Having stated a couple of weeks ago that he had made Arsenal better defensively, Unai Emery admits there’s still room for improvement ahead of Saturday’s crunch Premier League encounter with Leicester.
Defeat would leave the Gunners nine points behind Brendan Rodgers’s side, and would put the Spaniard under even more pressure.
Having taken just two points from the last nine available, and been out-shot 25-10 by Wolves in our last league game, it was put to Emery that there were still things to work on from a defensive point of view.
“I think at home we are faring well but not with the performance as we will do for the next matches,” he said.
“Those two results, two draws, weren’t the best results also. Last year, those two teams also gave us a lot of problems at home and we took only one point against those two teams.
“But I was speaking with the players this week about how is our next step to improve. And it’s clear, there are two ways: play better with the ball, play with more confidence with our style, and take more responsibility on the pitch.
“My responsibility is the first but also I give them because they are on the pitch to take that responsibility to play better.
“And then is for our defensive structure to be strong and get better defensively is our first challenge tomorrow.
“Last year, we were looking for that improvement during the season and we achieved it in a lot of moments – and I know now we can do better and we will do better.”
Emery was also keen to try and find the positives in what has been a disappointing run of form since the last international break.
“We are drawing the last matches, we can see those matches negatively because we didn’t win or positively because we didn’t lose,” he continued.
“We are in the balance, but we when you are a team like Arsenal we need to win more than draw or lose.”
As much as I hate us loosing. This dull irritating football must end with Emery’s sacking after the Leicester game. It would be a bitter-sweet experience
Forget defensive improvement. I want some bloody attacking improvement. in 18 months our defence has stayed the same, yet the attack has regressed to sterile set-piece hit and hope bullshit. You’re killing the identity of this club Unai, get your priorities sorted.
If you have ever played the game you would understand that first you stop leaking goals. Then and only then you can look at the creative side..
Don’t kid yourself Martin
Do you know a team called Real Madrid their aim is to out score you not minding there back.
my thoughts exactly!!! What if we just played the way that Leicester did when winning the league? Pump the ball up as quick as you can to the strikers. This sideways, go no where passing is painful on my eyes.
Yes indeed. They are just too slow, and when they release the ball early it will end up with the opponent. The entire mid field just can’t service the strikers well. Those sideways and back passes are really dreadful. How nice if UE can get them to play like Palace or Wolves with very fast, accurate forward passes either into the channels or more accurate through passes down the middle for Lacazette or Auba. And mix with some pacy runs with the ball into the opposite box, like Ramsey used to do, to get opponent defenders to commit fouls. The… Read more »
Bingo! We know the defence is bad but the attack is even worse
That’s pretty much the same news/article as the one before….
Same issues, same idiot.
Everybody knew that one of our main issues under Arsene was that we leaked too many goals and our defence needed solidifying.
I would have expected after almost 18 months in charge a new manager would have definitely had a positive impact in that area. However, we don’t seem to have improved at all and that is a real worry.
We’ve gone significantly backwards in chances conceded.
Pre-match, he says what everyone wants to hear, post-match he says what no one wants to hear.
Trying to understand Unai gives me a real throbbing headache! The man sees improvement where I only see deterioration! Watching the match against Vitoria was really boring!
blah blah blah, I talk to the players, and I tell theng we will Ingprobe I tell theng we must defence better, wig congfidengs ang spirit ang we want to win blah blah good ebening
? the twin brother of Unai Emery with his own english.
So we field 3 CB or 3 CDM ? Maybe both
9 defenders and Aubameyang, for that fluid counter-counterattack.
only GG can make this into a winning formation
yes, inspiring.
I would go with:
Leno
Bellerin Sokratis Luis Tierney
Torreira Guen
Pepe Ozil Auba
Laca
Just try to outscore a team 🙂
6 3 1 probably.
Mustafi Holding Chambers Sokratis Luiz Mavropanos
Guendozi AMN (Or Ozil, I mean he gotta run and press no? so play him at DM!)
Torreira as a pseudo CAM
Auba to kill it in the counter
I wouldn’t be surprised if we see something like this one of this days
Usually when he talks like this, the squad he puts out has no attacking bite. Where we are now, I would think that the best way to get at Leicester would be to go right at their center backs, and try to out score them. Let’s try something unheard of, like attacking for a change!
Agreed – let’s lineup in their favoured 4-1-4-1, and get the ball into the feet of our best players who can do the most damage with it. Pure revolution.
You talk the talk, now walk the walk.
Anyone got a plank?
“Area manager promises to play more boring football.”
Is it too much to ask if we can improve attack and defence? The real difference is desire, you can talk about formations and shape all day but when Sokratis talks about the other teams hunger that’s the difference. In a mirror online article the 2 pictures of corresponding managers showed Rogers getting hugs from team and Emery on the side lines screaming like a banshee. I don’t know if this was on purpose but pictures painted a thousand words.
Not sure I want a crowd of sweaty, smelly men hugging myself, to be honest.
Great I look forward to seeing 10 men behind the ball.
“Last year, those two teams also gave us a lot of problems at home and we took only one point against those two teams“
Using last seasons wretched results to justify this seasons appalling results. Nice.
It s me or the complete sentence look like something positives ? Like it s an achievement To draw against those team.
How about playing to our strengths? We have four of the top producers of goals in Europe in our midst and can’t score goals or create chances against very average opposition. I really don’t get what we are waiting for.
Surely the players themselves should take some of the slack? Obviously Unai’s tactics are cack but it’s still 11v11.
Poor defence is half the issue. Conceding 30 shots is one thing, only creating 10 is another problem altogether. Currently we have a piss poor defence and an attack that has no threat. Considering the players we have in that area, that is pretty dire. I don’t care if we concede 3 tomorrow, if we score 4. Chances of 4 goals with Emery in charge are about as good as me getting a late England call up.
I think when we look back on the Emery era, which I hope we can do on Monday, we can thank him for two things. 1. He was the man who followed Wenger, and took the burden of that albatross away from the next guy (the David Moyes, Bruce Rioch role if you like). 2. He offloaded, or began the process of offloading, many of Wenger’s underperformers, bringing through the likes of Saka, Willock and Guendouzi. I don’t think those compensate for the utter shite we’ve been presented with on the pitch, of course, but I hope we can give… Read more »
“there are two ways: play better with the ball, play with more confidence with our style”. We don’t have any style anymore…. so it’s going to be impossible for the players….Good Ebening.
Its been 7 points dropped since losing to the Blades. Coincided with Lacazette going out injured. somehow we lost fluency up top and midfield also lost its balance between trying to go forward and support the attack and covering obvious counters. Emery also inexplicably has been prey to teams packing midfield with 5 across further overloading our porous midfield. And it hasn’t been as if losing Granit has benefited us either. We are still finidng it difficult to push forward dynamically and find ourselves going side to side without registering much shots on target. So clearly Granit was the least… Read more »
By defensive improvement, he means an even more conservative and scared approach if that’s possible. He’s lost the plot and needs to be sacked after we lose this weekend.
Ha ha ha ha ha yer right, the only way we keep a clean sheet is if we play with a back line of 10, and then probably concede via a own goal,
He think at home we are faring well ? wtf seriously
What’s the world coming to when I don’t fancy the arsenal to beat Leicester
That’s the world of Emery at arsenal
“my responsibility is the first but also I give them because they are on the pitch to take that responsibility to play better” ? Oh Yeah!!
He promised defensive improvement from his first interview. How long are we expected to wait while it gets worse?
A very likeable guy but after 17 months I’m afraid it’s just words. He’s the managerial equivalent of without the fluency in English.
Down-voted you in error. Emery is a shit manager.
Of Gazidis, sorry….
Emery cant even put it right from the start. Why play Torreira the furthest of all midfielders? It is really frustrating.
Sure we have half a new team having sold first teamers Kos, Monreal, Iwobi, Miki and Ramsey. But he has mismanaged several situations and it’s come back to bite him. He needs to hold his nerve and find solutions like he did when we lost players to sudden injuries last season. And patched our way until we fell apart. Often due to individual horror errors. Similar negatives are happening this season and we don’t want to see that. But now it has become toxic. He can’t blame the fans when the root of it is from club decisions and then… Read more »