Unai Emery

[TomC]

5 hours ago, Delphinho123 said:

The playing out from the back is completely on Emery. Managers before him have tried that approach with pretty much the same players and it’s always been a bit of a car crash. 

If something isn’t working, it’s on the manager to change it. 

Emery has everybody’s full support but it’s going to get tedious conceding 3 goals in every game. He needs to sort it out. 

No matter how much you believe in a particular way of playing, if you don't have the players, it isn't going to work. Sometimes you have to make compromises based on your personnel, and maybe Unai needs to be a little less doctrinaire. That said, we aren't getting relegated, and we aren't making Europe, so this system is best used as a learning experience, both for the players to learn his way, and for him to learn who can play his way.

 

[VillanousOne]

The moment we started to play out from the back and try and keep the ball better I knew we would squeak past some teams then get brutally punished by others especially the top 4.

We don't have the physicality or technical ability, mentality or focus right now to play the way Emery wants, its going to take a lot of coaching and revamping this squad.

I hope we learn from the failures quickly and every week isn't a 'fascinating way of learning how sh*t we still are'.

[TomC]

4 hours ago, maltesemike said:

I was surprised at how livid he was in the post-match interview, and rightfully so. It’s refreshing to see our manager demand higher standards. My only fear is that this alienates the squad somehow and it backfires.

I'm not a fan of managers calling out their players in public. That said, I thought that the interviews were pretty measured. He said that he was frustrated, but never called the players garbage or anything like that; he seemed accepting that it's part of the process. Nor did he call out anyone by name; even when he mentioned Emi going forward at the end, he didn't say his name. Furthermore, I thought that it was more "I'm embarrassed and don't want you to think that I would ever tell a GK to do that" than "how dare Emi do that without permission."

 

[punkiller1981]

2 hours ago, Lupinthe5th said:

Potter will be available soon if Emery has lost the players and we need to get rid

I doubt he has lost the players at all but if he has it’s them that need to go not emery, he is the one with the elite winning mentality a lot of our players have proved they are mentally frail.

[TomC]

Other than an active match thread, I don't think that I've ever given out so many likes as I have in reading the last 4 pages of this thread.

We all know that people can overreact on VT some times. I think the optimistic while cautious and realistic tone of the discussion says something about Unai and the way most people are behind him. We have no illusions about where we still are but we know we're going the right direction.

 

 

[Vive_La_Villa]

25 minutes ago, TomC said:

Other than an active match thread, I don't think that I've ever given out so many likes as I have in reading the last 4 pages of this thread.

We all know that people can overreact on VT some times. I think the optimistic while cautious and realistic tone of the discussion says something about Unai and the way most people are behind him. We have no illusions about where we still are but we know we're going the right direction.

 

 

Staying behind the manager is crucial for us. You’ll have the odd idiot who will turn but the majority are backing him to succeed. It’s been quite a while I can say that about a manager.

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

I was going to post something about how good it is to see the majority United behind the Manager then I read this absolute drivel on Facebook: 

" Please note well. This post comes with a warning so if you're of a nervous disposition I strongly suggest you look away now & scroll on.

Football is of course all about opinions & I've been lambasted for mine on many, many occasions only for my detractors to finally come round to my way of thinking. Only hubris prevents them from having the good grace to admit that I was actually right all along.

Anyway, enough, let me finally cut to the chase which is that basically Unai Emery's style of play is absolutely killing us. No edge, too passive, too easy to play against, too many lightweight players ( ie Buendia, Coutinho, Bailey. Luiz.) Ollie Watkins hasn't named any names but those are his observations after our last two pitiful games so he obviously agrees with me too.

Of our current midfield only  Kamara can put a foot in & McGinn too if selected, which is rare. Common sense dictates SJM should either play in the centre of the park or on the left, not wasted out on the right with a left foot. Total nonsense.

Same with right footed Coutinho playing predominantly on the left & Buendia too when he often plays that position. I always maintain that Coutinho & Buendia give us nothing out of possession & are so easily brushed aside that it's just plain embarrassing to watch.

Setting a team up is all about balance & modern day coach's either don't see this or have just complicated the game beyond all recognition. May be I'm just a dinosaur? Playing Bailey on the right with a left foot is killing him & killing us. It killed poor old Bertrand Traore before that too. Totally absurd.

Dick Emery unfortunately is vastly overrated. Once again,  our Board have been romanced by his CV. I'm not knocking them because I perfectly understand that the decision was driven by ambitious reasoning based predominantly on Unai's achievements in Spanish football.

However, facts are facts. He's done Jack shit in English football & was bombed out of Arsenal. There he lost the press, the media, the players, the dressing room & finally the patience of the Board. Live in denial about that all you want but that's a fact.

Personally I also stand by my original observation from day one that the Villa job is simply just too big for him & that the brutal demands of the English Premier League will gobble him up & spit him out.

As things stand right now we're shipping goals for fun due to his sheer arrogance of playing out from the back with players that are either totally uncomfortable doing it or totally incapable of doing it because they're just too slow at moving the ball.

Our opponents can't wait to get out onto the pitch & high press us. We've conceded 4 terrible goals away at Man U in the cup. 4 at home to Leicester. 3 by half time at the Etihad when Man City declared & now we've practically gifted Arsenal 4 goals by being too easy to play against.

Unai came with a big reputation of being massive in the cups. In his short tenure in B6 so far his record reads played two lost two & one of them was against bleedin' Stevenage.

For any Villa fans scoffing at this post please answer me one very, very simple two part question. How many goals have we directly conceded playing out from the back & how many goals have we directly scored? Frightening isn't it?  It seems to me that playing this way we're only capable of putting about four passes together at the most before our opponents high press either totally dispossesses us or forces us to kick it long anyway.

As you would expect there's always one dissenting voice when a new manager comes in & on this occasion I appear to be one of them. Please note well though that I have a history when it comes to calling out managers. I called out Di Matteo, was sceptical on Gerrard & now I'm calling out Dicky Boy.

Bottom line is this: Your style of play is suicidal & is killing us so please remember that when collecting your P 45. UTV. "

Edited February 19, 2023 by JAMAICAN-VILLAN

[AshVilla]

I'm tired of changing managers and want emery here for the long haul.

If the players are crap and not buying into what he's trying to teach then they can gtfo.

Edited February 19, 2023 by AshVilla

[HolteExile]

You can pretty much 'call it' on every manager not being good enough at some stage in the future and getting the tin tack. 

Great insight, that. 

If a popular guy like Dean Smith isn't immune after the degree of success he had, Emery will feel the heat too if we're not in contention for Europe in the next 2>3 years. 

 

[Pongo's Socks]

1 hour ago, TomC said:

No matter how much you believe in a particular way of playing, if you don't have the players, it isn't going to work. Sometimes you have to make compromises based on your personnel, and maybe Unai needs to be a little less doctrinaire. That said, we aren't getting relegated, and we aren't making Europe, so this system is best used as a learning experience, both for the players to learn his way, and for him to learn who can play his way.

 

I think we (kind of?) did that yesterday? Seemed we played it long/mid range from goal kicks/keepers kicks a bit more?  Definitely needs a change in personnel to implement Emerys preferred style

[Demitri_C]

Thankfully the fans are being patient and understand its goung to take time, money to get emeryball here.

We will be a different side next season. Emerys going to create a new identity here

[Tom13]

5 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

I see where you are coming from and have considered this as well.

I think the major difference here, is that Emery is a proven, respected elite Manager who can command respect.

Not a Charlatan having a petty moan/dig.

I'm betting he's the type who is nice until you start taking the piss and he'll make no qualms about letting you know who is actually in charge.

If the players have anything about them, they should accept it the right way.

He's never been that pissed off/vocal and dissappointed, so i'm hoping the players will feel more guilty than anything else.

Very well put mate!

[AVTuco]

On 18/02/2023 at 18:05, StuL said:

Identical record to Gerrard's first 10 Premier League games.

Disappointing, I thought we were better. But we believe our eyes.

[Tom13]

2 minutes ago, AVTuco said:

Disappointing, I thought we were better. But we believe our eyes.

Anyone got a list of Gerrard's first 10 fixtures VS Emery's first 10 fixtures?

[nick76]

1 minute ago, AVTuco said:

Disappointing, I thought we were better. But we believe our eyes.

I didn’t… Gerrard’s record was fabulous initially and then was rubbish afterwards until he left.  He had a bit of a spell early in the calendar year but after the initial period was rubbish. I always said it was a new manager bounce and I was never impressed with him and was quickly found out.  Whereas Emery, like most managers have a new manager bounce but I really think he has the elite skills to keep us at those levels given time and resources.

[DJBOB]

9 minutes ago, AVTuco said:

Disappointing, I thought we were better. But we believe our eyes.

Unai said something similar in that the first few 3-5 after a manager, there’s a natural bounce but what happens after? Can you continue executing better and stick to the gameplan?

Gerrard continued starting the same drivel (the infamous mcginn-ramsay midfield) and then fell apart the end. My belief is that Unai will ship those out who can’t continue and will find others who can perform. 

Edited February 19, 2023 by DJBOB

[Davkaus]

1 hour ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

I was going to post something about how good it is to see the majority United behind the Manager then I read this absolute drivel on Facebook: 

 

Shocking read. You have to remember that there are an awful lot of thick words removed around, and sadly some of them support Villa. I'd love to know who this cretin thinks we should be bringing in next.

I'm frustrated by the losses, frustrated by the mistakes, but we've got a better manager than we could have possibly hoped for. I'd sell every single player in this squad and start from scratch before I turned on this man.

[Sulberto21]

1 hour ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

I was going to post something about how good it is to see the majority United behind the Manager then I read this absolute drivel on Facebook: 

" Please note well. This post comes with a warning so if you're of a nervous disposition I strongly suggest you look away now & scroll on.

Football is of course all about opinions & I've been lambasted for mine on many, many occasions only for my detractors to finally come round to my way of thinking. Only hubris prevents them from having the good grace to admit that I was actually right all along.

Anyway, enough, let me finally cut to the chase which is that basically Unai Emery's style of play is absolutely killing us. No edge, too passive, too easy to play against, too many lightweight players ( ie Buendia, Coutinho, Bailey. Luiz.) Ollie Watkins hasn't named any names but those are his observations after our last two pitiful games so he obviously agrees with me too.

Of our current midfield only  Kamara can put a foot in & McGinn too if selected, which is rare. Common sense dictates SJM should either play in the centre of the park or on the left, not wasted out on the right with a left foot. Total nonsense.

Same with right footed Coutinho playing predominantly on the left & Buendia too when he often plays that position. I always maintain that Coutinho & Buendia give us nothing out of possession & are so easily brushed aside that it's just plain embarrassing to watch.

Setting a team up is all about balance & modern day coach's either don't see this or have just complicated the game beyond all recognition. May be I'm just a dinosaur? Playing Bailey on the right with a left foot is killing him & killing us. It killed poor old Bertrand Traore before that too. Totally absurd.

Dick Emery unfortunately is vastly overrated. Once again,  our Board have been romanced by his CV. I'm not knocking them because I perfectly understand that the decision was driven by ambitious reasoning based predominantly on Unai's achievements in Spanish football.

However, facts are facts. He's done Jack shit in English football & was bombed out of Arsenal. There he lost the press, the media, the players, the dressing room & finally the patience of the Board. Live in denial about that all you want but that's a fact.

Personally I also stand by my original observation from day one that the Villa job is simply just too big for him & that the brutal demands of the English Premier League will gobble him up & spit him out.

As things stand right now we're shipping goals for fun due to his sheer arrogance of playing out from the back with players that are either totally uncomfortable doing it or totally incapable of doing it because they're just too slow at moving the ball.

Our opponents can't wait to get out onto the pitch & high press us. We've conceded 4 terrible goals away at Man U in the cup. 4 at home to Leicester. 3 by half time at the Etihad when Man City declared & now we've practically gifted Arsenal 4 goals by being too easy to play against.

Unai came with a big reputation of being massive in the cups. In his short tenure in B6 so far his record reads played two lost two & one of them was against bleedin' Stevenage.

For any Villa fans scoffing at this post please answer me one very, very simple two part question. How many goals have we directly conceded playing out from the back & how many goals have we directly scored? Frightening isn't it?  It seems to me that playing this way we're only capable of putting about four passes together at the most before our opponents high press either totally dispossesses us or forces us to kick it long anyway.

As you would expect there's always one dissenting voice when a new manager comes in & on this occasion I appear to be one of them. Please note well though that I have a history when it comes to calling out managers. I called out Di Matteo, was sceptical on Gerrard & now I'm calling out Dicky Boy.

Bottom line is this: Your style of play is suicidal & is killing us so please remember that when collecting your P 45. UTV. "

“Of our current midfield only  Kamara can put a foot in & McGinn too if selected, which is rare.“

Coutinho 5 tackles,

luiz, Buendia, 3 Tackles each yesterday. I think the guy is talking bollocks.  

[KentVillan]

You can’t judge any manager on their first 10 games in charge. That’s why we gave Gerrard time… that’s why we gave Sherwood time.

But the big difference with Emery is he provably knows how to manage elite football teams and win trophies. So just let him do his thing.

I don’t even think we played too badly against Arsenal tbh, given the difference in player quality.

It’s when you’re getting routinely turned over by teams with similar or worse squads that you start to worry. We know our squad has some weaknesses that will need fixing in the summer… Gerrard was given a couple of transfer windows and mostly got it wrong (especially when you look at the crazy wages most of his signings are on). I think we’ll get the next window right, and things will progress in the right direction.

[KentVillan]

Just now, Delphinho123 said:

He is, but I agree with him on the playing out from the back. It’s cost us two cup competitions and several goals in the league. I’m all for it, but our players can’t do it. 

I think Emery’s view is probably that it’s better to start playing out from the back ASAP, work out who can and can’t adapt to it, and move on the players who can’t. Over time it will reap dividends, but in the short term it will lead to the odd howler.