Unai Emery

[DJBOB]

Lost it I think with the team selection (which is always easier to say in retrospect).

Same side 3 times in 10 days and it looked like it when they came out. Flat (especially Ollie and Bailey pressing the back line) - and lost all the second balls in the first half.

Subs were okay but lack of width and lack of dribblers evidenced by giving the ball to Bailey every time for almost the last 20 minutes.

It's hard to break down a Wolves side once they get ahead (even this season) - so that's where it was lost.

[Zhan_Zhuang]

Emery will hopefully have learned lots from watching us struggle tonight, it's probably what was needed.

Same old players not performing.

[KentVillan]

What seems clear to me is that Emery has absolutely worked out how to play against teams who are going to push high and pile the pressure on for the whole game. You play Watkins and Bailey up, keep defence organised, and work it out to the wings and then get Buendia etc on the ball in space to release Watkins.

He got it wrong against Liverpool, but Spurs and Utd games show that sitting deep and breaking with pace works well.

What Emery hasn't worked out is how to deal with teams around us where we're getting more of the ball. IMO these are the kinds of games where you want the more creative talent like Ings, Coutinho, etc. and why we needed Cash and Young doubling up on the right I don't know.

Anyway, I trust him to work it out. Second half was much improved, and it felt like he was seeing the game the same way we were, and making the right changes. Just a bad starting tactic.

Someone else called it earlier in the week, though, that Lopetegui could be a big challenge for Emery, because he's faced him so much before.

[lexicon]

Wolves went balls to the wall first half but obviously couldn't sustain it over the full 90 - he made the right changes and we could easily have won the game if not for the goal line clearance and Bailey miss. 

We definitely need a winger or two so we change things up in attack. 

[Reivax_Villa]

I honestly feel that we just lack quality in the attacking areas.

Buendia =  Average at best 

Coutinho = Past his best

Bailey = Inconsistent 

Watkins = Average

Ings = Doesn’t have the legs but great Super sub..

If three of the above left I wouldn’t be disappointed..

 

[DJBOB]

1 minute ago, KentVillan said:

What seems clear to me is that Emery has absolutely worked out how to play against teams who are going to push high and pile the pressure on for the whole game. You play Watkins and Bailey up, keep defence organised, and work it out to the wings and then get Buendia etc on the ball in space to release Watkins.

He got it wrong against Liverpool, but Spurs and Utd games show that sitting deep and breaking with pace works well.

What Emery hasn't worked out is how to deal with teams around us where we're getting more of the ball. IMO these are the kinds of games where you want the more creative talent like Ings, Coutinho, etc. and why we needed Cash and Young doubling up on the right I don't know.

Anyway, I trust him to work it out. Second half was much improved, and it felt like he was seeing the game the same way we were, and making the right changes. Just a bad starting tactic.

Someone else called it earlier in the week, though, that Lopetegui could be a big challenge for Emery, because he's faced him so much before.

I was very confused when I saw this part of the line-up. Couldn't retain or progress on the right at all in the first half which made it all too predictable on the left hand side.

One of the few times Unai whiffed on it tactically.

Credit for the subs and change in the 2nd but that was more or less forced by the game situation.

[Wezbid]

Looked really under the weather tonight. Hope he's not too sick. He looked shattered and full of the good old winter bug.

[The_Steve]

He will know what’s needed to improve and certain players either know that their time here is up or aren’t good enough. 

[messi11]

Got it wrong in the first half. But sees the mistakes early and saved the game by bringing on the subs. Good management. Also knows Digne and Cash aren't good enough. I'm impressed. You learn more about him from his losses than his wins 

[andym]

1 minute ago, KentVillan said:

Someone else called it earlier in the week, though, that Lopetegui could be a big challenge for Emery, because he's faced him so much before.

It was an interesting tactical battle between the two, and at least now we have a manager who is capable of reacting and changing things (multiple times) in a game.

Wolves dominated first half (i think Unai will hold up his hands on the starting XI being the main cause of that), so he makes the Coutinho sub, with associated change in shape, and we look better.

Lopetegui then makes 2 changes just before the hour and gets a bit of control back.

So Unai makes the triple change which swings the balance of play back towards us, and we get the equaliser (deserved i think on overall balance of play over the 90 mins), and we also have the chance to nick it.

 

[Spoony]

Well he addressed the issues and got a point when a loss looked pretty nailed on for a while there. He does know what he’s doing. For once I can have some faith we can turn it around or hold on to a victory. I swear under any other manager we’ve had we’d have thrown it away against spurs and would have lost tonight. Credit where it’s due - didn’t work first half but then he fixed it. If it weren’t for Bailey we’d be celebrating yet another Emery masterclass. 

[MaVilla]

tbh, i hoped for a win, but considering how poorly we started, and the fact we had to up our game a lot and fight back, i think a draw is both fair, and a result i would have taken after 15 minutes.

credit to emery for changing things up and not being afraid to hook players, tbh im trying to see some positives, its the jan transfer window and this game would have helped him understand better where we need to improve on the pitch.

pre emery we would 100% have lost that game, Villa Statto said that this season, the previous 6 games that we were behind at half time, we lost all 6/6, so coming back and rescuing a point is overall a good ending i think, especially as we could have won it at the end if we didnt mess it up.

[Mantis]

That's the sort of game we lose under Gerrard and probably Smith. Can take lots of positives from the way Emery was proactive in making changes, which is something we've not seen for a very long time.

[KentVillan]

3 minutes ago, Reivax_Villa said:

I honestly feel that we just lack quality in the attacking areas.

Buendia =  Average at best 

Coutinho = Past his best

Bailey = Inconsistent 

Watkins = Average

Ings = Doesn’t have the legs but great Super sub..

If three of the above left I wouldn’t be disappointed..

The thing with all these players is they have certain types of games that seem to suit them, and they can look really dangerous, and then in other situations they look terrible.

Watkins looks great when you're backs to the wall and need an out ball. But when it's a bit tighter and you're dominating possession, and need some quality, less so.

Buendia is good when you need to defend as a team, his work rate and ability to spring the transition are excellent, but I'm not convinced he has the consistent quality in the final third when you're on the front foot.

Coutinho is an impact sub at best these days.

Ings I think was well suited to the Wolves game, and probably should have started. But he looks terrible in games where you need some pace on the break.

Bailey the jury's still out. Have seen him decimate teams before, but I think his natural position is on the wing.

I think Emery is still learning how to use all his flawed attacking talent. None of them is really screaming at him to be a regular starter, but they've all had good moments. Think there will be a lot of juggling, and some moves in the transfer market, although imagine the big changes won't happen until the summer.

[The_Steve]

Still incredibly early days but with more quality players he trusts we turn defeats to wins for sure 

[bobzy]

3 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

The thing with all these players is they have certain types of games that seem to suit them, and they can look really dangerous, and then in other situations they look terrible.

Watkins looks great when you're backs to the wall and need an out ball. But when it's a bit tighter and you're dominating possession, and need some quality, less so.

Buendia is good when you need to defend as a team, his work rate and ability to spring the transition are excellent, but I'm not convinced he has the consistent quality in the final third when you're on the front foot.

Coutinho is an impact sub at best these days.

Ings I think was well suited to the Wolves game, and probably should have started. But he looks terrible in games where you need some pace on the break.

Bailey the jury's still out. Have seen him decimate teams before, but I think his natural position is on the wing.

I think Emery is still learning how to use all his flawed attacking talent. None of them is really screaming at him to be a regular starter, but they've all had good moments. Think there will be a lot of juggling, and some moves in the transfer market, although imagine the big changes won't happen until the summer.

The big move this game was bringing off Luiz (could have been him or Kamara to be honest) and then having Dendoncker look more actively forward from midfield.  It helped us pin Wolves back for pretty much the entire last 30 minutes.

For all the flaws in the attackers, the central midfield was the big issue tonight IMO.

 

 

Edit:  and well done Unai for fixing it.

Edited January 4, 2023 by bobzy

[foreveryoung]

3 hours ago, Pissflaps said:

For a thug you are quite a beautiful wordsmith sir

You should be singing it in drill rap genre. 

[DJBOB]

Just now, bobzy said:

The big move this game was bringing off Luiz (could have been him or Kamara to be honest) and then having Dendoncker look more actively forward from midfield.  It helped us pin Wolves back for pretty much the entire last 30 minutes.

For all the flaws in the attackers, the central midfield was the big issue tonight IMO.

Yes Luiz and Kamara were noticeably slow and not winning their duels. 
 
Part fatigue, maybe Luiz still had a knock. 
 
We move on and hopefully Unai can utilize the squad a bit more now. 

[Sulberto21]

I gave up on them today then remembered Don Unai is our manager and he made the necessary adjustments to bring us back into the game. In hindsight he should have started with the team that finished but it’s all about learning for next season.

[HeyAnty]

5 minutes ago, Mantis said:

That's the sort of game we lose under Gerrard and probably Smith. Can take lots of positives from the way Emery was proactive in making changes, which is something we've not seen for a very long time.

Them two and Bruce were so slow to make subs and were normally the wrong subs to.  Breath of fresh air seeing a Villa manager make right subs at right time.