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"Thanks for that Brian" said:
I wonder if Pochettino wouldn't be a great appointment for your lot. I looked at this paragraph...



...and it's pretty much exactly why we sacked him. <laugh>

The guy's looked completely burned out for a while and I doubt he'll take any job this season. He would probably do well to start afresh in another league before coming back to the PL...but if you want him....
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Nah, as I said, I don't think it would happen. Poch seems like a man of principle. Also, it's far too soon for him to to be in charge of an arch rival. I'd have to seriously question his mental state if he joined us so soon after leaving you!

Loads of names are being linked with the job, but the four-man shortlist commonly being reported is Allegri, Arteta, Nuno and Ancelotti. I have reservations about all of these choices. However, beggars can't be choosers, and we're not in a position to be super picky when we need results to pick up asap.

Let's see how Ljunberg does. He purportedly has aspirations of being a manager himself. He also commands respect from the Arsenal players at every level - something Emery was incapable of.
 
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BrunelGooner said:
This was coming for a long time. I personally think he should have gone a few weeks earlier, and the damage may already be too severe to overturn, but at least the club did what was needed in the end.

I wanted Emery to succeed at the club. Despite his well-documented fallouts with players from PSG, and his overtly pragmatic style, I wanted to reflect more on his time at Valencia and Sevilla, where he enjoyed a lot more success as a coach. Unfortunately, he was incapable of being decisive. The constant rotation of players, the ultra defensive approach when under pressure, the baffling substitutions, the lack of pressing or any fluidity/movement, over-reliance on fullbacks, misusing players, being too one-dimensional, unable to inspire and control the dressing room - whatever it is you shouldn't do as a coach, Emery was guilty of it. Emery would be a fantastic analyst, but it is very clear he overthought things far too much. The large quantity of personnel and formation changes are testament to this. Hence why the players lost faith in his ideas.

Eventually, it got to a point where there was no coherent direction in his words, with players publicly admitting they needed to gain instructions from Ljunberg to decipher what Emery had said. This general confusion translated to the pitch where it was hard to see what style of football he wanted to incorporate. Not only this, but his lack of ambition in press-conferences really sent alarm bells ringing. Teams in the lower half of the table were dominating possession and having 20+ shots against us, yet he'd come out and say we were 'improving tactically'<doh>.

We've conceded 225 shots in 13 Premier League games. We are conceding, on average, 2 goals per game. We are currently 8th in the table, 9 points off 4th place, with a heavy fixture schedule coming up. The football was turgid. We were stifled of creativity, attacking players inhibited, midfield porous and a defence as useful as a chocolate teapot. It was also our worst run of form since 1992.

This firing was inevitable.

However, that was the easy part. The not-so-easy part is now hiring the right man...
Click to expand...

I've said it elsewhere on here. As much as Emery has under performed, he's been badly let down by those in charge of recruitment.

This Gary Neville article sets it out.
..
https://www.skysports.com/football/...etic-recruitment-policy-as-arsenal-head-coach

Some of the recruitment has been a ****ing joke. To solve Arsenal's defensive problems, they've signed Lichsteiner, Sokratis, David Luiz and a bloke they've loaned out for a season. That is just nuts and those in charge want sacking more than the manager.
 
BrunelGooner said:
Nah, as I said, I don't think it would happen. Poch seems like a man of principle. Also, it's far too soon for him to to be in charge of an arch rival. I'd have to seriously question his mental state if he joined us so soon after leaving you!

Loads of names are being linked with the job, but the four-man shortlist commonly being reported is Allegri, Arteta, Nuno and Ancelotti. I have reservations about all of these choices. However, beggars can't be choosers, and we're not in a position to be super picky when we need results to pick up asap.

Let's see how Ljunberg does. He purportedly has aspirations of being a manager himself. He also commands respect from the Arsenal players at every level - something Emery was incapable of.
Click to expand...
Sol Judas Campbell, you heard it here first.
 
"Thanks for that Brian" said:
I've said it elsewhere on here. As much as Emery has under performed, he's been badly let down by those in charge of recruitment.

This Gary Neville article sets it out.
..
https://www.skysports.com/football/...etic-recruitment-policy-as-arsenal-head-coach

Some of the recruitment has been a ****ing joke. To solve Arsenal's defensive problems, they've signed Lichsteiner, Sokratis, David Luiz and a bloke they've loaned out for a season. That is just nuts and those in charge want sacking more than the manager.
Click to expand...


I semi-agree with what Neville has said, and when you lay it out like that, it doesn't look good at all. However, Neville also believed Emery shouldn't have been sacked and is attributing more of the blame to the players/the recruitment team, instead of the head coach too. They all deserve criticism to varying degrees. Before I go into this, let's go through those players you've mentioned individually:

Lichtsteiner - terrible signing, but played more than he was meant to. I understood the signing at the time (experienced, leadership, won trophies etc), it just didn't work out.

Sokratis - If I'd known he wanted £90k a week, I'd have aborted this move. Silly money he's on. However, he was actually decent (albeit unspectacular) for us up until the final 7-8 games of last season. Unfortunately, that rubbish form seems to have extended into this season. Emery is the one who's kept selecting him, so he needs to take ownership of that decision.

Luiz - in theory, it made sense. £8m for an experienced player who's won pretty much everything there is to win and is a leader in the dressing room. Short-term stop gap whilst we ease Saliba in for next season. He's performed far worse than anyone expected though. Again - is this because of his lack of discipline or down to Emery's confusing tactics?

It's hard to judge some of these players when they're demotivated and are forced to play in roles they're not comfortable with. There's been a lack of protection in front of the defence because Emery insisted on playing Torreira as a CAM, for example. We have no other DMs in our team. Xhaka is Xhaka, and Guendouzi is more of a box-to-box type of player.

Baring in mind Emery's never been able to organise a defence in his managerial career. It's always been one of his major flaws.

Even if you think those players individually are ****e, there are no excuses for conceding 20+ shots per game to relegation candidates.

I don't think any of those aforementioned names are elite quality. By equal measure though, they certainly aren't as bad as they've been made to look under an uninspiring coach.
 
"Thanks for that Brian" said:
I've said it elsewhere on here. As much as Emery has under performed, he's been badly let down by those in charge of recruitment.

This Gary Neville article sets it out.
..
https://www.skysports.com/football/...etic-recruitment-policy-as-arsenal-head-coach

Some of the recruitment has been a ****ing joke. To solve Arsenal's defensive problems, they've signed Lichsteiner, Sokratis, David Luiz and a bloke they've loaned out for a season. That is just nuts and those in charge want sacking more than the manager.
Click to expand...
The unwillingness to accept that defending is a key part of the game goes back to the last 10 years of Wenger's tenure.
Emery's team seemed to have all the same flaws.
Ironic given that Wenger's successes were based on that solid back four with two great holding midfielders in front.
 
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BrunelGooner said:
I semi-agree with what Neville has said, and when you lay it out like that, it doesn't look good at all. However, Neville also believed Emery shouldn't have been sacked and is attributing more of the blame to the players/the recruitment team, instead of the head coach too. They all deserve criticism to varying degrees. Before I go into this, let's go through those players you've mentioned individually:

Lichtsteiner - terrible signing, but played more than he was meant to. I understood the signing at the time (experienced, leadership, won trophies etc), it just didn't work out.

Sokratis - If I'd known he wanted £90k a week, I'd have aborted this move. Silly money he's on. However, he was actually decent (albeit unspectacular) for us up until the final 7-8 games of last season. Unfortunately, that rubbish form seems to have extended into this season. Emery is the one who's kept selecting him, so he needs to take ownership of that decision.

Luiz - in theory, it made sense. £8m for an experienced player who's won pretty much everything there is to win and is a leader in the dressing room. Short-term stop gap whilst we ease Saliba in for next season. He's performed far worse than anyone expected though. Again - is this because of his lack of discipline or down to Emery's confusing tactics?

It's hard to judge some of these players when they're demotivated and are forced to play in roles they're not comfortable with. There's been a lack of protection in front of the defence because Emery insisted on playing Torreira as a CAM, for example. We have no other DMs in our team. Xhaka is Xhaka, and Guendouzi is more of a box-to-box type of player.

Baring in mind Emery's never been able to organise a defence in his managerial career. It's always been one of his major flaws.

Even if you think those players individually are ****e, there are no excuses for conceding 20+ shots per game to relegation candidates.

I don't think any of those aforementioned names are elite quality. By equal measure though, they certainly aren't as bad as they've been made to look under an uninspiring coach.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry but Lichsteiner was done when you signed him. Players coming in from Italy tend to struggle with the pace in the PL, being mid-30's and starting to slow, this was never going to work.

Luiz is a decent footballer but is a loose cannon (sorry!) He's always liable to do something daft, which is exactly what you didn't need to add to your existing defensive issues. I laughed out loud when I heard that you'd signed him. He's the defensive Xhaka.

Sokratis is by far the best of the three. However, he's got the turning circle of an oil tanker and no pace. He shouldn't play in a high line.

It has to be taken into account that 2 of these players were to be added to the ageing Koscielny and error prone Mustafi. It's heaping problem upon problem. Additionally, they were short term responses to long term problems, so the problems still remain to be solved.

It's said that money's been tight but in recent seasons you've spent the thick end of £200m on Aubameyang, Lacazette and "Saints preserve us, Nicolas Pepe". If it was my club, I'd clean house.
 
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I think he'll be gone in January. Might be worth a punt.
 
"Thanks for that Brian" said:
I'm sorry but Lichsteiner was done when you signed him. Players coming in from Italy tend to struggle with the pace in the PL, being mid-30's and starting to slow, this was never going to work.

Luiz is a decent footballer but is a loose cannon (sorry!) He's always liable to do something daft, which is exactly what you didn't need to add to your existing defensive issues. I laughed out loud when I heard that you'd signed him. He's the defensive Xhaka.

Sokratis is by far the best of the three. However, he's got the turning circle of an oil tanker and no pace. He shouldn't play in a high line.

It has to be taken into account that 2 of these players were to be added to the ageing Koscielny and error prone Mustafi. It's heaping problem upon problem. Additionally, they were short term responses to long term problems, so the problems still remain to be solved.

It's said that money's been tight but in recent seasons you've spent the thick end of £200m on Aubameyang, Lacazette and "Saints preserve us, Nicolas Pepe". If it was my club, I'd clean house.
Click to expand...

I'm not saying I agreed with the Lichtsteiner signing, I'm saying I could understand why we went for that sort of player. My guess is he was meant to provide a positive influence and bastardry in the dressing room to a bunch of meek players. It didn't work out that way and his performances weren't good.

Luiz wasn't our first or second choice. In fact, some journalists said he was 4th or 5th on our list of defenders. However, we needed an extra body coming in with Koscielny forcing a move. He hasn't been great so far, but the system he's played under and the lack of protection have done him no favours.

Sokratis hasn't been good at all this season. He needs a long spell on the bench. Emery kept choosing him despite his rubbish displays, so he creates a rod for his own back there.

I agree that more has to be done to improve on our current options, and we didn't spend our money as wisely as we should have. But we should still be capable of defending better and conceding less goals than we have. Emery did nothing to reverse that trend. If anything, he made it worse with a better squad than last year.
 
I caught a snippet of the radio commentary of Newcastle/Citeh earlier, in which Fernandinho was given a yellow card for a tactical foul. My son and I looked at each other and could hardly believe it. Normal service was resumed later however when on 87 mins he does a similar thing but doesn't get a second yellow. Luckily justice was done a minute later with the equaliser.
 
My Gooner supporting cousin gave me significant **** over our new manager's appointment. You would be correct if you imagined that I am extremely pleased to see that the appointment of Freddie Ljungberg may not have got off to the best of starts...

Having selected a defence of Chambers, Luiz, Mustafi and Kolasinac, he was foaming at the mouth and used words that made even me blush a bit.

After they just about fluked a 2-2 draw at Norwich, he's turned his 'phone off...

<laugh>
 
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Man U look stale with little bursts of life when the front 3 get it but they have no spearhead so the menace just fizzles away

If we play with confidence we can dismantle them on Wednesday
 
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