Unai Emery

[DJBOB]

3 minutes ago, 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. 

There is a balance you have to hit according to the squad you have. Ten Hag had similar problems with De Gea and made adjustments to have De Gea play longer after some hilarious results (Brentford comes to mind). 
 
I think if Unai sticks with Emi, you’ll see some changes but at the same time, Unai should stick with building from the back (within reason) because the alternative will be the hooooooof that Gerrard eventually succumbed to (keep it tight, run the channels!).

Or if Emi and company can’t perform, then bring in others who can. 

Edited February 19, 2023 by DJBOB

[Sulberto21]

1 minute ago, 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. 

And those that can’t will be replaced or they need to improve. Emery has been here 10 games. People who moan etc forget we’ve gone from a manager who played with a Mid/ low block counter attacking style (Smith) to a manager who had a weird system and chopped and changed it (Gerrard) to a manager who wants to control possession in the opposition half.

Before smith we had Bruce, so as a club we’ve had a long time playing with defensive low/mid block managers therefore it’s going to take time for Emery’s style to be imprinted into the players. 

[nick76]

5 hours ago, Lupinthe5th said:

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

So keep the players that have (by then) got three managers sacked in Smith, Gerrard and Emery or keep a proven elite manager in Emery?  It’s not a hard choice, keep Emery every time.

We all have opinions on Smith which do vary towards the end of his tenure.  Gerrard we all know was a clown but we know that Emery is an elite manager.  If a load of these players fail again though then they have failed under two,, potentially three different managers for some, and while managers take some of the blame, after three managers you then starting pointing the finger at the players failing.

That aside, I’d pick Emery over the players anyway.

[jacketspuds]

Emery is going to weed out all those players that look great in training and then don’t turn up when there’s a crowd and an actual competitive opponent.

Gerrard was shit and the players didn’t perform for him after a while. But some of these players are doing exactly the same thing to a quality manager in Emery. I couldn’t give a shit if most of them were replaced in the summer, as long as we keep Emery.

[catanzaro]

I found Emery’s post match comments massively uplifting..

he didn’t wet his pants about the second goal.. called out a World Cup winning player.. he didn’t talk about luck.. I can’t remember the last time I heard an Aston Villa manager deal with this type of result in this manner.. (I would bet that he would have commented in a similar way if we had managed to win)

He saw the reality of the match.. and the team did not meet his standards (including himself) and no-one is immune to the standard no matter what their pedigree.. there was no doubt about who is the boss at Aston Villa and he will not rest until he wins..

I’m all in

[DJBOB]

7 minutes ago, catanzaro said:

I found Emery’s post match comments massively uplifting..

he didn’t wet his pants about the second goal.. called out a World Cup winning player.. he didn’t talk about luck.. I can’t remember the last time I heard an Aston Villa manager deal with this type of result in this manner.. (I would bet that he would have commented in a similar way if we had managed to win)

He saw the reality of the match.. and the team did not meet his standards (including himself) and no-one is immune to the standard no matter what their pedigree.. there was no doubt about who is the boss at Aston Villa and he will not rest until he wins..

I’m all in

I agree. Stevie would have had a laundry list of complaints about moments of magic. Deano would’ve said something about unlucky. Bruce would’ve claimed he knew what he was doing. 
 
But Unai wants us to win and do so convincingly. That’s really the key difference between elite and the so-so managers. He could’ve complained about the 3rd goal being offside but he rightfully said we played like shit at the end. 

[Brumstopdogs]

 

[Delphinho123]

1 hour ago, KentVillan said:

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.

Hopefully it works out. Just frustrating at the moment I guess. 

[HKP90]

3 hours 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. "

When reading this, before it gets you down, just remember that someone, somewhere is the reason that they had to put a label on a bag of peanuts that says 'may contain nuts'.

[MWARLEY2]

1 hour ago, Brumstopdogs said:

 

Proof will be in the pudding. It has been said before and its not been backed up. 

We have loads of good players. But theres no **** point if they cannot perform week in week out without huge fluctuations in form. 

[MaVilla]

10 minutes ago, MWARLEY2 said:

Proof will be in the pudding. It has been said before and its not been backed up. 

We have loads of good players. But theres no **** point if they cannot perform week in week out without huge fluctuations in form. 

 

i think you mean we have a couple of very good players, some good players, some players not capable of playing Emery ball (regardless of their other strengths), and quite a few inconsistent and/or overrated players.

[MWARLEY2]

Just now, MaVilla said:

 

i think you mean we have a couple of very good players, some good players, some players not capable of playing Emery ball (regardless of their other strengths), and quite a few inconsistent and/or overrated players.

Yeah. Many of them are capable of exceptional performances that if they could reproduce consistently would see them higher up the food chain. 

But they arent further up the food chain. Because they can swing from the sublime to the ridiculous even from half to half yet alone game to game. 

[andym]

5 hours ago, KentVillan said:

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.

Even in the long term it will lead to the odd 'howler'; still happens from time to time to Man City.

But there's a reason the top managers and teams play this way; you keep the ball, tire out the opposition, and create more openings. The top teams for possession, pass accuracy and short and medium passes are also pretty much the top teams in the league. The teams who can't keep the ball are at the bottom.

Its always interesting to me how the occasional goals against from trying to keep the ball and play from deep lead to criticism, yet just smashing the ball up field, more frequently conceding possession and goals is seen as ok. Maybe because its a more identifiable style? Not sure i want to go down the route of more 'tippy tappy foreign' style vs 'good old fashioned English put your foot through it'!

[KentVillan]

2 hours ago, andym said:

Even in the long term it will lead to the odd 'howler'; still happens from time to time to Man City.

But there's a reason the top managers and teams play this way; you keep the ball, tire out the opposition, and create more openings. The top teams for possession, pass accuracy and short and medium passes are also pretty much the top teams in the league. The teams who can't keep the ball are at the bottom.

Its always interesting to me how the occasional goals against from trying to keep the ball and play from deep lead to criticism, yet just smashing the ball up field, more frequently conceding possession and goals is seen as ok. Maybe because its a more identifiable style? Not sure i want to go down the route of more 'tippy tappy foreign' style vs 'good old fashioned English put your foot through it'!

It’s just like the old 2 men on the posts debate on corners. People remember the times they stop a goal, or when a goal goes in. They don’t think about the 100s of times the players not on the posts do a better job of defending the corner. Similar with man marking vs zonal on corners.

It’s also the reason you don’t see as many long range shots these days. Yes they’re great when they go in… but they don’t very often go in, and usually you’re just gifting possession to the other team.

The thing with Emery is he isn’t just doing all this stuff because he’s done it on a coaching course. He’s actually won trophies with it, so the players and fans are mad if they think they know better.

[Keyblade]

11 hours 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. "

My favourite part was:

"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."

The guy already made up his mind and is clawing at just about anything to support him. Dude is stuck in the 1990's or something. Pretty much every team uses inverted wingers for the past 10 years.

[Vive_La_Villa]

16 hours ago, 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 get your frustrations mate but as a new manager do you play your way and then see which players can handle it or do you not even try? This season was already written off when he took over. We’re not going down. So now it’s just about let Emery do his thing.   We’re 11th in the form table since he took over and have only lost to one team below us so it’s not like it’s a complete disaster. 

 

[QldVilla]

It was refreshing to see Emery call out the team that it wasn’t good enough. It sends a loud message to the players to say it publicly, they are all on notice that they need to improve. Unless things improve, and I think they will, but if they don’t, it may be a bigger clear out than we all thought it may of been.

[WallisFrizz]

2 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I get your frustrations mate but as a new manager do you play your way and then see which players can handle it or do you not even try? This season was already written off when he took over. We’re not going down. So now it’s just about let Emery do his thing.   We’re 11th in the form table since he took over and have only lost to one team below us so it’s not like it’s a complete disaster. 

 

It wasn’t written off when he took over. Look at United’s run to the league cup final. If he’d gone stronger against them at Old Trafford we could have won that game. But what’s done is done. Now it is definitely written off but it still matters where we finish. It will be harder trying to convince new players of ‘the project’ if we finish 15th than if we finish 9th. One of the reasons I’m a bit disappointed we didn’t strengthen further in Jan.

[Vive_La_Villa]

18 minutes ago, WallisFrizz said:

It wasn’t written off when he took over. Look at United’s run to the league cup final. If he’d gone stronger against them at Old Trafford we could have won that game. But what’s done is done. Now it is definitely written off but it still matters where we finish. It will be harder trying to convince new players of ‘the project’ if we finish 15th than if we finish 9th. One of the reasons I’m a bit disappointed we didn’t strengthen further in Jan.

Fair enough but for me it was written off. I trust in Emery. 

[gwi1890]

Most new managers come in with the let’s become hard to beat approach then focus on our style of play later often the latter  never happens they find success with the initial hard to beat model and stick with it riding that wave of momentum and renewed feel good factor, then it stagnates and the wins turn to draws then the draws turn to losses. Examples of this West Ham and Newcastle. I would rather focus on the way we want to play from the off and build a sustainable identity to our play style like say Brighton.