Tag Archives: Unai Emery

Unai Emery trying to create culture of “competitive tension”

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There is a really good exclusive interview over on The Sports Review with Guillem Balague.

Balague spoke about what he made of Unai Emery’s start at Arsenal, explaining that he had spent his time trying to change the culture of the club, while trying to win as many games as possible.

It is his belief that in recent years if felt like the club had fallen asleep.

What he says on the Mesut Ozil situation was interested.

He speaks about Arsene Wenger admitting that Mesut Ozil may have gone into his comfort zone because of his new contract.

Balague expands on this by saying that under Wenger there was not enough inner competition and fighting for places and that these kinds of things were abandoned.

Having been under Arsene Wenger for many years, Emery has had to change the clubs culture. He has attempted to introduce more of that competitive tension that you need in a team, in the offices, and throughout the club.

It is interesting that Balague specifically mentions about players being in their comfort zone and the Emery is trying to bring in some competitive tension into the club.

Emery was criticised at PSG for being too abrasive, but it is also clear that Arsenal needed a mindset change after Wenger.

People have spoken previously about Pep Guardiola being intense in everything that he does on the training ground. That you either fall in line with what Guardiola wants, and have the same intense, competitive winner mindset as himself or he gets rid of you.

Emery seems to be trying to implement the same at Arsenal. You either buy into his competitive intensity or you show yourself as not being part of his future.

It feels that perhaps Ozil has not bought into this competitive tension. That he is happy coasting, in his comfort zone, with his big contract.

An intense, competitive character will always be abrasive with a laid back ,relaxed character. This is probably why the relationship between Ozil and Emery is strained.

What the club need to decide is to whether back Emery’s attempts of changing the entire clubs mindset, or to back Ozil and embrace a relaxed atmosphere where we coast in our comfort zones.

Balague also poured cold water on the links with Ever Banega labelling it very old news and that Arsenal are not looking for that kind of player.

The last thing he spoke about was about Arsenal’s search for a new director of football.

This fits in with Emery trying to change the culture at the club, and highlights that this push comes from above him with Raul Sanllehi. He talks about Arsenal moving away from an all-conquering and possessive manager (a dig at Wenger) layers to the club.

The final thing he says those now running the club have a clear idea of what they want to be and they are looking for the right people to fit in.

All in all an interesting read.

Keenos

Only fans of The Arsenal could moan when we win….

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Saturday we WON and we WON AWAY, something we rarely did last season and had not done in the league since November this. Yet still too many on the social media and some blogs are using it as a stick to beat Unai Emery with.
Now I have the upmost respect to all match going fans, both home, away and the nut nuts who travel to Easten Europen war zones, I tip my hat to you all.
But there seems to be an element that say they are fans of The Arsenal that just can’t stop having a moan up on social media whilst sitting at home watching on a stream.
When chatting to mates who went oop north and seeing their social media; everyone seems happy, if slightly hungover. Very little moaning from the fans that do the miles.
No one is saying we were world beaters against Huddersfield, but a good day out with mates and a win will always trump a good day out and seeing us play well, “entertaining” and lose.
Yes saturdays performance wasn’t a 10/10,  but with 3 of our best defenders out right now and Emery wanting to build from the back we may struggle. With Granit Xhaka out we may struggle. With both Ramsey and Ozil out we may struggle. And with the 2nd highest goalscorer in the league this season out, we may struggle. We struggled, but we won, job done.
That lot up the road were praised for winning games when they had an injury crisis of 3 players. We were without 7.
As a supporter of a certain age I’m kinda used to seeing struggle. I grew up on the football over the 70s and 80s. When we won nothing.
I’m used to seeing us grind out results. I can hand on heart say I’ve enjoyed seeing us get a result we didn’t deserve more than when we turned up and battered sides in the 1st half. That 90th minute winner after a tough game.
Another point is Saturdays starting lineup had 2 London boys who came through the youth ranks in the starting, line up. We also had another 2 sitting in the bench.
Local lads playing might be a mute point to some, but I’m a big lover of seeing them come good.
From my early days watching a young Adams, Rocky, Merson, Thomas, Super Kev etc to Cole and Jack under Wenger. We have a great crop of youngsters right now, who Emery is backing and giving game time too,
I do find the stick the likes of Alex Iwobi and Ainsley Maitland-Niles get on social media very odd. We should be backing our local lads, not going out of our way to abuse and criticise them.
Every right minded fan knew that Emery had a tough job this season.
When he came most most agreed that his minimum target would be to return us to challenging for top 4.
Prior to the Manchester City v Chelsea game, we were 1 point off Manchester United in 4th. We have 5 points more than we did at the same stage last season and should be on course to get over 70 points.
This season made harder by the fact he couldn’t buy this Jan due the rules on increasing the wage bill. It’s been made double hard by the sheer number of players that have had fluke injuries. But yet we are sitting on the coat tails of 3rd and 4th, and have an easier run in then those above.
People are criticising Emery even though he is fulfilling their pre-season expectations.
We all want to see improvement, but only the deluded would think that a squad that spluttered to 6th place last season and got smashed away from home in the Prem would be title challangers in 2 transfer windows. Emery is building a new way of playing, he’s building a new squad and he’s not shy in bringing in the youth.
The damage left by Wenger/Ivan may take 3 years to fix. This summer we could see up to 10 first team squad members leave. Yet some want to give the manager stick after just 26 Prem games, I honestly don’t know what planet there on.
my only theory is that as they didn’t have Emery on their “wanted” list; they now go out of their way to criticise him to prove they were right in not wanting him.
People moaning about % of the ball, Xg Goals, how many more corners they had, how many passes etc. The only stat that matters is who scored the most goals.Theres even the fools that can’t see an improvement on last season. 
I wanted Wenger out for years before he went, I wanted him out as I couldn’t see an improvement, we all watched us slowely spiral downwards. The downward spiral has been stopped, we are heading back up and at the pace to which we went down. If that’s not good enough for some then I feel for you I really do, but I’m sorry we are not gonig to win the Prem this season.
We also have to accept that there are 6 top teams chasing 4 Champions League places. It isn’t as easy as it was in the 00s.
If only those who seem hell bent on moaning at Emery win, lose or draw put more time into moaning about ticket prices, games moved for TV, the cost of trains to and from games and often lack of trains, then we would as fans be a lot better off.
Ignore the moaners – UNAI EMERY’S RED AND WHITE ARMY….
Gav

Arsenal need to rebuild momentum for top 4 battle

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All is quiet this morning in the world of Arsenal. Friday’s often are if we have not played on the Thursday.

We had the pre-game conferences yesterday and the game against Huddersfield tomorrow. Friday is the very average meat in the sandwich.

Unai Emery spoke yesterday about a lose of confidence in recent weeks amongst the team.

“We started very well away, changing our mentality, but now we need to recover this confidence, to recover this performance and the next opportunity is Saturday against Huddersfield.”

Momentum is such an important factor in sport.

We saw that at Liverpool who looked to go 7 points clear of Manchester City in second before slipping up against Leicester City. This led to further dropped points against West Ham. 2 draws in a row, a drop in momentum and suddenly Manchester City are top.

It will be interesting to see if the confidence that was brimming at Liverpool, and driving them towards the title reverses and they continue to wobble.

You can also see the confidence ebb away in the England cricket team over in the West Indies.

Prior to the first test, most were expecting a 3-0 white wash. 77 all out in their first innings led to an 381 run defeat and then a 10 wicket defeat in the 2nd innings.

The 3rd best test team in the world are on the verge of being white washed against the 8th best team, this after they beat Sri Lanka 3-0 at the back end of last year.

The momentum has gone, and England players look completely bereft of confidence.

During the 22-game unbeaten run, the momentum was with Arsenal. We were winning games we perhaps should not have done. We had the confidence that even when not winning at half time, we would come back and win the game. As Emery states, we need to recover that confidence and put together a run to drive us into 4th for the end of the season.

A few people have got arrogant over tomorrows games, calling is an “easy 3 points”.

Huddersfield at bottom of the league with just 11 points. Arsenal should win the game, but a victory should never be taken for granted. Unai Emery is certainly not seeing it as an easy 3 points.

“These matches are difficult and they are playing for the possibility to continue in the Premier League.

“Their last results have not been good but with their new coach [Jan Siewert], I am sure that they are going to play with a big ambition and a big performance on Saturday.

“I think they have good players with a good organisation. They push a lot and I know it will be difficult. For us as well, away games have been a challenge and each match is a new challenge.”

Arsenal’s away form is much improved this season.

Last year we looked fearful when playing away. Zero confidence. Zero momentum. We just kept losing. Whilst it has improved this season, we are certainly not in a position to think that 3 points away from home will be easy.

4 wins away from is the same as we achieved in the whole of last season, and we currently have just 1 point less than we did from the 19 away games last season (16). However this is still not good enough.

We have the 9th best away form yet the 3rd best home form. It is clearly holding us back. Based on home form, we are just 4 points behind Manchester City, level with Liverpool. The poor away form puts us out of the title race – just like last season when we had the 2nd best home form.

“Maybe both,” Emery replied when asked if poor away form was due to tactical or mental reasons.

“It can be… at the end, the reason we didn’t take the same balance as we have shown at home.

“I spoke with the players [and told them] we need to think this match is very important for us and every player needs to be ready, be focused and be thinking we need to win this match.

“Imposing ourselves from the first minute, and throughout the 90 minutes, our capacity against them – but first is the mentality.

“For us, tactically, is the second issue. The first is to think we need to win and after it’s how we can win this match – (in terms of) preparing tactically and individually.”

If Arsenal are to make the top 4, I would imagine we need to win at least 4 of our last 7 away games starting with Huddersfield tomorrow.

Plenty of transfer speculation floating about today as well – usually the case on a slow news day.

A deal for Adrien Rabiot has been mentioned again.

He had supposedly agreed a deal to join Barcelona on a free transfer, but they have since spent big on Frankie De Jong. He would be a very good accusation for Arsenal, reinforcing the midfield and giving the club 4 fantastic options in the 3 man midfield (alongside Lucas Torriera, Granit Xhaka and Matteo Guendouzi).

Christopher Nkunku is another mentioned again. It would not be a surprise if that deal is done in the summer. He would then make it 5 options for 3 spots, and would probably be the end of Mohamed Elneny.

It has also been reported today that “Arsenal lead the race for Alex Grimaldo“, a left back at Benfica.

I know nothing about him, and I imagine he will be one of about 100 left backs we will be linked to over the next 6 months.

Keenos