Arsenal heading for an Icebeg
At the start of the season, I felt like Matt Lorrimer-Roberts, as he says in his excellent article, and I was prepared not to criticise Emery for this season to give him time to work out the make – up of his team. I admire Matt`s fair mindedness and I note that he is now sitting on the fence.
Unfortunately there comes a time when fair mindedness can be a mistake when the verdict is so apparent in front of you. An extension of fair mindedness will only extend the pathetic efforts of Emery to understand his players and to achieve a balanced team. A team which plays to a consistent standard, which is at least of top 4 quality. I published an article not long ago eulogising the pool of players which he has at his disposal and particularly the crop of youngsters we now have. I confidently said that they would finish third but Chelsea have been moulded into a very efficient team in which the players all know what they are doing and Lampard knows what his best team is.
Succeeding at Chelsea (Thanks Getty Images)
Chelsea`s improvement would knock us back to fourth even if there was no other competitor. Unfortunately there is! Leicester are. if anything, even better than Chelsea, and Rogers who I wanted before Emery arrived, has his team working like a Rolex. They are playing attractive football which is nothing more than playing to simple tactics to maximise the strength of the smaller pool of players that he has in comparison to Arsenal. Their success is founded on the fact that they build most of their game around service to Vardy, who is now top scorer in the Premiership, but is he really a better player than Aubameyang? We also have Lacazette as a target man, so Emery has two outlets for our team to inflict damage. Unfortunately, whilst Vardy has a constant supply of the ball, both Auba and Laca must go searching for the ball and waste their goal scoring talents which was the very reason we signed them.
Starved of service
Why can Emery not devise a team from the players he has which would be the equal of either Chelsea or Leicester, never mind the Brightons, Wolves and Sheffield Uniteds of this world? No disrespect to any of those teams, but I am sure that their fans are delighted to realise that they are good enough to overturn the mighty Gunners. For them, that is an achievement on its own but to us it has become a sad reality. If Josh Kroenke has not realised by now that he is in the position of the Captain of the Titanic and Arsenal will crash and sink unless he takes evasive action. He has to realise that we are not unsinkable after all and he must stop the ship from striking the iceberg before it is too late.
A sophisticated, articulate Arsenal Man of Mystery. Aged 70 and a bit.
The amount of money this club is generating and they are quibbling over letting go a manager and his back room staff? When getting a CL spot sees instant return on their initial outlay! Crazy! How narrow minded are the Kroenke’s? If this management team can’t see it’s not working, then perhaps it’s them who should be losing their jobs. I know there is no guarantees in football. But surely it’s worth the gamble? The Spuds thought it was worth it!
An interesting point Henry. I had been wondering myself if it might be a good idea to sack the 3 amigos along with Emery, but then, most people including media commentators thought that we had made good signings and the youth ingredient was high class. We were generally considered to have one of the largest quality pool of players to sustain a serious attempt on a top 4 finish.
If Emery cannot produce something better than a disillusioned squad with no proper guidance or coaching, then that speaks for itself. Players such as Aubamayang, Lacazzette, Ozil, Tierney and more experienced but less talented players like Kolasanac, Chambers, Zhaka, Luis and Sokrates needed little coaching on the -essentials of a Premiership club. On top of that, the young rising stars like Martinelli, Nelson, Maitland – Niles, Torreira, Pepe, Holding,Willock, Guendousi, and Caballos needed expert coaching to bring out their natural talent. There is enough experience in that squad of players to encourage younger players to learn from and to produce a top 4 club.
Even if all of the above is true, the manager/coach has to be able to delegate someone to provide the necessary coaching for the youth in the team, but most of all he must be able to understand tactics and to tailor the shape of the team to fit the game in front of him. He has to be able to analyse the opposition quickly and to adapt his tactics accordingly;
It appears that Freddie Lundberg has had success with the younger players and has improved them so that they are competing for a first team position. The same cannot be said for Emery who has not shown any ability to do the rest of the job. His miserable lack of solutions to versatile teams has exposed a lack of nous in how to change tactics in a game when play is going against him. Conversely, he cannot even devise a regular shape to the team, whoever is selected so that our top players cannot use their experience and talent because they don`t know where they fit in in Emery`s teams.
Whatever the make-up of his defence, we have no midfield so Torreira who was a key part of Uruguay`s midfield, no longer knows what he is. Is he a destroyer or a box to box merchant? He tries to be both and he ends up as neither. Guendouzi could be a top glass pass-and run player, but he needs partners along with him to make it work. There are none who are schooled to play that way, so he tries to do it all himself and overcarries the ball into cul-de-sacs.
We need a forceful manager with clear ideas of what he wants from the players and is able to communicate those ideas. Emery cannot even speak legibly to them, never mind explaining what he is trying to do. It is clear that it was a monumental mistake to sign Emery, and this team shows no trace of improvement. If Josh leaves it too long before he replaces him, even a top 4 place which apparently he says is the minimum he will expect, will be beyond us and what would be the odds on our best players wanting to leave?