Did a good job against Liverpool at Emirates this season. Managed to keep Chelsea quite not too long ago. In fact the past years we have been pretty solid against Chelsea. There have been glimpses that our defence can be solid but it is nights like these that show how uncoordinated our players are. Need to send the whole team on some seminar in Italy to teach them how to execute successful defending tactics.
Any thoughts on this article? Of course I was elated with how well the team was performing during the winning streak, but I think any new manager would get a “new manager effect”, players pushing themselves a bit more to establish themselves into the team etc.
Right now I think is make or break time for Emery. The way the team are playing right now is not promising, not an improvement at all from last season, which was the worst in 24 years.
If this spell proves to be a fad, and we return to a better run (not necessarily making top-4, but top-5 should be reachable, and some signs of improvements and stability should be visible in our play), then well done to Emery. Otherwise, I’d start looking for replacements, unfortunately, the replacement in most dire need would be for Kroenke, which just isn’t going to happen.
To people saying, “give the man a season or two to implement his ideas”…, it’s been more than half a season already, improvements will not come all of a sudden, we should be seeing some signs already.
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Its just hard to judge him with the players he has at disposal, he deserves patience, if we are serious at all we will spend this summer, we have so many average players and bad luck with injuries
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We only have one right back who is quality and that’s mostly going forward; he’s also out now of course. Our options at left back consist of Monreal who is quickly declining and Kolasinac who is clearly a LWB and isn’t defensively good enough.
Our best CBs are older: Koscielny, as good as he was against Chelsea, is never going to be who he was a few years ago, and Sokratis is solid but not top quality. Other then that, Holding is promising but young and Mustafi is fucking shite.
Surely you can’t think that we have the tools necessary at the back to defend well enough consistently to compete at the top level?
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It’s bad enough we’re not good at the back as it is, but to have suffered injuries to four of our ‘better’ defenders in recent weeks is pretty horrendous luck no matter how you paint it. I’d cut a bit of slack for Emery on that part alone. Everyone knows this squad is a mess and it’s going to take a long time to get it functioning properly. Regardless whether that’s Emery long term or not. It just somewhat sucks we’re in a situation where we don’t really know where the direction of anything with Arsenal is right now.
While top 4 is still a possiblity, it feels like Europa is gonna have to be our best chance to make CL for the rest of the season, and even that’s going to be tough, unless we get the most ideal progression.
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Pep only managed 75 points his first season with a far superior squad to ours, so Emery definitely needs at least next year before we come off him. However it’s not looking promising considering there won’t be 250m spent this summer like Pep got, so he’s gonna have to do more with less. Whoever we get as our head of recruitment better hit the ground running because we have some major fucking holes.
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Why is it that you are capable of making a completely logical post like this but prefer not to that often? Is trolling really that fun lol
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If the defence continues to be as dire as it is now next season then he is clearly not the man for the job. I see practically no improvement from the defence under Wenger.
If with some time he can’t sort the defence I’d much rather have Brendan Rodgers, at least the attacking phases of play would be very good.
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Quite simply you cannot polish a fire…maybe he can’t make a defense good with fucking shit defenders that we are lumbered with they are not good enough no matter who we have as manager.
Nah tonight was a perfect example of why there’s reason to be wary.
We know United are a counter attacking side so why does the team continue to push up together and have both full backs bomb forward? It’s the same shit we used to see under Wenger.
Sure our defenders are pants but I doubt other managers couldn’t get more out of them, the so called defensive structure is almost non existant.
The issue is that we don’t have a midfield. What are the other options besides putting pressure on them up front? Now way we are winning a midfield battle, and we are ill equipped to try to sit back and soak up pressure.
There are certain formations we can play where the midfield could be more solid imo. I think a three of Xhaka, Torreira and Guendouzi could actually work if we set up correctly.
There’s no question that the potential balance we can find with these players is much better than what we had last season. Think of how bad it was seeing Ramsey and Xhaka play in a two; that was Wenger’s idea of a midfield…
Haha you should tell the media, the pundits and some of our fellow fans who seem to claim Guendouzi and Torreira will boss the middle of the park for us for many years to come.
That third goal today was utter embarrassment. We got caught on a counter but God bloody knows how 6 players surrounding Pogba like almost in a circle, no one challenge him. Midfield ran at a jog chasing him and the defenders let him pass for the shot.
Solskjaer is a poor excuse for a manager. He’s lucky those fuckers at Man U finally decided to play just so they can claim it was Mourinho’s fault for everything. Emery an experienced manager should have a game plan.
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If you can’t see that those two have great potential then you haven’t been watching. Particularly Guendouzi is still very raw, but there is quality there, his mentality is strong and his intent to play is always very positive. 25 year old Guendouzi could be a very good player based on what we see from him at 19 if we develop him well.
They do have potential. I quite like Torreira but I’m still not as keen as what others think of Guendouzi. I just find the exaggeration shocking considering how bad we are recently and you would expect them to provide more protection for our defenders.
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I think the problem is that Torriera is the only one good enough to do that job atm. Xhaka shows flashes of good defensive work at times, but then he’ll undo it all with his usual calamitous decision every fourth or fifth match. I had held out hope that he could improve in that area, but it’s quickly diminishing now.
Guendouzi on the other hand can still learn, and I think he’s actually pretty good in the tackle. The issue is more his positioning and anticipation off the ball, which can be coached overtime. We’ll see how he develops but for 19 I think there’s possibly a player in there.
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For me Emery has till end of August to sort this defence out. The Berlin wall couldn’t protect our defence. If Emery keeps trying to work with that shit then he needs to consider whether is capable of working in the PL. It was well known that wenger could not buy centre halves. Mustafi, stepanovs, cygan to name but a few. So why bother trying to work with them. I feel tonight instead of monreal and mustafi on the bench i would of preferred to see a younger player there. In all honesty i think when mustafi walked on the pitch we all knew the game was over. Jury is out for me at the moment
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Yeah, imagine the outrage when we start losing games with Medley and Mavro as a CB pairing though. That’s essentially sticking the nail in your own coffin. He needs a full summer to himself and next season before we can really pull some verdicts.
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On their day being key. Bristol City on their day can beat anybody in the world.
Good players (teams) can beat anybody any day.
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I can imagine the outrage of losing games with medley and mavro at cb. But the fa cup for us is a meaningless competition. We do not have the squad for it. Keep sticking with likes of mustafi and co isnt working as proved last night. Enter mustafi and bang 2 goals conceded. Wasnt this wengers old trick. Keep sticking with players that are playing out of their depth. At least with the likes of medley he can assess if he has what it takes to be able to cope against an experienced team.