Unai Emery says he offered Sead Kolasinac words of encouragement after the Bosnian felt himself to blame for Manchester United’s second goal in Arsenal’s 2-2 draw at Old Trafford.
The left wing-back was culpable for Jessie Lindgard’s equaliser when his half-hearted back pass seemed to catch out Bernd Leno, however, his boss stressed that his defender’s contribution in attack was reason enough to be cheerful.
Kolasinac was a constant outlet for the Gunners in the final third on a night when Shkodran Mustafi and Alex Lacazette (or was it Marcos Rojo?) twice gave the visitors the lead.
Speaking to BT Sport after the game, the Spaniard said: “No, I’m not frustrated [by the result].
“For example, Sead Kolasinac was coming at the end of the match with his head looking down. I said to him, ‘Sead, you had a very good match. Offensively you give us a lot of circumstances from which we can score.’
“And then, it can happen in defence [his mistake]. You need to continue and above all be positive and learn with this action.”
The draw sees Arsenal extend their unbeaten run to 20 games (our best string of results since 2007) but with Sp*rs winning against Southampton, we fall back out of the top four on goal difference. We’re actually level on points with Chelsea who lost to Wolves tonight. There’s certainly some festive cheer in that result.
I’m starting to really like Unai – his positivity and tactical flexibility are a breath of fresh air
How about putting Sead into right winger? Give the LB pos to Nacho when he’s back. I think it is worth to try…..
How about Sead not running into the ball, knocking it across our six years area and gifting them with an immediate equalizer???? It was atrocious defending. Headless chicken. If we would have held that lead for even ten minutes they would have folded, we would have won and Moreen would have been sacked!
Bollocks!
Easy precious, everyone can make a mistake. Focus on the positives rather than abusing individual players. He has been great this year and created some excellent goals for the team…
Ps. Why do you want Mourinho sacked? Hes doing a great job at destroying United!
I think him as attacking left midfielder works as it does. I would rather want to give Laca second striker CF role along with Auba at pure ST. Then 2 base of Torreira and Xhaka. Two wingers instead of inverted wingers, in Sead and Iwobi/Mikhi. With a classic back 4.
Many things Unai Emery is doing, fans had been saying for long. The common man’s common sense has found home in our team play once again. Wenger was an intellectual heavyweight, who often went against some common sense. And that was one of the bigger reasons for all the hate he got, even as he stacked 3 FA cups in his last few seasons. Something Pundit’s beloved Klopp or Pochettino have yet to do.
Arsene Wenger: Why always me?
This remind me of Fellaini. Saw this post from someone and pasted it here for everyone to enjoy.
“Fellaini is an ogre, stamping, elbowing and punching his way around the pitch. Every game, he has that ‘Who me?!?!?’ look on his face,with a player in a bloody heap at his feet! He should START every game getting a yellow as he walks out of the tunnel… for intent!”
when’s the next best unbeaten run (after 2007)?
Can someone explain to me why our second goal is being credited as a Rojo own goal…
Whose responsible and when is their eye test ffs…?
Because Rojo scored an OG!!!
Can they change it to Laca with the video evidence?
If Harry Kane complains enough, I’m sure he’ll get credit for this goal…
😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
Surely one for the dubious goals panet
Panel even
I wish Emery would start his best players. I was waiting the entire match for him to sub out Iwobi, who leads the league in dribbling into defenders, for Lacca to come on and score.
I know it’s illegal to criticize Emery, but United’s defense is a mess. Start your best offensive players and jump all over them
Still. A point at olf Trafford after 2 days rest and suffering 2 injuries during the match. Not a bad result considering United’s first goal was offside, amd rojo should’ve seen red for his tackle on matteo
Agreed, Iwobi has been better this season for sure but still inconsistent. A decent option from the bench at the moment
Have to agree, when was the last time he delivered a decent ball into the box? Though his all round play was good otherwise and we lacked options
Emery’s style requires a winger/AM-type in the half-space who can carry the ball.
The fact that Iwobi is our only option there is not the fault of Emery. He needs someone with those qualities and Iwobi is the best we have, regardless of his clear limitations.
I hate all this captain hindsight bollocks. “Start your best offensive players and jump all over them” is akin o boxing coaches in the corner saying “just bloody hit him really hard and you’ll win”.
And even he doesn’t get knocked out, you’ve punched yourself out early on.
Our manager is really a positive personality. You have got to give him kudos for changing things over his first 4 months or so of the season. But he is correct to say that we need constant improvement from everyone. Very disappointed that we did not get three points from this game, but maybe we can chalk that up to the effort put forth on Sunday, and injuries we are dealing with. However, to win the league, to get to the final four, we need more of a killer instinct than we saw today.
A bit more positive than calling him a virus.
For all my hate, I sure secretly respect Sp*rs. Writing this, hurt.
This ones obviously out on day release.
And has somehow picked up Yoda speak whilst incarcerated.
Wha … Respect? Is it the burning down of heir own hovels, their toilet shaped new stadium or just the overall moronic behaviour? Don’t bother elaborating, you’d only be soiling these pages …
One League Cup win their only trophy in 20 years?
Respect.
Trophies does not equal respect- look at mourinho
Pedant’s comment was “tongue-in-cheek” my man. 🙂
Spurs are toilet
You respect shit, Francesc?
Respect and Sp*rs and words you will never find in any sentence of mine!
Respect. Something like Shush! sign when it is still early in the game?
Ya. Ya. We can all tell that we have a spuds spy in our camp. Lol
I felt he has been doing really well. He was good today marauding down their left and like against Spurts, created plenty of chances for us. Regarding this instance, why we allowed the ball to bounce in the first place is beyond me. It was IMO more than Kolasinac albeit he made an effort to toe poke it and it did not come off for him in a good man. Certainly, you can’t accuse him of being lazy. BUT we really needed to be switched on after our goals and we simply lost concentration. Too much ball watching. A lesson… Read more »
Kola was solid defensively against spurs, I think the signs are there that he’s improving. A single error hardly separates him from the rest of our defence
Or, if you watch, almost any defender on the planet.
Our attacking play was very one dimensional. It mostly came through mistakes by united or overlaps from Saed.
anyone writing off ozil at this point needs to ask who else can exploit the sort of space that united were giving up so freely last night, but which failed to be exploited.
I agree with you, but also think that Ramsey would have made the difference in that 2nd half.
How can someone wrote Özil Off after the Match against the wolves when everyone was poor? Today Ramsey is on another Level than Mesut and tomorrow he is shit again? In the comments YouTube someone Said that Ramsey ist a Keyplayer. Imo he definetly isn’t bad, but man how is it possible to wright Özil Off? Im not 100% sure if he would have made am imapct today, but i know we needed him so so much. Remember Last season Sanchez and Özil ripping Manu apart? Leceister sexy Football? An eben the quality Match against Liverpool?
Ramsey created absolutely nothing in the first half and was probably heading to be subbed at half time anyway. He’s much better as a super sub.
I think the main challenge for Emery is to implement a mindset also suitable for defensive tasks wherever you play in the team. Sead did a mistake, but Iwobi’s lack of challenge to the rebound from Leno was also a big mistake and shows that our players lack the intuitive defensive reflex in such situations. I think we’ll be there when Enery has worked the squad over time