when played through the middle, does an excellent job of mirroring his teammates movements to always be available for a pass. This shadowing and ever present availability is what made Cesc and any top-notch central midfielder, great.
He has zero impact on the game.
The thing about Arsenal is…
…they always try to walk it out 🙂
Just here to give this comment some appreciation.
LOL
If and when Emery gets fired, no one including Emery can say: I never saw it coming.
You have to love Arsenal.com for having Adrian Clark explaining how we have no midfield, no structure, no cohesion, no awareness, no coordination, no press, nothing, nada, zilch. Emery should step away from his videotape machine and just watch Adrian Clark’s break down or Graham’s on AFTV. The diamond formation was great for my AC Milan when we had Kaka at the tip, Pirlo at the base and Gattuso and Seedorf and Maldini and Cafu as your FBs. Emery would f**k up that team as well.
Emery had better players man for man at PSG and they are all that saved his tactically woeful ass.
Stats can be misleading and sometimes can be manipulated to tell a different story. The Arsenal stats are so bad that ‘Stats’ has gone into the Witness Protection program.
Parejo at Valencia says the players will not speak to the press until the owner explains why Marcellino was fired. If I’m the Arsenal players, I would refuse to be on the dais with Emery at the EL press conference until he can explain just WTF he’s thinking with his tactics and how he is going to get his head out of ass going forward.
Usually, the camera will show Emery conferring with one of the long-time coaches but on Sunday I don’t recall seeing that once as he stood alone. The camera never showed him gesticulating to players as to what they should be doing as the team’s structure was collapsing. I literally felt sick inside as I watched that debacle unfold and the feeling was made worse by seeing Emery’s quizzical look which said to me that he didn’t know how to fix it. His substitutions made that abundantly clear. That’s when I said to myself, self, Emery has to go.
Time for Allegri.
I’ve been following the last couple of days of reaction and I am convinced of of two things:
1) Unai Emery is absolutely the wrong coach for Arsenal because he hasn’t figured out a definitive way to play and win and and opposing teams have us figured out all too easily.
2) Sacking him now would do nothing for the club except destabilize us and make us even more vulnerable and unable to fight for much needed points. I can’t think of anyone who could realistically step in and make us better on short notice, especially defensively.
In short, we’re f&$ked.
Funny thing is that, there are many coaches that have come into clubs mid-season and done well. It’s just that nobody checks how well those hired at the start of the season actually do. In recent times, Klopp at Liverpool , Husenhutl at Southampton,Zidane at Real and Rodgers at Leicester.
For me, I have a think Marcelino would do wonders with a side like Arsenal. He has been climbing up the managerial ranks and his football seems to continuously improve with an increase in player quality. From Villarreal to Valencia, he has been able to get the most out of his players.
Defensively, is where he is at his best. His sides are very compact, organised and press very well. The only problem is that, I feel we wasted Arsene’s attack on Emery. Most coaches try to keep the strengths of the side they inherit, while trying to imprint their own style on the side. I have seen Ancelotti keep Sarri’s patterns of play, Pep adjust to Ribery and Robben at Bayern when he hadn’t used players like that, along with Lewandowski. We needed someone who would have come in to fix our issues, which where mostly in our defensive strategy and basically try to keep or improve on a very good attack.
I do have my reservations about Allegri. Ten Hagg might be like his predecessor, Peter Bosz, who failed dismally at Dortmund after thrilling everyone with his Ajax side. Arteta, I just think he must be either very good or very horrible for some reason. Domenici Tedesco isn’t experienced enough, even though he is more experienced than Arteta and his last season was not that good. Lopetegui was a miss, and he has now ended up at Sevilla where they now top the League. I would have also loved to see Conte at Arsenal because I think he is as much a managerial talent as Pep and Klopp.
All in all, I don’t think we should be looking for someone to win us a league title or take us to the top. I would just like to see us improve as a unit and find a way of playing that the fans can get behind. Arsene’s 06 to 11 seasons, fans had faith because there was direction and a style that they belived in, even if it failed in the end.
How can you like cknte but have reservations about allegri, who took a Conte side (juve) which conte himself said couldn’t compete without funds,and took them to two out of three champions League finals? I would take allegri over all the rest.
Lots of excellent points and critiques in the comments and the main post today.
My view remains that we are a team very much in transition. We are blooding young players, offloading salary, integrating new signings and playing through injuries. I don’t see the urgency to change the coach. In my estimation, this group of players is just as likely if not more likely to win the Europa League with Emery as they are with anyone else given the standard of competition and Emery’s track record in the competition, the final from last year notwithstanding. The top 4 remains in reach as well. I don’t think the Watford performance is representative of Emery’s body of work at Arsenal, though it did lay bare some of the ugliest flaws of his management to date. It may be a single particularly noxious performance that shows the worst of this coach, or it may be the start of worse things to come. If his players are with him, I don’t see a compelling reason to replace Emery this season at this point in the season.
Having said that, it’s becoming increasingly clear that he is not the correct long term fit with this group. Unless things turn dramatically, Raul et. al will be shopping for a new coach this summer.
The tactical malfunction in midfield should also be addressed in more specific detail. For something to fail so spectacularly, it has to be more than one thing that goes wrong. Emery chose the wrong tools for the job at hand, put them in the wrong places, didn’t change the system when it was clear that it wasn’t working and tried to plug the tide by making player changes instead of positional/tactical ones. The players, for their part, didn’t press in unison, didn’t maintain proper spacing, didn’t help each other out, didn’t compete physically and made poor individual decisions in both final thirds over and over again. For me, the worst stat in that whole game was that Arsenal committed one foul in that entire second half. One, in 45 minutes of football where they gave up 23 shots. That’s not a system or tactical issue, that’s an effort issue.
I love Matteo Guedouzi. I didn’t love his game without the ball at Watford. He was simultaneously our most active defender and least effective defender. His freelance pressing kept giving Watford opportunities to switch play and isolate AMN vs. Deulafeu. Arsenal’s overall shape was as bad as I ever saw it under Wenger with the lack of coordination between the front players pressing the ball and the defenders leaving way too much space between themselves and the front.
Having said all THAT, Arsenal still win this game if not for two boneheaded individual mistakes in our own box because we have an incredible striker. That’s something to feel grateful for.
“For me, the worst stat in that whole game was that Arsenal committed one foul in that entire second half. One, in 45 minutes of football where they gave up 23 shots. That’s not a system or tactical issue, that’s an effort issue.”
That depends Doc.
I actually agree with you that one foul in the second half is a terribly damning statistic, however, I wouldn’t necessarily chalk it up to lack of hustle but rather lack of football intelligence on part of our players.
And maybe a tactical issue as well.
Both AMN and Xhaka have a chance to foul Deulofeu before he switches play and sends Pereyra running on to the ball in miles of space and at Luiz.
Neither is on a yellow and the game is well into the second half now.
But the more egregious example is on 93 minute when Doucoure blows by LT and Socrates has a shot at fouling him right at the center circle but chooses not to.
I can’t imagine a Guardiola or Pochettino team not take a yellow in that instance.
Actually, fcuk it, any experienced professional player should take one for the team regardless who the coach is.
It’s just that simple.
Had Doucoure scored on that play as he probably should’ve, Sokratis would’ve had to apologize for two goals not one.
Genuine question:
What if the absolute worst happened and Donald Trump actually got elected POTUS, er, oops, meant to say if Jose Mourinho actually not hired as Arsenal coach.
Would you still follow the club at the same level that you follow now? Or take a back seat until he’s gone?
GOT, not NOT. cofefve.
Follow the club obviously.
I didn’t leave the country just because 80 k of low information voters in three swing states decided that a billionaire who $hits in gold toilets was a true populist and would have their back.
What kind of question is that? To Arsenal supporters?
Whomever is appointed coach you want to succeed for the sake of team, no?
Very odd question.
I would be torn. I hate it when Mourinho wins and I hate it when Arsenal lose. I guess I’m not a true fan. I would still follow this blog, though. I’m probably more a fan of this community than of the team it supports. Forgive me!
I’m not against playing out of the back per se. With Laca out, we need to do so more than ever. BUT, we suck at how we do it. Xhaka can’t receive it. Guendouzi is too young, has the odd bad first touch and can be too soft.
Coaching issues aside, with our current players:
4-2-3-1
Same goalie and back line.
Ceballos and Guendouzi.
Özil, Pepe and Willock
Aubameyang
Willock is out of position, but can receive a pass, dribble, and help protect Kolasinac.
These people should be able to beat a press, score, and/or assist. Özil, not a great defender, that’s true (and an understatement). But let’s play to our strengths!
Random:
1. We need to be more compact.
2. Open to trying either Chambers or Luiz in one of the 2.
3. We may have a crap retention rate by kicking long — but we haven’t conceded goals directly from it either.
4. End the total predictably! .
One question for Tim: if we don’t commit enough players to an attacking move, how come, when opposing teams break out against us, most of our team are stuck in the opposition’s half?
Several things here:
Let’s deal with Watford. That was the game I commented on. They had two breaks that I remember. One was when we did commit players forward (Toerreira specifically) and then Xhaka jumped out of position for the first time the entire game and they had a free break down his side.
The second was at the end of the match when we were chasing a third goal because we had dropped points.
Interesting post Tim.
Emery has had some success in the past and to suggest that he has zero tactical nous on both the attacking and defensive end of the pitch and has not been trying to get the players to maintain some sort of defensive shape seems hard to accept. His reputation is a hard working detail oriented manager and to suggest that he is not instructing the players on what they should be doing is also hard to accept. In the end the manager is the captain of the ship and he will get the blame but absolving the players from any responsibility for the mess we are seeing makes no sense. Emery can’t go out and kick the ball. Arsene always used to say that his players were playing with the handbrake on when they had bad games. Do we think Arsene was telling the players to go out and put on the handbrake? Players do not always execute the managers strategy very well. Again I am not trying to absolve Emery from the responsibility and if we don’t improve our team defense and decrease the number of goals we concede quickly then Emery needs to be sacked. However, I think we have to accept this group of players outside of PEA and Lacazette are not that good
I do accept that they aren’t very good. However, I have seen really really low level technical players play organized football – Leeds are doing it and none of them are top 5% footballers. I see it all the time in Italy and Germany and it’s done in Spain, even Norwich play it out from the back with aplomb and broke the best pressing team in England last weekend. And let’s not forget that Wenger’s “Youth” team was one of the best ball-playing sides I’ve ever seen and was comprised of guys like Bendtner, Adebayor, Song, Denilson, Gibbs, etc. Guys who go on to fail spectacularly after they leave Arsenal.
So, why is it that this particular group is very often disorganized? Do we just need to spend £500m? Is that the only answer?
I think it’s because Emery’s doing something wrong.
Just a thank you to Tim for his brilliant writing and for bringing everyone together here. This community is exceptionally bright, yet willing to disagree (mostly) respectfully, and has a great collective sense of humor. I am grateful to come here to find respite from a world that’s too often lacking in all of those qualities.
teams need to start games with the right mentality, we can talk all day about players and systems but virtually all the same players were all over tottenham just 2 weeks ago.
if we can get on a winning run and we may build confidence yet we can just as easily get lazy and complacent and lose it again.
some players seem to stay above it like lacazette yet some just play like no one else is trying today so I can’t be bothered.