Unai Emery: In or Out?

This may seem like a bit of a strange question given that he's only been at the club for 7 months.

However, there are growing frustrations with him and there is a vocal contingent of Arsenal fans who have expressed their disappointment with how he's performed since the turn of the year.

So what do a lot of us think about him so far?

I'll give my perspective to try and break it down:

The good:

My expectations at the beginning of the season were to finish 6th and maybe go on a good cup run. I wasn't expecting us to be challenging for the top four at any point because I believed the lack of quality we have in our squad, compared to the other top six clubs, exceeded ours. I still do think that and my personal view is we will still finish 5th/6th.

I've always said that next season, when we've got rid of the deadwood, freed up wages and spent more money, he has to be assessed fairly at that point.

But, right now, the facts are:

- we are 1 point off Manchester United in 4th despite a horrid injury crisis
- we have reached 50 points 5 games quicker than last season
- our away record is already better in February than it was for the entirety of last season
- we have scored 74 goals in all competitions this season (53 in the league)
- despite the narrow loss to BATE, we are still one of the favourites for the Europa League
- we saw upturn in performance levels for Bellerin, Holding, Iwobi and Lacazette
- development of promising youth players like Smith-Rowe, Willock, Saka, Nketiah etc.
- his no-nonsense approach to underperforming players/players who aren't willing to put a shift in
- in-game management (to an extent)

The bad:

- Even though he gave youth players a chance in cup games, one of his limitations is the fact he won't use them in bigger games when the likes of Mkhitaryan, Iwobi etc do not perform. They seem to have a free pass. Although I understand he doesn't have a lot of options right now, he needs to trust some of your youth players more in bigger games if the current established XI don't perform. They need to know their place isn't guaranteed.

- Defensively, this is the worst I can remember us being. Ever. I cannot remember a time when we conceded this many goals. One of the things he said in his arrival interview (which was a bit concerning) was he'd prefer to win 5-4 than 1-0. Which means he doesn't seem to pay attention as much to the defensive aspect of things. A lot of these issues precede Emery, but they've gotten worse since he's arrived.

But the long-term injuries to Bellerin, Sokratis and Holding (two of which have had season ending injuries) hasn't helped.

- His stubbornness. I do not understand why he isn't as adaptable tactically as he was earlier in the season. He keeps playing 3 at the back which makes us more vulnerable defensively than normal. Our midfield is overrun, our full-backs aren't quick enough to get back into position and we have minimal attacking threat from central areas. We are still susceptible to counter-attacks and he's done nothing to stop this from continuing. It is frustrating to watch us commit the same mistakes week-in week-out. Which is ironic as this is what made us all turn against Wenger.

- The lack of creativity and Ozil saga. I don't know why this is happening, I don't know if Emery is being told from Raul Sanllehi that he wants to push Ozil out the club, or whether Ozil and Emery don't get along (Ornstein has suggested it is more the former than the latter). If it is the case that Sanllehi is trying to make life so uncomfortable for Ozil that he departs, then the issues at our club are much bigger than I thought. We are bereft of ideas and guile. If you want him to leave, fine. But right now, we aren't good enough to not have him in the team. And if we want to get back into the Champions League, surely we should be trying to get the best out of our best players, rather than freeze them out? This is going to end badly for one of them.

- Loss to BATE. I know results like this can happen, but given the way we performed and the level of opposition, this is one of the worst results in the history of the club. Baring in mind they hadn't played for 13 weeks. And we thrashed them at their place last year scoring 4 goals with a B team. So yeah, this result is genuinely humiliating.

Verdict:

Providing he is backed fairly in the transfer market this Summer, I will judge him more critically next season. He has to find a way of delivering Champions League football by the end of next season at the very least. If he doesn't, he will go and we find someone else.

Right now, I will give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he is still trying to figure out the league. Baring in mind the injury crisis is one of the worst we've had in living memory.

But, providing funds are made available to him (hopefully beyond the £45m being reported a few weeks back), he has to deliver.

 

Too soon. Ask again in ~1 year.

We have a ton of players that are not good enough for this club that we need to replace.

 

I completely agree with you, but like I said, there seems to be a growing contingent of supporters who are starting to doubt him and some are already calling for his head. There's a French Arsenal supporter I know who said that, based on Emery's time at PSG and how he struggled to take control of the dressing room over there, he wasn't confident Emery would be the right type of manager for us.

Heck, go on Twitter and hashtag #EmeryOut. You'll see the scale of responses from fans who feel like he isn't good enough.

That's why I'm doing this poll, just to gauge what opinions of him are at this present moment.

Time will tell obviously, and this season was always going to be somewhat painful, but we're still not in a disastrous position.

Both he and the players need to fix up, though. Because things look very bleak compared to the beginning of December.

 

Apologies if the NLD result gave you (fools) false hope.

IMHO it will take Emery until the start of the 2020-21 season to
really get going. A lot of squad waste accrued up to Wenger exit
day 1 is going to have to be purged incrementally *** over the
transfer windows to come.

*** A CL slot for next season might accelerate that somewhat

 

My main concern with Emery is that we actually look WORSE than we did 3-4 months ago.

His constant tinkering with shape and squad selection is infuriating to say the least.

Oh and I dont think the squad is as bad as some are saying.. Laca, Aubameyang, Bellerin, Ozil, Torreira, Guendouzi, Ramsey are all quality.
Pretty certain Klopp or Guardiola would get top four with this squad.

To be fair on Emery. Defensive Injuries have been a real issue though.

 

RDBD, the problem is I don't know if the fanbase (or Raul Sanllehi) will afford him that amount of time.

A lot of it will depend on what happens in the Summer, too. Welbeck, Cech, Ramsey, Lichtsteiner and Monreal will be off the wage bill at the bare minimum. So that's at least £500,000+ a week in wages saved right there. Then the likes of Mustafi and Elneny have been transfer listed by the club. Reiss-Nelson and Emile Smith-Rowe will be back from their stints in Germany. On top of that, if he is given a substantial transfer budget to work with, then he will be given very little option but to deliver a CL finish in his second full season with us. Obviously that's a big 'if', because if he's given a tiny budget to work from, then there's no point changing manager because any other manager will suffer the same problems.

Liverpool, City, Chelsea and United are all likely to be spending big again, whilst Spurs, who may not spend as much, already have a competitive squad as it is.

I'm under no illusions Emery will have to defy the odds somewhat next season. In equal measure, however, the club will be in a better financial state and our U23 players have been extremely impressive. So it depends on how well they can integrate and adapt to the rigours of Premier League football. Combining shrewd investments with blooding youngsters, and there's no reason why we can't be in a CL spot next season. But the rest of it will come down to Emery's man management and tactics.

 

Bear, we've had this discussion before. And I still don't agree at all. I think most managers would struggle. Genuinely.

This is Guendouzi's first season playing top flight football, so it's unfair to put the expectations on a 19-year old to be delivering every week, despite how impressive he's been.

I've never been a huge fan of Ramsey, so I don't agree that he is a top class player.

Ozil was very impressive up until 2016. Since then, he has been inconsistent and doesn't look like the player we bought from Real Madrid. It's not right to still label him as a 'quality' player because he looks a shadow of the player we bought. This has been an issue that was prevalent before Emery came in, though.

Agree about Torreira, Bellerin, Laca and Aubameyang. But they are the only very good players we have in our squad.

Cech, Xhaka, Mustafi, Monreal, Iwobi, Mkhitaryan, Lichtsteiner, Kolasinac, Elneny, Jenkinson, Ospina, Maitland-Niles...

None of those players would get into any of the top 6 squads.

We have the 6th best squad in the league. Until we have a mass clearout, we will not progress.

 

Well that's where we differ. I feel Tottenham and Liverpool in particularly are carrying plenty of mediocre individuals. But their managers are getting them to perform to their best levels.

Aubamayang is one of the best forwards in World football. He's very quick and a deadly finisher.
Lacazette works hard and is a proper goalscorer.
Mkhitarian is a player who managed 32 assist in a Season. He's scored over 20 goals from midfield in two different Seasons at Dortmund. The quality is there personally I feel its managers job to bring that out.
The same goes for Ozil - he has'nt lost his pace so there's no real reason other than motivation for his poor form. This is a World Cup/Champions League winner we are talking about here. Again I feel Klopp/Guardiola would get him performing again.
Torreira and Guendouzi is a excellent midfield pairing and although I think Xhaka has underperformed he's a quality player and would make most squads.
Ramsey for me is a player who with the right coaching can and should be top class. His issues are all tactical.
Bellerin arguably the best RB in the league.

Our centrebacks and defence is for sure the weaklink. Like I said I belive there's a bunch of players here that are low in confidence, dont know there roles tactically, are not getting regular runs in their favoured positions. etc... The top managers can get the best out of the players they have and soo far Emery just is'nt doing that. (and neither was Wenger for the last few years)

 

Far too early to tell. He does need to get a grip soon though. I think he is being surprised by the quality of the defending in the premiership. In Spain and in France they problem is winning the ball in midfield, not retaining it in midfield. In England, the game is much more combative in midfield than on the continent. Your midfielders and even your defenders have to be much better in possession.

Look back on the great midfielders, wingers and full backs, in the English game and there were quite a few that were dodgy defenders, a few that were slow, but they could all retain possession and pass the ball well.

Players and managers that come to England thinking they know it all, generally don't do very well until they adjust their thinking (Wenger was of course a notable exception to that). I don't have any clear sense that Emery has started to do that yet.

 

This is way too early. What happened to the patience you were extolling recently?

 

If you are talking to me, I said it was too early to tell. I don't think I am being unfair in saying he hasn't got it all worked out yet. Or speculating on how he is going wrong.

 

I was replying to the original post. Brunel was espousing patience in some well written posts not too long ago, but the tide seems to be turning slowly. I may be wrong and have mis-interpreted. It amuses me that there is speculation that Emery needs to go already. Actually, it's not amusing and it makes me despair. Still, things could be worse -- we could be Chelsea supporters

 

Wini, genuine question mate - did you read the whole OP? Because the whole point of this thread was to gauge other people's opinions. I have been seeing a lot of anti-Emery stuff on social media and even people I speak to aren't that keen on him. So I just wanted to see what the consensus was on here.

As for my view on Emery, like I said in the verdict of the OP, I think everyone knows that I will judge him fairly next season (assuming he is financially backed). This season was always a 'free hit'. And there's been a lot of internal/external factors that have detrimentally affected us. Despite that, we're 1 point off 4th and one of the favourites for the Europa.

What I am concerned with is his lack of in-game management recently, his stubbornness and the fact he doesn't utilise some of our youth more, as Iwobi and Micky have not impressed at all.

I've never said I want him out, and I will of course give him more time as we do need to be patient.

That doesn't mean I don't have concerns, though.

 

Having re-read it, I can see that you are not screaming 'Emery-out!' just yet. You wrote a very good post not too long ago that I thought I had responded to - sorry can't remember the thread - that was basically a mid-term report highlighting the pro's and cons of the season so far. That's the one where you were advocating patience. Then you shared an article from another site which you said 'articulated my thoughts' or something to that effect, which, I felt was trying to bolster an anti-Emery movement, and that surprised me. Again, I may have mis-interpreted your message, apologies if so. However, there are a lot of posts from other contributors that, frankly, annoy me at how impatient people can be. Given that he inherited a poor defense, one that has been decimated by injuries and is seemingly hamstrung financially as you point out, he hasn't done too badly. There are times when his tactics have been cause for concern, but there are very few managers that cannot have that charge laid against them. As for his youth policy, it maybe that he is giving himself a good look at the established players so that he can make informed decisions come the end of the season. He is in a 'no lose', situation this season, it would be nice to pick up a trophy, and maybe pinch 4th. Next season is when he needs to start doing it properly.

 

All very fair points that I agree with.

What I will say is the result against BATE really annoyed me because I was expecting so much better. And the level of opposition is not great. When you then add to the fact they hadn't played for 12 weeks, the loss really doesn't reflect well on Emery or the players. And I still stand by my comment when I said that it was one of the most embarrassing results in the club's history. Under no circumstances should we be losing to teams like that.

But the blog I posted wasn't advocating for Emery to leave, it was merely voicing frustrations and concerns with some of the things we've seen from him in recent weeks.

Again, I think they were all valid criticisms and concerns.

He is constantly trying the same things and expecting different results. We are playing 3-4-3 and it isn't working. We are starved of creativity, look vulnerable in defence and our only width being provided is from Kolasinac. We have no-one that is stretching teams and no-one that creates chances through the middle. Some of our senior players have shown repeatedly they aren't up to the required standard, so why keep picking them? Give someone else a chance from the U23s so that first-teamers know their spots will be under threat if they don't step up. Right now, they have no incentive to.

The Ozil situation has been baffling too and, although I want him to be sold in the Summer, not using him at all when we lack any sort of spark is counterproductive. We've lost 7 of the last 14 games and are struggling to create anything meaningful. Rumors are Sanllehi is trying to force Ozil out the club by telling Emery to not play him, which if it's true, is outrageous that we've adopted such a disgraceful approach.
And to be honest, I don't even think it will work. It could also backfire on Emery horribly.

All of these things don't mean that I want him out or that I'm heading in that direction (yet). But it's just observations I've made that I don't like and hope he improves.

Make no mistake - Emery is a good manager, has won trophies and I want him to do well. However, I don't want this to be a situation where he's cutting off his nose to spite his face.

I'm hoping he won't make these errors next season.

 

Me too. I agree that the result at Bate was the low point of this season, it was embarrassing and it made you feel that we were regressing to the worst days under Wenger. I trust he knows what he is doing- I certainly hope so for Arsenal's sake

 

What I don’t understand is why we have no money to spend on players.
I know we don’t have CL income but surely the PL money isn’t all used on wages FFS.
According to the press we make a profit every year so where the hell is that going - or is Kronke now taking all the profits for himself

 

http://youaremyarsenal.com/arsenal-stan-kroenke-analysis-stats/

That blog piece explains everything.

 

I think out! Why wait 2-3 seasons? I am not impressed, he is not getting the players playing to their potentials. We have Laca and Auby and we are so mediocre. He is definitely out of his depths, his post match analysis is baffling to say the least... If we do not make top4, he definitely needs to go!

 

A ridiculous post