One of the main criticisms of Unai Emery is that he seemed to pay more attention to what the opposition were going to do than his own team.
It became obvious over time that the former manager tailored his team selection to counter what he felt the opponents would do, sometimes to good effect, but often at the expense of his own team’s fluidity. Performances were patchy, and we frequently looked like a team that didn’t have enough belief in its own football.
Ahead of Monday night’s FA Cup clash against Leeds, Mikel Arteta has stressed the importance of opposition knowledge, but said first and foremost that his focus on what his own players do and how they do it.
“We have three analysts here that look a lot at the opposition,” Arteta said. “I do it myself as well, I like my assistants to look at it.
“But at the moment I’m focusing much more on our principles, our way of playing, the way that we want to play rather than the opponent.
“I don’t want to give them too much information about them and us, we don’t have much time to train.
“Obviously I really like to know what the opponent does.”
It’s clear there’s a balance required between the need to implement your own philosophy, and being dictated to by the perceived qualities of the team you’re playing.
Many felt Arsene Wenger was too much on the side of the former, Emery was definitely too far on the side of the latter.
Let’s hope Arteta can bring them both together over time as he continues his work.
Sometimes i feel arteta has being reading blogs for 18 months and is undoing all the things for which we despiced emery.
I never despiced Emery. I just thought he was cumin at it from the wrong angle.
We’re not worthy! ?
Emery was keen on the odd nutmeg but was decidedly chilli when it came to peppering the opposition goal.
He couldn’t curry favour with the fans because he approached games too gingerly.
I think despiser is both too strong and fundamentally wrong. The man gave of his best. It wasn’t good enough. At no point can his motives and motivation be questioned. Simply the outcome. Let’s leave behind the hate as we move onwards and upwards.
I just thought he was a bit flakey. And a bit of a paprika.
Don’t rub salt in the wound
It was thyme for Emery to move on. His goose was cooked.
Our team are looking like spring chickens now that the Jerk is gone
Emery figured to make an omelette one needs to break some eggs but he cracked up and the dish tasted fowl.
Mikel is absolutely correct.Concentrate on how we want to play moving forward.Painfully obvious the squad found Emery’s tinkering annoying and tiresome.Blimey if Ranieri was the tinker man then Emery was the tinker,tinker,tinker,tinker,tinker,tinker.I think you know where I’m going with this.
Next opponents – just ask Eddie for all the info about Leeds plays!
simple. everyone plays behind Bumford
I think you’ll find Tinky McTinkerton is the name you are looking for.
from what Arteta is saying, he doesn’t have much time to look into our opponents… he’d rather have his players concentrate on what he wants from them on the pitch which is very understandable considering the short time he’s been here.
Yes, I feel much happier if I know what we’re doing rather than trying to guess what opponents may do to counter it.
Players do need to know a bit about their key opponents such as left/right-footed, likes to play inside/outside balls, free kick ploys etc
Ok so this is another Chidi and I’ve noticed you pretty recently and it kinda feels weird looking at a comment and wondering when I wrote it, lol. Welcome bro! Arteta ticks all the right boxes, Says all the right things… There is clearly a gulf in talent between arsenal and most clubs (safe for bigger clubs) and as such we can afford to lay more emphasis on our principles, trying to make us work, pegging the opposition back and trying to bully them into submission. I just can’t for the life of me imagine spending all our time doing… Read more »
And let them develop working for each other as a team again.
Spot on, as always.
And all the more so when you consider our squad, and its lack of the tactically astute and multifunctional players that you need when you want adapt to the opponent (such as France did in the World Cup last year for instance, with Griezmann, Pogba and Matuidi among others).
Respectball has been cancelled until further notice
Arteta is a breath of freshness after years of sterile crabbing that broke the fans hearts. He is the glue that’s bringing us all together with his vision and coaching skills. Even after the bored rejected him first time round, he showed no grudge just his love and desire for the Arsenal.
It’s been mentioned before around here, but even though it wasn’t the best for the players and results recently it was probably good for Mikel and for the Club in the big picture to have Emery take the whipping that was always going to be there for Wenger’s immediate successor unless that person was remarkably successful. Always liked Arteta going back to his playing days, great character. I was definitely unsure of his readiness because of nothing to really go on. Must say I love what I’m hearing, seeing actual footballing expressed on the pitch again, and the early signs.… Read more »
Could not agree more with Mkkel, refreshingly positive.
Wasn’t everyone saying that Wenger wouldn’t concentrate on the opposition at all?
Now we are full circle again.
I’m glad we got that sorted and can fully appreciate the unbalanced squad comes from the club and not the manager.
3 games is a small sample, and these types of energy levels aren’t anything we’ve not seen from other clubs installing a new manager. The positives are the gaps between defence and midfield, and midfield and attack are much smaller. There’s never been a lack of effort from Torreira and Xhaka, it’s why I like both players very much, but they’re not designed to have gaps of 12-20 yards between them and their defenders, they both lack the athleticism to cover for mistakes, and have often been left isolated, Arteta seems to have solved that dilemma pretty quickly. Arteta’s biggest… Read more »
Not really saying anything substantially different from Emery but some people prefer to believe its somehow so… Maybe he’s concentrating on details and is more willing to move things around but the key question is if we can sustain the performances over first two halves then back to back then over a stretch of games. Some people calling Unai all sorts of names here but when he first took over, the same voices said it was a breath of fresh air from Wenger and imagined the same massive difference in culture in training etc… In the eye of the beholder… Read more »
Trying very hard to recall spells of brilliance under Emery.Even when we went on that unbeaten run there were games that left me thinking how did we win that one or draw that one.Once we run out of luck at Southampton which ended our run our season slowly disintegrated.Emery will find it very difficult to be employed by a big club again.Barcelona 6 PSG 1 is living rent free in his head.
Aw! If Emery was as “Charming” as Arteta, we would probably all love him.