Unai Emery admits his English may still have room for improvement but he has no doubts that he’s able to communicate clearly with his players.
Eyebrows were raised when Bukayo Saka admitted after the 3-0 win over Frankfurt that Freddie Ljungberg sometimes clarifies the Spaniard’s instructions, however, Emery made clear that he holds one-on-one video sessions with his players, including the teenager.
Ahead of Monday’s clash with Manchester United, he was asked whether the language barrier is holding his side back.
He replied: “I think no – I have conversations with players, particularly individually with Bukayo Saka. Sometimes I use Freddie to do that conversation with individual players.
“But I also spoke to Saka alone in my office and prepared sometimes some videos – I have done videos with English players, Spanish players, French players, German players.
“Now my English is, from one to 10, maybe a six. But at six, I think the players can understand me.
“If not, some help is good. Last year, on my first day (in the job), I spoke to them very bad, more bad than today. But I have spoken English and now it’s the same, but I think better.”
Given the first team squad hails from 13 different countries with the boss fluent in Spanish and passable in French and English, it feels like a bit of a red herring worrying about his language skills. His tactical acumen on the other hand…
Just media shit stirring. Move on.
Credit to Emery to even attempt speaking a foreign language. Lot of respect to him for conducting his first interview in English..yes it was crap English..but so what? We got the point right?
But giving himself 6 out of 10? Hope he is not that optimistic with the performance of our defensive game.
I have to agree with you. It’s more like a 4.
People just love something to winge about, his English is fine,
Agreed. Wasn’t Pochettino in England for about 2/3 years before he did an interview without a translator? How many of the people criticising are fluent in Spanish.
Also with confidence in each moment, showing our capacity in conversations, after with big commitment doing in our way.
Lol
Oh, you protagonist, you.
That was Perfect! LOL!
Ha ha wow .
That was fucking brutal..
At the moment, I do not have much faith in Emery – even if he gets us into the top 4. On the back of the past one and a half year, he hasn’t shown enough to prove that he’ll take us to the next level i.e challenging for the title and taking us past the RO16 in the Champions League. But I genuinely hope he will turn things around. He seems like a nice bloke, and its always better if the man holding the job is the best man for the job rather than someone else.
“challenging for the title” Look, Emery is disappointing right now and there is a lack of progress, and so if the club can find a new manager that can have an instant impact to take us further, then by all mean we should go for it. But make no mistake, the current PL “title challenge” requires a whopping point tally of 98 points or more. To suggest that there is any manager in world football who can take the current Arsenal squad – given the financial limitations and all – anywhere near that number is beyond ridiculous. Not even the… Read more »
We’ve literally spent as much money as Liverpool. We should be competing with them. As individuals our squad isn’t even that far behind.
It’s not the money spent, it’s also who you’re spending it on (we’ve made some massive blunders in that respect), how you’re managing current players (and contracts), and how you are scouting. I actually think we’re quite far behind LFC in terms of these.
Had to downvote that for suggesting that Liverpool’s state is both unnatural and unattainable. Klopp isnt a ‘phenomenon’ – he’s just a very good manager who has been given enough time and control of the club to build a squad that suits his style of football. The level of spending at liverpool is also not in a different realm to ours. They have just spent it well and have created a team arguably better than the sum of their parts. Saying we cant even compete with that is utterly defeatist in my opinion. Remember it wasnt long ago that liverpool… Read more »
Klopp’s football has always been discernible, quite clearly so; I’m not sure the same thing can be said about Emery’s game. If Emery can give us more consistent impressions of what style of football Arsenal are going to play under his tutelage, then he deserves our support and he definitely deserves more time; but after nearly 16 months in charge, most of us are still wondering what kind of football we are playing. I want him to succeed as I’m exhausted by Arsenal disappointment, but if he doesn’t show clear, positive signs in the next few months that this team… Read more »
The fact that Klopp is a very good manager is reason enough to give him time. If we give Emery two more years as you suggest, and it turns out that, as it seems to appear, he isn’t a very good manager (not terrible, just not good enough), then we will have wasted two years of time and money to no benefit. Auba and Laca will be leaving, and we will still be paying our installments for Pepe etc. Liverpool had Rodgers before Klopp. Rodgers isn’t a bad manager, as evidenced by Leicesters current league position, but he wasn’t good… Read more »
Rogers famously did challenge for the title..
Here’s a handy data-point: Oxlade-Chamberlain is good enough to play for Liverpool, even to start, though he is pretty clearly a half-step below their best players. Exactly the description that you would put to his time at Arsenal.
that accumulated total of above 90 points is because most teams wont improve their level.
….during the invincible era , teams were more comparable ,…it wasnt a one or two team league.
The league is even more competitive now than it was then, though. It just seems to be 2 managers at the pinnacle of the game, pushing each other to the limit.
It’s not like either team has way more talented players compared to title winning teams of the past. They’re both incredibly team-oriented, and have deeply ingrained football philosophies, which I think is the difference.
AW vs SAF — those were the days!
Apart from City and Liverpool, Arsenal can compete favourably with the other 17 in terms of player quality.
Where we fall short is in the quality of coaching.
Emery is an average coach…EL standard at best.
Apart from Guardiola, and Klopp, there are three other managers I’d take above him –
Pochettino, Brendan Rogers and Pellegrini.
I’ve kept out Lampard because of his lack of top level managerial experience.
I’m personally not concerned by the language barrier.
But it was telling in the match at one point against Watford I think it was? Emery was speaking/gesticulating to his coaches in Spanish, and it’s his coaches that were then talking to the players during a break in play.
Certainly, in a 1v1 environment, the barrier disappears, but when emotions are high, I think he definitely has his “translators”
People in France say he lost all his credibility trying to explain Barcelona’s remontada against PSG in french.
Alright!….we are grateful Emery.. Thanks.
I think it’s not ‘more bad’ than what the media said.
What does The Ebening Standard have to say?
Don’t know too much about Spanish football… please enlighten me on what Valancia and Servilla were like under him? Style, identity etc…
They played a much more flowing football is what I remember.
This could probably be his worst spell as a manager from a perspective of performances.
Articles in the internet should enlighten you.
“Given the first team squad hails from 13 different countries…”
I guess you don’t count Scotland 🙂
Oh snap. Shots fired haha
That’s because Scotland is not an independent country.
It fucking will be soon hopefully
It’s not so much if they can understand what he’s saying in english, more so his actual grasp of the language. At the moment, it seems he has learnt a few soundbites very well and recycles them often. A trick I used to use myself when my spanish wasn’t great and living/working abroad in a foreign environment.
“No tocas mis cojones!”
Interestingly, I have heard that trick also works well in certain part of Watford.
Plus, that phrase is easy to change to the positive instruction – just take off the “No”. (Could be useful to know as well)
I agree that it feels like a bit of a red herring worrying about Unai’s language skills.
The fact is it is far from easy learning a new language as a middle aged man, and
Unai should be praised for doing so.
Agree with that 100%
I think that is why Xhaka was put forth as the “first captain”. Believe he and Emery communicate better together than Emery and the other choices. Here’s hoping that this will actually translate to better performances by the team and Xhaka.
If his team talks are anything like his interviews and press conferences, I suspect the players understand the words but not the meaning.
Classic arseblog news always make a snide remarks regarding emery at the end. We know you don’t like emery very much but give it a rest won’t you.
You don’t have to read it you know …
How would he know what it said if he didn’t read it?
No doubt they do; but the more important issue is: do they understand your tactics?
Judge the coach on his coaching, not his English… right?
I don’t think that it’s his English that’s the worry. I worry more that he gives the players a myriad of, potentially conflicting and confusing, tactical instructions, different for each game. This is, in itself, hard to communicate for even native speakers. I always think that footballers (and team sport players in general) are at their best when given clear, limited instruction, such that they can intensely focus on their own thing, with the trust that the coach has a big picture and they will fit into it by doing what they are doing well. I haven’t had the slightest… Read more »
What if he is forced to use players that he does not want? That’s the only way of selling them really, by giving them games.
Emery must really be dying to use Ozil and dump Auba then.
He knows football language, what more did you need from him.
So Unai, you’re just a poor thinker and speaker, then? Or the team are just stupid?! Not a good look, either way.
Ever since the March international break he’s been pants. What happened out there in Abu Dhabi?
I supported Emery in his first year out of principle but he’s clearly not the man for the job long term.
Unai:
Just get us into the top 4 and we’ll give you a good reference.
Why the nasty throw away line at the end of this piece…it’s unbecoming and unnecessary.
I have to presume that’s put forward tongue-in-cheek, based one what we read in the comments section here every single day with respect to the nastiness we direct at everything with a heartbeat, and not. Blogs and his cast of merry men are welcome to cast a little shade and doubt here and there, as they’ve earned their degrees in all things Arsenal.
Emery’s a bit like one of those dolls where you pull the string in its back and it says a sentence
Hes got about 6 English phrases programmed into his memory and whatever question the journo asks, one of those 6 will come out at random.
Really difficult to listen to.
If we could only get a 6/10 performance from our fearless capitan……
emery is a bum
For me….as long as he doesnt play Özil more because he doesnt know how to use Özil or doesnt want to use Özil….for whatever reasons…language or otherwise….he is a NOT a good coach to me. Why? Well Özilis the HIGHEST PAID player in the team, Emery has to play Özil in a system that works. The fact that he named Özil as one of the Captain or vice-captain of the team….it is out of necessity coz the players were allowed to vote….and guess who they want as one of their leaders. So same situation here, the team respect these players… Read more »
*useless if he CANT see….
*just cant TELL Emery..
Good Ebening! 😀
Blogs I’ve been given a fuller transcript of Emery’s interview: I also voice to Saka alone in my office and prepared sometimes some videos with the wife haha no, no I only joke, you know haha – I have done videos but not with wife with English players, Spanish players, French players, German players. But not Ozil. I give him tape of Ryan Air flights out of London. “Now my English is, from one to 10, maybe a six. But at six, I think the players can understand me. “If not, some help is good. I buy man to speak… Read more »
Good to know the English is fine then. Because it means the instructions must be shit.