Miss me?
"You'll miss me when I'm gone" were one of Arsene Wenger's most famous words. As enigmatic as he was, one thing about him was very clear, his footballing philosophy. Possession based attacking football was Arsenal's approach throughout his 22 year tenure as the gunners' boss. Even though some of it faded away in his final years, Arsenal whenever were on their game, tore apart and dissected any team and won handsomely and with more 'control'.
Something that cannot be said and hasn't been seen under Unai Emery's reign for the past year and quarter. Emery talks about control a lot but has failed to establish that on the pitch for the large part of his tenure. The last game that his Arsenal side won and entrenched complete dominion on the opposition was when the gunners beat Bournemouth 5-1 in the premier league way back in March this year.
Since then Arsenal have just scraped wins in the premier league and haven't excercised any form of authority on the pitch for longer periods.
The lack of a clear style of play is really hurting Arsenal as sideways and monotonous football seems to be their theme at the moment. Their utter reliance on Pierre Emerick Aubameyang for goals eventually caught up to them when he didn't have the best of his game against Sheffield United and Crystal Palace and the gunners dropped 5 points in the space of a week.
So what has gone wrong?
Well, there have been some reports circulating around that the players are not able to fully comprehend what Emery wants from them. Some players are even worried about the absence of a pattern of play on the pitch.
Despite Emery persisting every week that he wants his team to be defensively solid and envisions them to be an offensive unit, the cold fact is that Arsenal at the moment are showing none of those traits and are somewhere stuck in the middle and taking on their demons one at the time.
It just feels like Arsenal are more of a reactive team now rather than a faction who knows what they have to do on the pitch. Which just contradicts everything we thought Emery was.
When Emery first arrived in England, he came with a reputation of being a tactician, someone who coaches his team according to how the opposition play. Which meant different tactics in different games and it involved more pressing, man marking opponents and cutting off passing lanes to certain players.
And it worked to a certain extent with Arsenal's beating Fulham 5-1 away at Craven Cottage where Emery started with a 4-4-2 against the back 3 of Fulham, the 4-2 victory against Tottenham at home where Emery outclassed Pochettino by playing a 3-4-3 with Arsenal's wing backs cutting of Spurs's fullback's crossing meant that Spurs had to go central which Arsenal's back 3 fended off comfortably.
Also, the pressing masterclass by Ramsey on Jorginho when the gunners beat Chelsea 2-0 was one of the highlights of Emery's tactical genius last season.
Even with all that going on for Emery, injuries to key players and a fairly depleted squad caught up to him at the end as Arsenal narrowly missed out on top by just a point.
Being heavily backed by the board in the summer transfer window and rise of potential young players Emery's Arsenal was presumed to be in a pole position to finish top 4 this season. Although after a pretty dodgy start to the season accumulating only 16 points from 10 matches, questions have started to flare up about Unai Emery. This poll about Emery in or out isn't just born out of of Arsenal's lack of points, but it is vastly related to Arsenal not having any identity or a precise style of play anymore which has frustrated fans.
Barring Liverpool where he deployed the the 4-4-2 diamond, Emery has largely dug his heels in the
4-3-3 holding role. I say holding because unlike Liverpool and Manchester City, Arsenal don't position their wingers higher up the pitch and have a pressing midfield.
This had led to many believing that Arsenal are transitioning into a counter attacking team with the pace they have upfront. Which is fine except the possession numbers suggest otherwise. Despite the numbers dropping quite a bit from the Wenger era, Arsenal have had enough hold on the ball, they just haven't been able to do anything with it which was quite visible against Bournemouth, Sheffield United and Palace. Also, counter attacking football suggests that a team gives up some control of the game and works its way out during break in play. And Emery insisting on his team needing more 'control' of the game every week steers the conversation away from counter attack.
So what is Emery's philosophy?
The straight answer is that he doesn't have one. We can debate every week about what it is, but the reality is that you just don't know which Arsenal is going to turn up.
Which is not to say he isn't trying to inculcate one, his persistence in playing the 4-3-3 every week suggests there's something there but at the moment it feels like he is just trying to articulate substance just for the sake of it and this isn't who he is.
Also, his undying faith is Granit Xhaka , placing him in the side every week means he is sacrificing pace, pressing and dynamism in his midfield. That ultimately exploded as Xhaka was jeered off by his own fans against Palace on Sunday leaving Emery with a lot to answer and further damaging his relationship with the fans.
Is Emery the right man for the job?
I don't think so. Granted some refreeing decisions went against his way this season and he was robbed of a perfectly good goal on Sunday resulting in a loss of 2 points but we are dealing with small margins here and the wider concern is that Arsenal are appalling to watch. People can talk about VAR and how it hasn't worked in Arsenal's favor but the bottom line is that as a football club Arsenal operating on ifs and buts is just not sustainable and they should immediately look to improve matters on the pitch. With the way things are going, I don't think Emery will be here next season. And if he wants to keep his job for the entirety of this season, it would be wise for him to go back to his ideologies which basically consisted picking his team and formation according to the opposition. As at least back then it felt like his team had a plan but these days you just don't understand what Arsenal is up to.
And lastly, does anything even needs to be said about Mesut Ozil? Omitted from the squad yet again
and as Emery said in his pre match press conference on Friday, he and the board are on the same page regarding Ozil's omission from the squad. This wouldn't have been much of an issue if Arsenal were playing well but when the team are in dire need of creativity and your best creative player not even making it to the bench is not a good look on the club and has already caused a lot of chaos amongst fans.
From the looks of it, the club is going to persist with Emery for the time being but it won't be long before that changes so the Arsenal boss must find ways to set things right as quickly as he can.
Something that cannot be said and hasn't been seen under Unai Emery's reign for the past year and quarter. Emery talks about control a lot but has failed to establish that on the pitch for the large part of his tenure. The last game that his Arsenal side won and entrenched complete dominion on the opposition was when the gunners beat Bournemouth 5-1 in the premier league way back in March this year.
Since then Arsenal have just scraped wins in the premier league and haven't excercised any form of authority on the pitch for longer periods.
The lack of a clear style of play is really hurting Arsenal as sideways and monotonous football seems to be their theme at the moment. Their utter reliance on Pierre Emerick Aubameyang for goals eventually caught up to them when he didn't have the best of his game against Sheffield United and Crystal Palace and the gunners dropped 5 points in the space of a week.
So what has gone wrong?
Well, there have been some reports circulating around that the players are not able to fully comprehend what Emery wants from them. Some players are even worried about the absence of a pattern of play on the pitch.
Despite Emery persisting every week that he wants his team to be defensively solid and envisions them to be an offensive unit, the cold fact is that Arsenal at the moment are showing none of those traits and are somewhere stuck in the middle and taking on their demons one at the time.
It just feels like Arsenal are more of a reactive team now rather than a faction who knows what they have to do on the pitch. Which just contradicts everything we thought Emery was.
When Emery first arrived in England, he came with a reputation of being a tactician, someone who coaches his team according to how the opposition play. Which meant different tactics in different games and it involved more pressing, man marking opponents and cutting off passing lanes to certain players.
And it worked to a certain extent with Arsenal's beating Fulham 5-1 away at Craven Cottage where Emery started with a 4-4-2 against the back 3 of Fulham, the 4-2 victory against Tottenham at home where Emery outclassed Pochettino by playing a 3-4-3 with Arsenal's wing backs cutting of Spurs's fullback's crossing meant that Spurs had to go central which Arsenal's back 3 fended off comfortably.
Also, the pressing masterclass by Ramsey on Jorginho when the gunners beat Chelsea 2-0 was one of the highlights of Emery's tactical genius last season.
Even with all that going on for Emery, injuries to key players and a fairly depleted squad caught up to him at the end as Arsenal narrowly missed out on top by just a point.
Being heavily backed by the board in the summer transfer window and rise of potential young players Emery's Arsenal was presumed to be in a pole position to finish top 4 this season. Although after a pretty dodgy start to the season accumulating only 16 points from 10 matches, questions have started to flare up about Unai Emery. This poll about Emery in or out isn't just born out of of Arsenal's lack of points, but it is vastly related to Arsenal not having any identity or a precise style of play anymore which has frustrated fans.
Barring Liverpool where he deployed the the 4-4-2 diamond, Emery has largely dug his heels in the
4-3-3 holding role. I say holding because unlike Liverpool and Manchester City, Arsenal don't position their wingers higher up the pitch and have a pressing midfield.
This had led to many believing that Arsenal are transitioning into a counter attacking team with the pace they have upfront. Which is fine except the possession numbers suggest otherwise. Despite the numbers dropping quite a bit from the Wenger era, Arsenal have had enough hold on the ball, they just haven't been able to do anything with it which was quite visible against Bournemouth, Sheffield United and Palace. Also, counter attacking football suggests that a team gives up some control of the game and works its way out during break in play. And Emery insisting on his team needing more 'control' of the game every week steers the conversation away from counter attack.
So what is Emery's philosophy?
The straight answer is that he doesn't have one. We can debate every week about what it is, but the reality is that you just don't know which Arsenal is going to turn up.
Which is not to say he isn't trying to inculcate one, his persistence in playing the 4-3-3 every week suggests there's something there but at the moment it feels like he is just trying to articulate substance just for the sake of it and this isn't who he is.
Also, his undying faith is Granit Xhaka , placing him in the side every week means he is sacrificing pace, pressing and dynamism in his midfield. That ultimately exploded as Xhaka was jeered off by his own fans against Palace on Sunday leaving Emery with a lot to answer and further damaging his relationship with the fans.
Is Emery the right man for the job?
I don't think so. Granted some refreeing decisions went against his way this season and he was robbed of a perfectly good goal on Sunday resulting in a loss of 2 points but we are dealing with small margins here and the wider concern is that Arsenal are appalling to watch. People can talk about VAR and how it hasn't worked in Arsenal's favor but the bottom line is that as a football club Arsenal operating on ifs and buts is just not sustainable and they should immediately look to improve matters on the pitch. With the way things are going, I don't think Emery will be here next season. And if he wants to keep his job for the entirety of this season, it would be wise for him to go back to his ideologies which basically consisted picking his team and formation according to the opposition. As at least back then it felt like his team had a plan but these days you just don't understand what Arsenal is up to.
And lastly, does anything even needs to be said about Mesut Ozil? Omitted from the squad yet again
and as Emery said in his pre match press conference on Friday, he and the board are on the same page regarding Ozil's omission from the squad. This wouldn't have been much of an issue if Arsenal were playing well but when the team are in dire need of creativity and your best creative player not even making it to the bench is not a good look on the club and has already caused a lot of chaos amongst fans.
From the looks of it, the club is going to persist with Emery for the time being but it won't be long before that changes so the Arsenal boss must find ways to set things right as quickly as he can.
Comments
Post a Comment