Emery failed both Ramsey and Ozil. (® Photo: Wikimedia)
At the time of his appointment Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey were the two best players at Arsenal and it was not surprising to see that Arsenal wanted a manager who could develop a team around them. We all thought Unai Emery was that man. We were told that he is that man both by the club and the man himself. But fast forward to now and one has already left the club while the other has been pushed on the brinks. If this is not the total failure of the said appointment then I don’t know what is.
Unai Emery has not been able to use the best out of Ozil and neither did he use Ramsey properly. As a club I don’t know in what direction we are going. If you appoint a manager to implement a Plan A than you just don’t stick with the manager and start implementing his own plan B which is shit anyway and in the process start selling your best players at the club because your manager values donkey workhorse players over technical players capable of standing among the best and be the best.
I personally feel the issue is neither Ozil nor Emery but rather the board that is backing Emery despite his failure to implement a system and style worthy of Arsenal Football Club. And no, just playing youth players doesn’t cut it.
Misuse of playmakers
As for Ozil, forget about him. Unai Emery has not been able to get the best out of any playmaker at Arsenal. Mkhi struggled, Iwobi sold, Cazorla and Wilshere found not good enough without hitting a ball under Emery and Jeff also sold. The only playmaker(Ceballos is not one and if you think that he is than what’s the difference between you and Emery?) left at the club apart from Ozil is maybe ESR and even he has found himself either playing out of position or getting sidetracked for players more capable to play out wide or putting in a shift.
Under Emery PSG signed Julian Draxler. If you just care to look back on his journey under the Spaniard you will find many interesting story path much similar to his German counterpart at Arsenal. He is a playmaker capable of playing as a No. 10 and out wide. But Emery struggled to fit him in his team of 3 DM’s and only sparingly played a 4-2-3-1 formation with Draxler as 10 even in farmers league. The result, his PSG side was so negatively put on pitch against Barca that they surrendered a lead than no one in the modern history did before.
People talk a lot about his Europa League successes at Sevilla but fail to mention that under Emery Sevilla never ever made it past the group stages of Champions League when they qualified. They also fail to mention his Sevilla’s side performances in the league. (Of all La Liga clubs, conceded the most shots on goal in 2015-16 season under Emery according to this source)
Negative instinct
I have always found that managers are best described by their first instinct. How they react to a certain situation. In what way they perceive it and think about it. While Arsene first instinct was always to score and kill the game, Emery first instinct has always been found to be negative. He is a pessimist thinker on pitch who always anticipates that his team is the worst and that there are minefields all over the pitch. Give any attacking pure No. 10 to Emery and he will fail to get the best out of him because Unai Emery is not the coach to play attacking football. He is the coach that you get to try to save you from relegation.
The issue with Ozil is Unai Emery’s use of our midfield. If Unai Emery can make his midfield become a source of springing attacks and creating chances with the idea to dominate, Ozil will again find himself in the team and playing like a player that we remember him for. But if Emery continues to use his midfield as a defensive shield and a focal point to provide good passes for his fullbacks/wingbacks then really there is not much hope.
Conclusion
Unai Emery is an appointment made wrong. If we back the Board and Emery, we might as well say Good Bye to classy Arsenal and the Arsenal way. Ozil is just a metaphor, the real issue is something that no one is talking right now.
Fabulous.
Omair made a very thoughtful, reasoned comment in response to yesterday’s blog and it deserves a blog of its own. As he said it is not merely a failure by Emery it is a failure by the Board. I will add its a failure by all those fans who let this go in silence after posing for years that they cared for the future of the club. Where is all that outrage in the past when big players were sold? Now they are not only being let go on free but them that remain are being misused. So glad Ozil says he is staying until 2021 when his contract expires. Pay or play you phonys!
I know, I almost pinched it myself.
Nice post Omair. Totally agree.
Has Kronke passing the responsibility onto Josh the killing of the club.
Kronke senior seemed like he would back Arsene no matter what but not with Josh the main go to man it feels like the wild west.
Don’t forget that Usmanov always publicly supported Arsene. It made the WOBs mad but the minority owner kept the Kroenkes in check. They couldn’t do anything stupid. Now Josh can do what he likes.
What’s interesting to me is that among all the Kos, Ozil and (to a lesser extent) Mustafi bashing by the club and coach this season, Arsenal have actively promoted Freddie. They made him a First Team coach in charge of a ‘transition team’ (note the name). The team contained all coaches who were there before Emery. Freddie even said he’s looking forward to working with ‘Unai and HIS team’ (emphasis mine)
Not only was the appointment an admission that Emery had failed in one of his objectives, but since then they have had numerous young players come out and give interviews about how much they owe Freddie and like working with him.
Unfortunately I think they are only grooming him/laying the groundwork for him for next season at the earliest, and only if we don’t make the CL. Performances (and man management) seem to not matter to the honchos at all. Still waiting to see what Edu’s modus operandi is. Because I am convinced Raul’s game is to have constant flux in the squad and provide scope for more transfers. Not only does it give him the chance to ‘do deals’, it also keeps the fans happy because new signings are fun. Football? Meh.
Yes. Emery failed.
And the coach who was held up as the shining example of his “style”, Pochettino, he has been found out with a little help from even the bogus PGMO VAR after years and years of failure.
How can coach with such a long career not have a recognised style? This is just more gibberish from Raul’s PR boyz, of course he has a style. A shite style!
As the good Marquis might say a style that can be described as:
“Shit without a stick.”
He described Mourinho’s style as shit on a stick by Emery doesn’t even give people the joy of seeing that shit wave about on the end of a stick. Nope. Just a steaming pile of turd.
Ah well.
Hopefully replacing Sven’s dud Kolasinac with Tierny might stop me gouging my eyes out.
The irony is that Sven’s and Arsene’s gem Aubamayang is responsible for keeping Emery on the job.
No Auba, no signing of the most prolific striker in the club’s history and Emery would’ve been gone yesterday.
Worth adding Sven’s full quote which Raul’s fanboys tried to dismiss as it underlines the above comments that objectively note how Josh Kronke’s takeover has completely changed things:
Mislintat, who is now sporting director at Stuttgart, had disagreements in the way the club identified new players.
Sven Mislintat was known as ‘Diamond Eye’ during his time at Dortmund (Getty)
“We had different approaches,” he added. “Previously we had a strong systematic approach to transfers, a mixture of watching things live as well as quality data and video analysis – Arsenal actually owns their own data company.
“That meant that we acted independently, we knew about all markets and players in all positions that came into question.
“However, the new leadership work more strongly with what they are offered from clubs or agents through their own networks.”
As in:
Josh Kronke has thrown the club’s investment into Stats DNA into the bin. Along with Ramsey and Ozil etc.
This Clown Prince has so far been a disaster for The Arsenal.
Based upon the observation that it took the Billy Big Blaggers an entire year to catch up with the quality of the footy chat on the Arsenal on this blog and PA and elsewhere it could be sometime before these brave lions can bring themselves to speak up in defence of the Arsenal. What a shower they are.
All that has happened at the club since 2017-18 is correlated with Josh becoming a director and effectively the man running the club on behalf of his Dad. As our Greek friend, Hunter, used to preach, albeit aggressively, to the anti-Wenger crowd at our old blog before PosArse, the manager and the executives carry out board policy. As in every proper corporation, if you fail to do so you are fired.
All through 2017-18 there were deliberate and ruthless steps to reduce Wenger’s power and authority until his position was untenable when we came 6th. Ivan was simply carrying out board policy over which Josh would have had a very large say. No wonder after completing what was a nasty, unpleasant job, at the first lucrative opportunity, Ivan hightailed it out of town, leaving the club to Josh and his flunkies, i.e. Raul, Vinai and Emery. The only reason I haven’t directed my ire at Josh is because ultimately it is futile. As long as he effectively owns the club he is not going anywhere. But those other three are fair game.
Not surprisingly Billy Big Blagger and the fake news media refuse to even discuss how Josh has changed Arsenal FC. Meanwhile our values are going down the toilet especially being a club of our word (contracts) and being dedicated to playing attractive football. But sooner or later results fall in line with performance. Ask Manchester United.
Raulodex >>> Scouting
Sabotage
Hostile takeover by a bunch of petty mafia clowns
This is:
The Emery Degeneracy