Saturday, April 20, 2024

Emery: We couldn’t impose our game

Unai Emery says Arsenal should have taken confidence from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s goal but instead failed to impose their gameplan as they stumbled to a 1-1 draw against Wolves at the Emirates. 

While a point sees the Gunners linger like a bad smell in fifth place, another lacklustre performance in front of a disgruntled crowd leaves serious question marks over the Spaniard’s future at the club.

“It’s not a good result,” Emery told the BBC.  “We tried. We couldn’t impose our game plan over 90 minutes.

“When we started 1-0, I think it was a very good moment to take confidence and try to score the second goal. Really, we didn’t concede a lot of chances, very clear chances.

“The match, for me, was equal for two teams, if you don’t score the second goal you are in the position where they can score with one action. They did that.

“After our reaction is good, more pushing, more chances and opportunities to score. In the end, a draw is not good for us.”

Having taken also lost leads against Crystal Palace last Sunday and against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup, Arsenal are in desperate need of a win.

“Today is different, it’s a different match,” answered Emery when pressed on the results of the last seven days.

“Also, we can say that Wolves were strong defensively. We started winning but we didn’t use that advantage to achieve the three points.”

In his post-game press conference, Emery was also questioned about the frustration of the crowd who booed the result at the full-time whistle.

“I am frustrated with the result and also because we lost two very good opportunities at home against two teams who we didn’t win against last season either,” he said. “But I think the players tried and worked.

“They did all we spoke about before the game but we lost a very good opportunity after we went 1-0 up.”

Arsenal now turn their attention to Wednesday’s Europa League tie against Vitoria in Portugal before an intimidating game away at high-flying Leicester.

“We are going to think now about the Europa League, we are going to separate that competition because we are well in that competition,” said Emery, “then another chance against Leicester on Saturday.”

At this point, you have to wonder whether he’ll still be around to take charge at the King Power.

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Gio

So, I was at work for the first half and could only catch the second half. I saw the 3 subs take place and assumed Pepe wasn’t in the squad for whatever reason.

I realised afterwards that he was on the bench. Why the fuck was he not brought on??? Emery brings on Kolasinac at the end instead, wtf?? Can someone explain please?

Reality check

Emery just decided to be a protagonist in the 73rd min and a one goal lead.. takes torriera off and puts Saka on, leaving Ceballos on who then switches off for their equaliser.

IamaGoober

Surely next week away at Leicester is his last game? Because they are going to thump us.

para

I am beginning to wonder if someone else is deciding tactics atm at Arsenal. This really does not seem like the same Emery that arrived at Arsenal, eyes sparkling. Today his eyes are dull, no shine, actually the same eyes as AW when he realised he was going.

Reality check

Yep, eyes of a defeated man. At this level, you win or you move on, no time for personal projects

Anonymarse

When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.

Flummoxed

Chaosh ish a ledder

Sam

He has been found out. He has some tactics that he repeats and now everyone knows.

Nofuture

“realised he was going”

I really wish that was true!

Ordnance Dave

My fellow gooner asked the question whether or not the squad is good enough. I think the players are, just need better coaching, but could we be going the Manure path, by changing coaches and results not improving?

Ska

So what do you suggest? Keeping Emery?

Ordnance Dave

You miss understood. I want Emery gone since yesterday, my mate was questioning the quality of the players.

Naked Cygan

Taking off Torreria for Saka at 1-0 up was even worse. He has no clue how to run this club.

Filpo

Good Ebening.i guess He want to be fired….

Filpo

Or just simply idiots…. Good Ebening..

dr Strange

Is it time for the squad to vote about his sacking yet?

Ordnance Dave

Lol. Sad but true.

VanGunner

Emery as manager is clearly not working and he needs to go. Teams go through bad patches, and I could tolerate a few shit results now and again if the team were playing to an overall plan/style. We have no identity or direction at all. His so called tactics are bizarre and nonsensical, not to mention his pathetic man management. It seems that the players don’t respect him and he’s lost the dressing room. 2 of the best attacking talents in world football are going to waste in their peak years. I’ve been supporting this team for 20 years and… Read more »

IAmGooner

Here’s my vote, although it counts for naught. Fuck off.

IAmGooner

Not you Dr, Emery.

Tim

The most worrying thing is that he still probably thinks he is doing a good enough job all things considered. Madness.

Arse-head

We are a more competitive team after all ?

Elbon

He says it was an equal game between the two teams; and he doesn’t mean that like it’s a problem, but rather a simple explanation. He thinks playing an equal game with Wolves(no disrespect)(plus it’s a bare lie, the game wasn’t equal, Wolves were better)is normal. So yes, I’d say he thinks he’s doing a good job. Sack this fellow immediately

Ballz

What exactly is “our game”? We haven’t been able to impose it for almost 2 years

Anonymarse

With an attack like ours we should be smashing teams like wolves more often than not

Reality check

It’s three attempts now Emery has failed to beat Wolves and Crystal palace.

The Arsenal

Really?

The Arsenal

Fans: 2+2=4
Emery:2+2= X*2/8(789)+9*

Gooooooonnnnaaaaaaaa

I find it funny how his excuse every game is we couldn’t impose our game plan, as if there even was one in the first place. If there is, then I don’t see it and I don’t think the players know what it is. Can anyone tell me what our style of football is under emery? Are we a pressing team, are we a possession based team? What are we?? Are we a 4-2-3-1 team? A 4-3-3, 4-4-2, 4-3-1-2??? WTF are we? What is our best team? 18 months in and I haven’t got a clue! This team has regressed… Read more »

Scott P

Emery looking for his actual game plan amongst a litany of random stats about the opposing team: https://media.giphy.com/media/l2SpZkQ0XT1XtKus0/giphy.gif

Pakgooner

Mate how do you do this? I’ve been trying for years

Haven’t been able to “impose my game plan” 😉

Redsy

hard to comment on this madness anymore I am just waiting for it to end.

Peter

Am. Tired of this guy too.actually when he replaced torreria told the guys around me..We are finished..Emery is not arsenal class..arsenal is a big club.My heart is grieving

Der32

The only hope I have is for Freddie to say enough of this shit and tell Edu and the board Unai is clueless. Fuck Unai. People saying Mourinho is toxic and all that. Unai is just as toxic, hiding behind players, demoting Ozil, appointing Xhaka as captain and managing the team like a rudderless ship. He’s Mourinho without the winning mentality and good defense.

Sam

Fucking hell. He is poor man’s Mourinho

The Arsenal

He’s a poor man’s pulis

Ozenal

I don’t understand, before he said that wolves were amazing in the transition, and then he brings on a more offensive substitution which goes against what he said.

He is losing the battle to win games and Ozil’s PR timing has really hastened the end of his career at Arsenal.

Russ

Well Emery, you’re right. At least they tried mate…

FFS…

Alex

Different match but same league Mr Emery. Same league, same target, same stinking results

Win,lose or draw Emery remains the wrong choice

our cannon is loaded…but there’s no courageous individual to start the shooting
Oh my poor old Arsenal…where art thou headed to?
Herbert Chapman…..(where art thou? ?)
George Graham… (where art thou? ?)
Arsene Wenger(1996-2008)…(where art thou??)
David Dein…… (where art thou? ?)
Tony Adams…. (where art thou? ?)
Patrick Viera… (where art thou? ?)

For how long should we remain mediocre?
Where is the way forward to Success?
My eyes searches for it with tears and hope

Santori

No Granit. same latent midfield. Ozil on, same tepid attack going sideways. Torreira and Guendouzi misplacing passes. no control in midfield. Tierney under used, same issues with penetration from the flanks but even worse, several times they cut through us like butter. Same tetchy home atmosphere. Arsenal fans need to wake up and stop harping the media. The issues we have are not bc of scapegoats like Granit or Mustafi. They are persistant. Sure Unai is to blame but the team has also major flaws not addressed last summer 9notably Cback) At times we were playing like strangers with a… Read more »

Der32

Arsenal fans don’t deserve this. But you might. For all your complaining what solution do you propose? Play Xhaka and Mustafi? We tried that before.

Which ones pink.

If you had your way we would have Xhaka Mustafi and coqlin as 3 first names on team sheet. You talk such drivel and are so arrogant with it. Your not related to emery are you ?

George

You’re worse than Tony Gale. Hell, you’re worse than McNulty. Yeah, I went there.

Elbon

Santori talking a lot but saying nothing. Someone care to break down what he said into understandable bits?

The Arsenal

Let’s not turn on our own. Santori’s drivel makes me feel better personally. On occasion he has points.

Ray Middleton

The more the game went on the more I suspected that Wolves would score. I think we defended well but I do not believe that ceballos and Guendouzi were good enough today. the latter giving the ball away alot in the firsy half.
But why bring on Saka instead of Pepe and take Tierney off for the clown. That baffled me.

DatguyPepe

Th

Gunnerer

Wow. What a touching interview. So much depth in the analysis. Particularly was awakened by this part: “today is different, it’s a different match”. You don’t get this moment and performance of spirit to go for the patience in imposing of quality in interviews these days.

Jht

I am shell shocked about the display,although its just one more in a chain of fearfull and mismanaged Emeryball. Looks like players are out of confidence, team is poorly organised and tactics are shambles. IS IT REALLY THAT DIFFICULT TO CLOSE DOWN CROSSES??? Maybe in past 8 games there has been easy cross and goal after cross. I just cant understand why players are not instructed to close down crosses. We play it slow, our own transitions are shamefull but still Emery is talking about opponents tactics. I’ll tell you one thing: Emery is constantly more worried and focused to… Read more »

Der32

Watch the 7 minute interview from hayters tv on youtube. He talked 5 mins about Wolves’ tactics and abilities. Like WTF. How about getting your own players to play actual football.

George

Yeah, I don’t get it. I was sure Emery was going to be proved to be a genius for playing Torreira in front of the strikers. Ah well, turns out he’s just the dumbass we thought he was.

jw1

Sorry to correct you.
Wolves had 25 shots today. Leno with 7 saves.

George

Not surprising, since we don’t have a game to impose.

D_j_nolan

What a fuckknuckle!

Twatsloch

Obviously he’s done here. Who do we want to replace him? Who’s a good fit for us?

Win,lose or draw Emery remains the wrong choice

5 names stands out in order of preference
Erik Ten Hag
Julian Nagelsmann
Marco Rose
Nuno espirito santo
Eddie howe

Twatsloch

Nagelsmann looks like an interesting manager.

Allegri?

If I were Erik ten Hag I would f**king stay at Ajax!!!

Der32

Ljungberg would be a good fit for project youth 2.0. He would not stifle the progression of Saka, Nelson, Willock and Martinelli. Also knows the situation in dressing room, and fans can certainly relate to his appointment. At least give him some time like Man U gave Ole.

Twatsloch

I think it’s uninimous that he’s the one for caretaker manager. Is he experienced enough for a permanent job?

jw1

Ljungberg gives the club time to make a proper search.
May end up being Ljungberg longer-term.

Ten Hag might be a good fit too.
Certainly knows how to setup a team.

Andy

Eddie Howe.

Lithuanian gooner

Though therws lots of talks about Maurinho online… i would love to see Ljungberg given a chance

Dave

Ljunberg, Ten Hag, Favre, Nagelsmann, even Allegri would do

lovely_arse

That pic looks like a man who knows he just got found out.

It’s got to be over.

Win,lose or draw Emery remains the wrong choice

He felt like swallowing the reporter

para

Emery, I have one question. WHY? (reply to your statement, “we couldnt impose our game”).

Win,lose or draw Emery remains the wrong choice

“We couldn’t impose our game plan because the process was too long,our commitment was too shallow and our ambition to be protagonists wasn’t huge enough but in other words Good ebening”

mrugunner

i bet he’ll be here at king power

Toure Motors

Hopefully that will be his last game. We have far too much quality in our squad to be so consistently awful.

Bertieme

I hope he is not around for the Leicester game but I really don’t think the owners will make the move and fear he will continue to the end of the season. I am not too sure what he thinks he is doing. He associates players with certain roles that they are not really suited for. We get almost the mediocre performance every week and he has proved that we are as shit at home as away. He seems clueless in the pressers and I am sad for him. He is not a bad man. He is a bad manager.

Gunner 55

“He seems clueless in the pressers”

This stands out for me.

Badaab

Emery really likes busy players as opposed to skillful players. Scotty Parker would be his favorite if he were managing in the PL ten years ago because he ran around like a headless chicken.

Richie

We have the 3rd best squad in the league but we’re not going to finish top 4 with Emery. Who would make the final decision about whether to sack him or not? Is it Stan or Josh, or do they strictly leave the decision to Sanhelli? If we don’t beat Leicester next week then surely we’re going to start to see banners and planes calling for his head. Gracias for the memory Unai, but it’s time to say Adios.

Burnie afc

Completely agree i think this is the best squad weve had in a long while, a few positions need added to but 3rd best in the league no doubt.our problem lies with a manager who does not understand the epl and does not learn from his mistakes.the team does not know how to play out or in possession,we have one def midfielder in our ranks,a player who was wanted by napoli and decided to come to arsenal,a player who plays great for his national team in his natural position,a player who would tackle his grandmother if it meant winning a… Read more »

Badaab

Emery “We didn’t attempt to impose our game, just like the last five fixtures.”

Richie

Our first team haven’t imposed our game since those Valencia wins.

Wade Wilson

So let me get this right, we can’t provide service to willing and eager attackers and we can’t prevent Leno getting peppered?

#Riochresurected #PowerPoint Fc #esplaynalona

Once a gunner

All I know is Emery should go. Let the board do the needful before he turn this club upside down. #lethimgonow

The_Golden_Wrigglesworth

Bottler! Bottler! burning bright,
In the Emirates of the night.
What good ebening hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful Emery?

goonero

Yawn ?, same shit different week. This guy’s tried, it’s not worked out, let’s call it quits while there’s still a season worth salvaging. If we get to December languishing in 10th (which is where we are headed with our current form being bottom half of the league worthy) then things are going to get very ugly indeed.

Joe_Odinga

This is it. Emery HAS to go before the next interlull.

Cycs

We imposed fine until you started with your dumb substitutions Unai… ?

The Arsenal

Under real pressure. And he knows it.

Shance

What the f*** is our game though?

The Spoon

Bye Dick. And I don’t mean Emery.

AussieGooner

I am slightly ashamed to say that during the final 5mins I was kinda hoping that Wolves would score.

I did the maths, we weren’t going to win – that much was obvious – so I figured trading one point in return for Emery’s head was a point worth losing in the long run.

Does that make me a bad fan?

Homer

Yes, it does.

thankyou22

How is feasible is it that Unai would be sacked in November?

Elbon

Emery Out

TBo

OK, Saka is young but he needs someone to tell him to work harder! He is being lazy and not closing down crosses. The last game and today, the build up to their goal could have been avoided if the preceding phase of play had Saka closing down a cross! When Emery left Saka on the last game, i was screaming that we will be undone down his flank because Saka was simply checking a box on getting back but not really attacking the crosser. Not having a go at him, but he better buck up.

Homer

Good comment. You are not the only who saw that.
But, sadly, on here its verboten to criticize him, thus all your down votes.

Insightful comment, have thumbs up!

Sue

Today was bad enough, just imagine what next week will be like! Vardy running riot, as usual.. I honestly hate to think what the score will be, how many penalties we’ll concede…..man, it’s getting worse & I’m still hurting after Wednesday….

Steve

This guy is just not going to get it….i know it, we all know it and the board just have to accept it

aberinkula

So either we “delivered [his] tactics” or “couldn’t impose our game plan”, which is it?

NMArsenal

The biggest disappointing element of Unai Emery was fear/indecisiveness. He never stuck with something. Whether it’s Ozil, passing from the back, pressing from the front there is always flip flopping. Even if he was losing when the team is playing constantly the same way, many people could see it to get behind.

Emery isn’t suited to run a top tier club yet. He is good for upper mid club teams preferably in Spain. He seemed to struggle in foreign places: Spartak Moscow, PSG and now Arsenal.

Thierry Oro

I think Emery don’t realise he’s Arsenal coach and what it means really.

rellends

The only times we’ve managed to “impose our game” this season have been against Nottingham Forest in the Worthless Cup and Standard Liege in the Thursday Night League. There was an inevitable sense yesterday that once we’d scored we wouldn’t score again and that Wolves would equalise or get a penalty.

Homer

So, to go somewhat against the grain here, once again, to be fair Wolves are a good side. Nunno has done well organizing them. He has no great players, but they are organized, defend well, and he gets out of them more than the sum of their parts and they are hard to beat. In other words, he’s a very good manager. Wolves will take a lot of surprise points. Arsenal won’t be the only side they do this to, especially away from the Molineaux. (Didn’t they beat Citeh in Manc.?) So, big picture, this isn’t exactly the 8-2 manyoo… Read more »

Anthony

You’ve hit the nail on the head. Good managers, can get the most out of a group of players and instill a playing style into them. Wolves are set up well, and have the ability to take points off of any of the big sides, they repeatedly do this. This comes from their coaching and manager. Nuno has, on paper, a fairly average squad. But is getting the best out of them, and they’re getting results. Emery has, on paper, a rather impressive squad. But is getting the worst out of them. Is it that the players aren’t working for… Read more »

Tbbro

Emery is a fish out of water! Does not know what the fuck to do. He panicks everytime he realizes that Arsenal are about to win a football match!

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