well he is being paid more money a year than i will ever earn in my lifetime so i expect him to be super good at working out basics like which players are League 1 level as opposed to which are upper-PL level.Originally Posted by SMatthews
i'm not suggesting sacking him at all, and clearly the Kroenkes etc are not helpng but i'm underwhelmed so far tbh.
judging from his press conferences i do wonder whether language is still an issue also - i for one still can't understand a word he says
Again, it's boiled down to the most simplistic analysis - he earns loads of money so he should have all it covered. Come off it.
The frustration levels are already bordering on the edge of moving on from Emery. Imagine we start next season with one or two poor results - you don't have to imagine what fans would be asking for then.
Of course you're going to be underwhelmed - that's where we are as a club. It's a big hole to climb out of. Man Utd went from champions to also rans. Sure, they finished second last season, but they were never in the title race. Then look what happened for half of this season.
Let's for a minute imagine there was a magic wand that sorted out all of those problems you mentioned above - where do you think we'd be in the league if none of those existed?
I'd say the one thing Emery doesn't have any excuse for is the defending. It's somehow worse than it was with Wenger and that's even with a lot of defensive signings last summer.
It reminds me of when Gordon Brown and the labour party were kicked out of government - 'good luck rebuilding, the cupboard's bare'
We all suffer from it, but perception of how things were a year ago in anything to do with life are often forgotten. That's definitely the case with the defending.
It was just as bad last year and has been for years. We've sat here for years as fans biting our nails in the last ten minutes of games scared shitless the opposition would score. The biggest problem almost every fan thought we'd have to overcome this season is the defence. It's no surprise that is exactly how it's panned out.
Last season we conceded 51 shots on target, this season it's 36 so far. There really isn't much difference there.
What I'm not saying is Emery is perfect or immune from criticism. But what I am saying is the frustration that has hung over this club for years has not disappeared with a new manager, and given what he has at his disposal, it was never going to.
Free passes have already been thrown out the window and its getting ridiculously intense when he already has one hand behind his back with the mess upstairs and restricted money to change things. He's a big boy and I'm sure he can take it, but fans - especially online - have to get a better grip of where we are as a club right now and what we can achieve. He needs time - at least two seasons - but frustration levels are so high he won't get it.
His job is to manage the club to the best of his ability, that includes as Mac pointed out not making basic errors job bloggs down the pub wouldn't make.
As has been mentioned, he's got no replacement for Ozil, so to cut him off because he doesn't like him seems like cutting off his nose to spite his face, as does bringing some middle of the road nobody in a position we absolutely don't need right now and ignoring the real problem positions.
The defending again there's no excuse for, he stuck with the likes of Lichsteiner, Mustafi, Xhaka for far too long, they were rubbish before he came and since he has been here they've done nothing different other than give more goals away, it doesn't take a genius to work out they need replacing and in the short term that we need to try something else.
We basically needed a winger (for Iwobi who has no football intelligence and zero end product) and defenders as our defence is shocking and yet all we find is Suarez a player who plays somewhere we should have never even been looking for (the guys also very small and he's hardly going to make any difference this season given his lack of physical attributes, Aguero brushed him off the ball the other day!).
The lineups have been very questionnable at times this season, we also have to look back at the unbeaten run and see how we basically didn't turn up in the 1st half of games at all and it took Emery half a season to partially fix that.
I'm all for giving a new manager a chance, especially give the mess Wenger left us in, but what is less forgivable at the errors the guy down the pub wouldn't make! I wasn't convinced Emery was the answer when he came (but he was the best of an unfortunate choice between him and Arteta as the club had no interest in proven managers at all) but that's the hand we got dealt so we have to give him a chance, I'm not expecting him to win all his games or get us into the top 4, but what I am expecting is common sense to prevail in his decisions which doesn't seem to be the case at the moment.
While Mourinho was still managing United I still fancied us for 4th place. Chelsea are having their regular manager issues and the uncertainty around Hazard could have an impact. Now I think United have the better squad and players than us. So 5th might be as high as we get.
If there is so little money to spend why did we remove the contract offer for Ramsey especially if we are going to move on Ozil. Surely it would have been cheaper the keep him at the salary he wanted than sign a new player + salary + integration time. Unless we get a few bosmans which are tricky without CL football to get the better ones, we could struggle.
Up until maybe the 2-2 with United you could see the benefits, the football was more exciting, we were attacking. There was more energy. this seems to have dipped. But on a positive there is still 13 league games to go, so plenty of time to pick up 4th place. Also we only have to go to Spurs and have United at home of the top 5.
Emery has a lot of time to turn it around, things can change very quickly and as pointed out, we have more favourable games than others. Having said that, we've not fully capitalised on a Man ure team who were performing way below their capabilities and were 12 points behind 4th place before Christmas.
We also don't defend like the 6th best team in the league which is what we might actually be. We defend more like the 10th/11th best team in the league....which is a slightly more obscure way of saying, we can defend far better. We have made 4 defensive signings, two of which are very tough experienced players and one of which is one of the best midfielders in the league and we are still defending terribly.
I see the Suarez signing as almost an irrelevance and not something I need to slander him for, but the defensive side nevertheless needs addressing. I have been disappointed with the managing of Ozil too. Not because I am his greatest fans but for many of the reasons already clearly stated. There is no iteration of reality where Arsenal are a better squad of players with Ozil at home playing fort nite or whatever they hell it's called than it is with him at least included in the squad.
He has been very transparent about the lack of money but very cloak and dagger regarding Ozil, Sven's leaving and even Ramsey.
Watch this space, let's see what happens and lets get behind the team.
On a side note the abuse Iwobi gets at the ground is very draining. Really don't look forward to that...
Emery will get a fair crack, I haven't seen anyone call him out irrationally, most of the management related concerns raised so far are fair and the real anger has been directed towards Kroenke. However it shouldn't be forgotten that he is only on a 3 year deal, so he will have to show something soon that suggests it will be worth extending that because the club are in a position to make a judgement call if they wish to. We live in the real world now where coaches are disposable and need to show that they're taking the team forwards if they want to continue.
This time next year we will be better placed to see what Emery can do, but for now taking it game by game is fine and we do have a lot to play for. He could still make himself a hero or at the very least endear himself to the fanbase.
Last edited by Marc Overmars; 07-02-2019 at 04:40 PM.
We didn't need a CM and should have never signed one, you don't just someone for the sake of it when you don't need him. It was a defender or winger or nothing IMO.
To me it stinks of having no plan at this club, likewise loaning out ESM, it makes no sense he should have got some game time. AMN should also get a go in his natural position not at full back where he can't play.
We don't even have a head of recruitment now that Mislintat has gone.
Last edited by Özim; 07-02-2019 at 04:52 PM.
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