Shkodran Mustafi says Unai Emery’s attention to detail is a clear indication that the new coach has a clear idea of how he wants his Arsenal side to play.
The Germany international has even claimed that the Spaniard is so precise with his instructions that he instructs his players on their positioning to within a metre or two.
“He really knows what he wants to do, how he wants to play,” Mustafi told reporters after yesterday’s 3-2 defeat to Chelsea.
“He’s not someone who is trying to change everything to show ‘this is my club now, my rules’.
“Most of the time it is little details, one or two metres that he wants you to move on the left and the right,
“It’s important because in games like today, most of the time details decide games,
“In the weeks he has been here, he has already changed a lot.”
Given how badly he was caught out by a long ball that led to Alvaro Morata scoring Chelsea’s second goal, that’s quite a statement from Mustafi.
Just to clarify, we’ve no doubt that clear instructions have been relayed on the training ground, we’re just of the view that if you give an encyclopedia to someone who can’t read, they are hardly going to educate themselves. Or something along those lines.
Fingers crossed Shkodran can learn the art of defending as quickly as the boss is learning English. We’ll be in trouble this season if he doesn’t.
It’s probably little details like ‘ get in the way of the ball when the forward is shooting’, ‘get up, stop diving on the floor’, stuff Mustafi hasnt learnt yet.
Let’s hope he listens.
Its the little details like sell Mustafi that Unai needs to get the hang of. Once he does that, the club will go places.
Man Utd could do with an upgrade on what they have. 50m bid in January should do it
Moaninho is fucked and he knows it
Moaninho never fails to deliver and it’s as good to see it every time. But why do teams, and top teams at that, keep hiring him? He’s a fucking car crash waiting to happen.
He might actually fail to deliver this time 🙂
He’s a specialist in delivering failure.
a specialist in being a cunt
It’s true. He is that too.
Emery is (presumably) playing what he thinks are his best CBs. I can’t see that we actually have better alternatives at the moment. He can only work with what he has got, and I’m sure he has worked with worse.
If we get a fully fit Kos back that would certainly help. He is (or was) quality.
The manager keeps saying the whole team has to defend, which it isn’t doing particularly well at the moment. I don’t think the CBs are our main issue. They actually did ok in both games so far for me, considering the opposition.
Lets be realistic, Koscielny is close to finished
He looked that way before he went off but he will have had surgery on his troublesome hamstring, and a long break.
He’s still only 32 (nearly 33) so nothing is guaranteed.
correction – achilles not hamstring
I thought that Koscielny was still brilliant whenever he had had enough rest; you could definitely see a serious decline in his performance when he played a second match in a week.
Probably still an upgrade right now
Even on crutches
This guy just doesn’t get it. Every time he opens his mouth I feel like slapping him in the face. Unfortunately we’re stuck with him until January at least when Koscienly is back or we can replace him. Xhaka and bellerin on the other hand should be as far away from the starting lineup as we are, we will go nowhere with those three clueless monkeys in our starting XI.
Xhaka and Bellerin might both start looking better if/when we replace Mustafi!
Taking small positives from this weekend, while we are 6 points off the top, at least we’re only 3 behind United.
Next game is a relegation 6 pointer
I’ll praise him too, when he puts you where you belong. The reserves.
I find it weird that Mustafi gets so much stick compared to some of our other players. We all know he’s not been very good for us but every other player to play CB has been poor to average for us since he arrived. Xhaka is as much use sat in front of the back four as Ozil would be. Ramsey helps even less. Bellerin has been absolute shite defensively for 3 years now bar the odd last ditch tackle, he always defended with ‘he gets no help’. Honestly, what help do our CBs actually get? I’m not defending him,… Read more »
He gets stick because of his mind bugling schoolboy defensive errors that no professional footballer should be making.
He said Wenger didn’t tell him what to improve on. How about stay goal side of the attackers. A professional footballer shouldn’t have to be told that
Bugling lol
He tried to play retreat, but it came out as the charge.
The can’t do basic cover work in defense and he’s talking!? BUM
At least Mustafi was a few metres short of Morata and could try and get the block. Sokratis was on the same line as Mustafi and is still trying to get back to bloc Morata. And it was 2 days ago.
When you are that slow you have no chance in the PL
Mertesacker?
But the BFG could read and predict what the opposition was going to/could do.
Sokratis is so slow. And old. Who bought him???
I suspect AW
I dunno man. We’ve had shit players before, but for Giroud and the like you’d still defend him saying “he doesn’t pick himself”. Well neither does mustafi. We knew he was bad when last season ended, we know it now. This is on the management for me. And sending chambers out too. Madness.
1. We do, but that doesn’t mean Emery does. And don’t give me stuff about preseason, it’s not enough time to know. Just as how Sarri still wants to give David Luiz a try, even though the rest of us have seen enough.
2. Still don’t understand the Chambers loan, but he hasn’t covered himself in light on his 2 games for Fulham so far. He was directly at fault for one of their goals from the first game. If he did that here, no doubt you’d be one of the first to complain and wonder why he’s playing.
Chambers also looked awful for Fulham.
I know most of us (especially Blogs) have already lost all hope with Mustafi but I genuinely believe there is a decent defender in there somewhere. Remember in his first season that we had a run of 18 unbeaten games or something like that when he was in the team? Lest we forget, he was also an established German international under the age of 25 in a not too distant past. Mustafi will never dominate the premiership like a Kompany, Koscielny, Vertoghen, or a Van Dijk would. Best we can hope for this season is for Mustafi and Sokratis together… Read more »
“Remember in his first season that we had a run of 18 unbeaten games or something like that when he was in the team?” So what? We once had an amazing 6-month purple patch with Djourou as our main CB and set a record for number of clean sheets in the CL with Senderos as our main CB (and Flamini as a left back). Correlation is not causation. “Lest we forget, he was also an established German international under the age of 25 in a not too distant past.” Once again, so what? He WAS. He’s not anymore and it’s… Read more »
That only tells you what good coaching can achieve
The point is til January we have no other options. LEts see how they go between now and then.. they may develop into a quality pairing with a bit of coaching.
No promises, but we cant sit here and go off at them every game, they are our only choices to be fair.
Faisel, I won’t systematically argue against your points as it’s pretty clear your mind is convinced. Reality is we’re stuck with Mustafi until January so you can either a) continue to bark at every single of his wrongdoing , b) lend the lad a tad bit support. God forbid his confidence grows from game to game, and he actually helps us to win some games Seriously, it’s the first two games of the season against two of the strongest teams in the league with a new manager, new players and new system…some perspective please! Honestly if any one of those… Read more »
About those first 18 games: This was also the period where he was chosen for a strong Germany side in the Euros. Evidently, Low–like Wenger–is simply not as good a judge of talent as you. You can argue he has gotten worse since then, but it is just ridiculous to deny that he played very well when we first got him.
We also got to the CL final without conceding, with Senderos.
And flamini playing left back….And Eboue…Fuck me we should hire Keown again.
I think Mustafi is similar to Kos. Kos and Mert were a great partnership that were greater than the sum of their parts. They complimented each other. Kos and Vermaelen were to similar, one had to go, Kos remained. Mustafi has had to adapt to stay with us, he played well with Kos but I think he’s actually his long term replacement. Put him with a dominant cb good in the air that drops off and watch him prosper as he steps out quick and has good recovery pace. I’m probably hplessly optimistic but I like Mustafi.
Alderweireld/Mustafi or Van Dijk/Mustafi would look very strong.
Some of these players are flawed, some have been pampered and had their ego’s stroked to believe they’re much more important than they actually are. No manager was going to walk in and get instant results. I just hope the fans and the owner back Emery if there’s any senior player revolts. We can’t have under performing and overpaid players winning any battles in the dressing room, when they’ve not got anywhere near that level of determination to win the battles on the football pitch. Will be interesting to see what Emery does next week? I think tactically he’ll set… Read more »
Funny that Mustafi and Sokratis are the most vocal squad members recently yet they have looked pretty bad in the first two games. Perhaps hoping that sucking up to the boss will see them through?
I hope that’s not the case and that the evidence of all the new things they’re learning becomes evident on the pitch. I am all for the players we have becoming better, if not moreso than bringing new ones in.
I’m pretty sure sucking up to Emery is not going to work. Hopefully they are realising that they aren’t very good at the moment and need to get better. Last season Mustafi was happy to throw Cech under the bus when he himself was the culprit…if he’s gaining some self-awareness that can only be a good thing.
Got caught out 5 times with simple balls over the top. Sunday league stuff. The guy is shite never takes responsibility does not matter who the manager is.
I agree. I don’t hate Mustafi, I think he can defend well if he is trained properly, but boy do I get mad at him when he starts swinging his arms in denial when he has made some silly error.. doesn’t take responsibility
Sorry he isn’t the only one though.
I’d like you to move 1 or 2 metres closer to the ball anytime it comes near our box Mus.
I’d rather hoped that a new boss would have taken to drilling defenders in the same way as George Graham did.
I’m pretty sure they are being drilled.
Get rid of this guy.
Why?
We have other terrible players. Its not like we have any better Centre backs at the moment. If anything he is one of our better options.
Are we forgetting Mavropanos and how easily he could slot in alongside Sokratis? Put in lichsteiner for Bellerin aswell and bring on Hector later in the game when his pace can really be exploited in attack and we aren’t already 2 goals down.
Also Leno has to come in for Cech, give the guy a shot at taking his chance instead of blindly hoping Cech can regain his world beating form of 5 years ago..
Mavropanos and Holding are even worse than Mustafi. You’re having a laugh.
Guess we didn’t see the same tall fast defender who is good with his feet for the last 3 games of the season just past?
I saw a promising young player who was clearly in over his head and got sent off.
Nah.Holding is definitely not worse than Mustafi.
Cech’s been our best player these first 2 games. I mean yeah he struggled a little playing out from the back against City but to be honest who wouldn’t.
I like Cech too but when your entire game plan relies on beating intense press you can’t have any weakness at the keeper area. I think changing to Leno would give a chance to create a new momentum and feeling to the back line. I’d also definitely get Mavropanos in there, the kid is good
I think the new coach is simply giving some time for the new defensive partnership to bed in, he can’t we’ll throw in a new GK with an untested CB pairing in the premier league, we’d get the runaround. Hopefully Leno will come in after they gain some understanding, Mustafi and Sokratis.
Valencia fleeced us good with Mustafi. Did the boss ever work with him in Valencia? Maybe he knows something about him that we don’t.
Mustafi is not the problem.
Watch the match again.
Mhkitaryan did not offer enough support defensively to Bellerin. He misplaced passes all game long.
Attacks consistently came down the left.
The moment you end up isolating the Cback one on one, its a 50-50 chance.
Until people stop making such ludicrous knee jerk reactions, you will never be able to be objective with the issues we are facing in this squad.
I said it in the summer, we will face a reality check and we did not buy well enough.
Keep deluding yourself.
Relax people. We got beaten by the last two league champions. Yes Chelsea have a new manager, but Sarri was handed a squad that won the league two years ago. We need to sort out the backs, but the only way to do that is for Unai to see them in action then apply fixes as needed (retrain or replace). It was the area that needed the most work so this is not a surprise. We could’ve beaten Chelsea but luck wasn’t on our side. The single disappointment I have is that we still start Mustafi. But maybe there’s something… Read more »
Click bait or what. Some people just don’t get it. All this focus on certain players which some very simplistic fans will blame for everything. We had Flamini before as the lightning rod. Usual trite about how he flammed it up. When he left, guess what, we were no better with the heavily lauded Coquelin or Elneny. If anything Coquelin and Ramsey let in 14 goals in 7 consecutive matches. Now we have Mustafi and Granit as some sort of issue. Truth be told they are far from good. But we were NO BETTER when Torreira came on for us.… Read more »
I’m not trying of course to suggest Mustafi is a good player or Granit is without fault but some people need a reality check and a bit of perspective. Fact is we have been mixed in our market purchases since Mslintat took over. This team is still unbalanced. Emery has little choice but to work with what he has.\ We lack a wide player with Theo, Gnabry, the Ox and Alexis sold in quick succession. Instead, Mslintat and co end up leaving us prey to United and that super agent who force upon us a player in Mhki (good in… Read more »
So the point you’re trying to make is that all of our players are terrible, instead of just Mustafi and Granit?
Mustafi was statistically the second best CB in the league last season. Yes, you read that right. Partially that shows that statistics don’t tell the whole story but it also shows that there is potentially a very good player in there somewhere – or at least that parts of him are very strong.
If he could develop a footballing brain (yes, yes, I know, easier said than done) we’d have a real player on our hands. Presumably that is why we bought him and why both Wenger and now Emery seem committed to trying to get something out of him.
I’ve never gotten over him blaming Cech for his own mistake against Southampton last season. It’s one thing just being a bit shite, it’s another to be a potential arsehole at the same time. Why we kept him and loaned Chambers I’ll never know.
When will we start with the spartans Soktratis – Mavropanos. Mavro where realy good those few games he played last season.
You mean when he was sent off?
I do not understand why everyone is already bashing the squad or manager. It has been two games, against our big rivals ! Unai will need time and he should be given it. As fans we should embrace ”this change” as many of our fans had been demanding last few years, and get on top our team and manager by giving them the support they need and deserve ! The media (liverpool pundits, and Most Arsenal alike) like to bash us at every little possible opportunity, we should not fall into that trap, ( or get onto that bandwagon) !!!… Read more »
Why doesn’t Mustafi focus on little details, like not trying to play the off side trap when all the Chelsea players are on their sude of the bloddy pitch
A question to ask is, with kos injured, and Mustafi not very good, why didn’t we spend and buy two new canter backs with speed and power.
Because arsenal don’t believe in spending the market value on top players. The ckub look for bargains like sokratis. Until the club start buying world class players we we won’t compete. Simple as that.
Mustafi is the least of our problem. To think you want to play Holding ahead of him when he made even more mistakes than Mustafi in pre-season. Granted he has his own issue but the sad fact is we did not leak all 3 goals to CHelsea bc of Mustafi alone. The defense is poorly constructed bc we did not buy the right player to reinforce in the summer. Nor have we helped ourselves with insisting to play the high press which dictates the team stay compact to those pressing higher up. The highline is suicide with the Cbacks we… Read more »
Actually when you look beyond simplistic analysis, Granit too was a lot better than many imagine.
The period we came back into the game and scored, Granit was getting into the game and moved the ball for us from deep which created the opportunties.
When Torreira came on, he was not up to the speed of the game. Coupled with Ozil and Mhki dropping their levels, we lost midfield momentum.
Calum Who?
It’s a concern and now lots of teams know the weakness. With torreira screening or dropping between to sweep up, we will have greater distance from defence to midfield, longer passes and less control of the midfield. And less combination play which will allow Ozil and Auba to thrive. Micki in central midfield instead of Xhaka might help with his runs with the ball. But overall it is a collective responsibility to cover for our defenders lack of pace. So we need our front 3 to expend energy and close down the long passes which easily defeat Mustafi and Sokratis.… Read more »