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Emery’s Ozil error
I am an Arsenal fan and a season ticket holder, although I live in the US. My infrequent visits to London to visit family are always planned around Arsenal games.
I was at the Burnley game, the Spurs Carabao Cup game and the Fulham game. I am not impressed with what I am seeing from Emery’s team. I was an ardent Wenger fan, although I agree with most assessments in that he stayed a couple of years too long. Even in those trophy-less years, Arsenal were still a joy to watch. Sure, they overdid the fancy flicks too often but who can forget the kind of goal Wilshere scored with a series of one touches throughout he defence?
Oh, and we won three FA Cups in four years! That was how bad Arsene Wenger was!
This weekend I watched the West Ham game on Saturday and, on Sunday, the Spurs v Manchester United game; night and day! Arsenal lacked the creativity to break down a poor West Ham team. All West Ham had to do with stay compact, knowing that Arsenal lacked the creativity to break down their defence.
The football reminded me of my childhood and one of the televisions shows about dancing – slow, slow. quick, quick, slow with the exception that it was back, back, sideways, back. I understand the need for centre backs to pass the ball to each other while their midfielders and front players take up their pre-ordained positions to attack, but when the time comes to play the ball “through lines’ Arsenal cannot do it.
Spurs and United were more often than not looking for the pass that eliminated opponents (Pogba’s ball to Rashford was a fine example). Zhaka, Guendouzi, et al constantly pass the ball sideways and backwards, rarely playing the ball forward between opponents. We have good forward in Lacazette and Aubameyang, neither of whom is really a “take-on” player. They rely on their midfield players finding the seams/channels. Iwobi can take on, but usually with little effect because he has yet to master knowing when to release the ball and with the correct pace.
Meanwhile, at the back, Leno is prone to mistakes, Mustafi is even more prone to mistakes and Koscielny was a spent force at the end of last season, regardless of his cruel injury. Sokratis is one of the few Arsenal players who really puts his life on the line in every game. Unfortunately, he gives away too many stupid free kicks in dangerous areas and, as such, is a liability.
So, Mr Emery, what will you do now? The most creative player we have had in many years is Mesut Ozil. He is a top “number 10” but to play him there needs to be accommodation made. HE IS WORTH THAT ACCOMMODATION! When he has been played as the “false nine” he has shone. Do that.
I don’t accept all the nonsense about back spasms and sore knees. Emery just does not trust him and won’t play him. It is time he climbed down off his high horse and recognized that without Ozil, we are not a top six team. There is still a buffer of around ten points between the top six and the seventh team. However, we have seen how quickly that can change with Arsenal dropping points while Manchester United were winning games.
Emery had the summer to buy players and the ones he bought were above average, but that is all. Torreira is good but not good enough. Guendouzi is young and erratic. Lichsteiner is old and erratic! Sokratis is the only one who has genuinely contributed.
John from Williamsburg
…Guys, your reasoning doesn’t make any sense at all. At the age of 30, why would Mesut Özil be a loser, getting 350.000 quid each week NOT playing, not running the risk of getting injured, not being in limelight and in the center of criticism? When his contract runs out in 2021, he will be nearly 33 and certainly looking at the end of his career, so why would he worry about his standing as a football player or about his next job. Actually, with his career in the German national team over, what would he have to worry about at all?
The loser here is first and foremost Arsenal, much the same way as MUFC was the loser with the Pogba-Mourinho fallout.
From my point of view, Emery is failing to do his job, which does certainly include a duty to protect the assets of the club and a 30-year-old player with that kind of salary and 2 1/2 years of contract open is quite a big asset, because it should be clear that you cannot sell that kind of player (or, in fact, looking at Alexis Sanchez, you can, but the number of potential buyers is extremely small).
Looking at Emery’s bench, it’s also quite clear that his attacking options are pretty limited. Add to that the fact that Arsenal is leaking goals without Özil and seems pretty blunt offensively, falling out with Özil is the absolute worst thing the manager could do. In my opinion he should have played Özil as much as possible and give him free rein (the same way OGS does with Pogba).
So the second loser is Unai Emery, hitting his head against the wall, trying to force a player renowned for, if anything, his ability to create chances (and considering Aubameyang is a player who can be pretty wasteful with them it can’t hurt to create a lot of them) into playing something he has neither talent nor ability for, and then throwing him away when there are others who’ll look likely to break into more sweat on the pitch.
Sarri might play Özil as a false nine between Auba and Laca… ?
Anyway, the losers are Arsenal and Emery here, not Özil, who loses zilch.
Greetings to everyone from the Jolly Joker, BvB (and following certain originally German speaking managers in the PL)
Emery needs patience
Arsenal fan here. No overly long diatribe, rather a short missive designed to encourage the Arsenal ‘fans’ already criticising Emery to wind their f-tard necks in and just support the damn club.
We knew it would take time. We knew Emery was no magician. We knew there were (are) sub-standard players at the club that Emery would have to work with, at least in the short term.
Support him and encourage him, or move on. There’s little evidence to suggest that he’s the man to put Arsenal back in the elite, but there’s even less evidence – after half a season and no finances to begin to arrest the development of the last 10+ years – that he isn’t. Give him a chance you absolute millennial (I’m assuming) weirdos. There were far darker days than the relative halcyon early Wenger years. True Arsenal fans needn’t have been born then, but do understand they occurred and it takes time to build something new.
So get on board or f*ck off.
Andy (actually turned into a bit of a rant, oooops, sorry).
Style debate
The problem with most pundit’s comments, especially ex-players, is that they are often not fact based nor well thought through. Even from the Neviller, as Alex was supporting in the afternoon mailbox. (See winners and losers on Rio’s marvelous rant.)
The premise: United, like Barcelona and Ajax, have always played in a certain way and the ONLY way they can ever win again is to play like that again.
There are so many things wrong with this overstatement.
First off, Barcelona have not always played the same way or in one style. Guardiola, for example, has a very specific style he wants to play and had Barcelona playing that way which was not the ‘Cruyff’ way that Barcelona were renowned for. Barcelona won nicely under Guardiola.
Second, it assumes there is a swathe of people that are the same people from the days of Ferguson, running everything on the playing side of the club. Apart from a couple of players and, perhaps, one or two junior coaches, most of the playing and coaching staff are completely different. So the idea that there was all this pent up need to play the ‘United’ way by staff is untrue.
Third, Ole is doing a great job. It is not the ‘United’ way from the Ferguson years when United ‘flew.’ He is being pragmatic. Picking a reasonably consistent side, playing a formation that brings the best out of the players and giving them confidence. It is based on the players available NOT United.
Fourth. All ‘styles’ change over time as newer strategies and tactics come into play. Just as Mourinho’s dour team strategy – lets not concede a goal in and hope to pinch one near the end – doesn’t work these days, so too does the swashbuckling United style of the late 90s/early 2000s. Teams have to evolve the way they play to succeed.
What Alex should be hoping for is that whomever comes in (Ole or a successor) does have a clear vision for what the team can do and can leverage a large portion of the current squad. Poch is not a ‘defensive’ coach but he is a very modern coach. He does get the most out of his resources. With even more money and better resources available he could take United to another level.
Bad past coach selections should be used as experience for selecting the next coach but not based on some fluffy style mumbo jumbo. If Ole can show he can not only get this squad winning in the short term but also has the capacity to adopt strategies the best teams around use and compete in the long term, he should have a chance to keep the job. But if it’s based on wistful visions of the past, United would look forward to another season behind the top teams.
Paul McDevitt
The danger of mixing football and politics
I have a lot of time for John Nicholson, despite few requests for a sensitive little boy’s outlook on all things football, he continuously offers one. There is a finite amount of football in the world but a seemingly endless amount of presenters, pundits, journalists and ex-pro’s, not to mention the members of the public afforded opportunity for social media soapboxing, talking and talking and talking, and the vast majority offer a similar frame of reference, and one that is rarely enlightening. John is one of the few that gives us a genuinely niche outlook and enjoys focusing on the societal issues that permeate through the footballing strata. Good on him.
That said, the idea that football players, journalists, pundits etc. should be offering their political views is frankly laughable. It would certainly get a big thumbs up from the tabloids, who have made an art out of creating salacious headlines from the dullest of generic answers straight-batted from a pro. What they would do with footballers trying to cogently explain why immigration is a problem, whilst playing for a premier league football team consisting of predominantly foreign players, would be anyone’s guess. There are host of very pragmatic issues with it too, like the fallout from those in the public eye strapping their political colours to the mast, not to mention the slippery slope they’re clambering upon when the conversation starts. But mostly my issue would be, why? Why would we want to, or care for, the opinions of those in football regarding anything that isn’t about football? I completely understand and support Raheem Sterling talking about racism because he views it through the prism of football, i.e. being a black footballer suffering racist abuse at football games. If, on the other hand, he started to voice his downbeat assessment of the EU’s response to multinational tech firms monopolising behaviour, I might start to question the veracity of his intel and whether his opinion should carry any weight.
Can we also touch on the elephant in the room? Footballers, like any demographic, will have a nice full spectrum of intelligence across its ranks. Some (I hope…) will be highly intelligent, some will be, well… not. There will highly likely not be much of a correlation between intelligence and talent. Thus, some of the most talented and respected players might well be cretins. If that is so, surely giving them a platform and encouraging them to speak their ill-formed, unintelligent views on extremely complex issues is only going to lead to catastrophe and probable humiliation, not to mention the effect on impressionable children when their idol explains that he finds gay people unpleasant or that global-warming is a hoax.
Maybe John is thinking that footballers are going to pave a glorious path of liberal forward-thinking that highlights social injustice, environmental tragedy and economic foibles, influencing a huge swathe of the population to turn away from the dark, back to the light. I fear the reality is that the intelligent will understand the poisoned chalice being offered and keep schtum, the others will spout their nonsense and only provide further fuel to the giant fire in the middle of a vitriolic pitched battle between extreme alt-right and left leaning liberals.
Ed Ern
… I thoroughly enjoyed that article by Johnny. I want to disagree with him to an extent but also praise the tone and content. I suspect if he was always that restrained his appeal would be a lot wider. I’m sure he doesn’t really care about that but football365 should. More readers more money right? My reasons…
Politics is a part of life and therefore football. Yep well done. However it doesn’t have to be explicitly shoved down our throats. The Guardian is obviously very left wing however their football pages are largely absent of explicit left wing propaganda. Occasional nods occur and that is absolutely fine. Peppa Pig could be political however they haven’t mentioned Brexit once as far as I know.
Politics is serious. I don’t get as depressed and angry as some. However it certainly is not escapism that we all seek. Football is. Football is the dessert to the veg of the news.
Football is also a largely pointless event. But something I can immerse myself in and indulge in opinions that ultimately mean very little. Something where I can override my rationality and get passionate. Football365 occasionally and Johnny frequently pollute football’s innocence and sense of fun. When I saw the Warnock / Carragher article I knew he would write on it and I didn’t think I would read it. However I ran out of lunchtime football365 content and bit the bullet. I was surprised and rewarded.
I am left leaning however I like to try and see different view points and do not get overly angry very quickly. Life is often not black and white. I think alot of people share my viewpoint. Lifes too short to abuse people all the time.
Johnny’s article was a surprising and refreshing change of direction. He of course made multiple nods to his viewpoint on Brexit (which I share although I’m sure with far less anger). But he didn’t destroy Warnock and write him off as a person. Warnock is an interesting character and makes our lives richer. I was expecting Johnny to basically destroy him as a human. But he didn’t. He put forward his viewpoint regarding politics in quite a fun way (yes I would love to see the Carra Warnock debate on tele) but didn’t introduce more anger and division. It was football365 as I think it should be and one of those days where I can actually appreciate Johnny as a good writer rather than feeling a little bit depressed by his articles and negative viewpoints.
Howard.
…Having read John Nicholson’s groaningly pompous column on the subject of football and politics, I decided to succumb to one of my “less progressive instincts” and write in. John rationalises his surprise over why anybody would object to having political opinions rammed down their throat by a footballer, a football manager or, significantly, a football website by suggesting that we need to “grow up”, yet in doing so fails to grasp exactly why people do choose to keep the two at arms length.
For the vast majority, myself included, football is pure escapism. It’s a chance to remove yourself from the perennial churn of the Brexit debate and immerse yourself in an even greater soap opera. Had a terrible week at work? Can’t get rid of that rash? Kids are growing up to resemble Alan Pardew? Once you step through those turnstiles, it’s all immaterial for a couple of hours.
John singled out tribalism as a common feature of the two but, as far as I’m concerned, that’s where the the similarity ends. If politics is for the elite, then football is for the masses. If politics widens the class gap, football fandom levels us all. If politics is life versus death, then football is welcome inconsequentiality.
All of the worst aspects of football are political; discrimination, corruption and financial greed. So why you’d deliberately contaminate our beautiful game by further politicising it is truly beyond me.
Ed Acteson
Pep’s unmasking
I have been reading about Pep lately, his comments and everything else and what sticks out like a sore thumb in otherwise a brilliant manager is his sheer hypocrisy. If you’re going to play mind games and instruct your team to make tactical fouls, why potray yourself as holier than thou?
Poch and Sarri are fine examples of managers being brilliant, straightforward and yet not be caustic while watching them do a press meet or on the touchline. I know being a LFC fan, Klopp has also hast his share of being accused of saying something and doing quite the opposite but surely he hasn’t potrayed himself as the reincarnation of Jesus Christ.
Would love to hear thoughts of MCFC folks to get a second opinion
Vikas, LFC, India (Tuesdays at work are international friendlies. Nobody’s interested but it makes money)
Guvnor’s garbage
Can somebody please give Paul Ince a bell and tell to f*ck right off please, if your good self or Steve Bruce could of done the same thing why did nobody ring you? I’ll tell you why because lets face it neither of you could of done what OGS has done in the short space of time he has been in charge.
If managing a club like United is as easy as the self styled Guvnor states then why did serial winners like Jose and LvG struggle? I’ll answer this one too, it’s not easy you bitter little muppet it’s bloody hard work.
The clamour for Poch to take over is deafening from the likes of Ince and his ilk yet OGS has just beaten their number one choice at Wembley in manner fitting of a United Manager. Give Ole the job and let’s see what he can achieve, but please back him in the market when he asks for players Ed.
Paul Murphy, Manchester
…“The shackles are off, but that doesn’t mean that Ole is the right man for the job. I could have gone in and done the same thing, so could Steve Bruce”. Well Paul, if you or Steve Bruce could have done what OGS did, I’m sure Mourinho could have too. And Van Gaal. And Moyes. Because these aforementioned people have greater pedigree – and yet they didn’t. It’s akin to saying if another driver had the keys to the car Schumacher was driving he would have won the races just as much. Or are you saying that just because it was only Ole, and if he could have done that then you could too? If so, why? That anybody replacing Jose could have done the job?
This isn’t a mathematical equation – there’s some chemistry involved. I’m saying there’s no guarantee that Alex Ferguson would have been a Sir if he had managed a different club. OGS came in with a certain personality, traits, state of mind, experience, status, goodwill, tone of voice, shape of face, frequency of smiles, firmness of grip etc. that would be different from yours. This isn’t a linear equation – there are so many intangibles. Maybe his is exactly what’s needed by the players, and we’re seeing the results?
“If he gets the club into the top four, and into the final of the Champions League, then that would be the time when the board should be swayed”. If you go by this set of rules, who qualifies? Guardiola, Klopp, Mourinho. Not Pochettino. And who set these rules anyway (been reading the same uttered by several ex-players)?
“So, for the next few years what the club need to do is bring in a manager that can seriously get United competing with (Manchester) City and Liverpool and of the options available, Pochettino is the man to do that”. Really? Could any manager guarantee you that? I thought that was the whole idea behind Jose’s hiring, and look what happened. Jose was a proven winner, hence a ‘guarantee’ of success, and even he couldn’t do it. When Guardiola was appointed manager of Barcelona, did they have an inkling how successful he would be? He had experience managing the B team, but was it the same as managing the main team? Was he a guarantee of success? But they took the chance because he seemed the right fit. Man United is in almost the same position here.
Not saying Poch is not the man for the job, but be fair to Ole. If he gets the players playing to their potential and more, why would you dismiss him?
Fendi, Malaysia
Keepers getting their kicks
While reading Premier League Winners & Losers today, a thought occurred to me. You go into great detail in your description and explanation of David De Gea’s use of his legs and feet to make saves, and I realised this detail is only necessary because he is so unique in using his feet this way. This surprises me. Why don’t more goalkeepers follow suit? You suggest it is more difficult to stop a shot with your feet than your hands, and maybe you are right, but I’m not convinced.
I used to be a goalkeeper myself, from the age of 7 to the age of 24. I had plenty of formal training, some of it from professional coaches, but I relied on my instincts a lot as well. If someone hit a low, hard shot from relatively close range, I would instinctively stick out a foot and deflect the ball away. It doesn’t matter what part of your body makes the save, just as long as the ball stays out of the net. As you mention in Winners & Losers, it also has the added benefit of sending the ball further away from the goal, reducing the risk of conceding from a rebound.
I wonder if professional goalkeepers have this instinct coached out of them. Conventional wisdom dictates that you have more control when using your hands than your feet, so goalkeepers work on getting their hands down quickly to save low shots. I’d be very surprised if many professional goalkeepers ever do training drills where they practice saving low shots with their feet. How often do you see keepers concede when trying to get their hand down to a low shot, almost moving their foot out of the way in the process?
David De Gea has the kind of reflexes that can’t be taught, but perhaps his biggest strength has been to resist having his unconventional instincts coached out of him.
Jimbles, WFC
A suggestion for Sarri
As a Chelsea fan, I’d have taken fourth at the start of the season. However, a few frustrating results mean that we could easily be higher and not having to worry about the United resurgence under Ole.
Obviously, we’re struggling for goals at the moment against teams set out to defend but this is understandable given the complete change in style Sarri promised. One of the main issues is the lack of forward runners from midfield (we seem to be relying on Kante for this and Barkley/Kovacic are doing their best Henderson impressions currently) and the constant slowing down of play by our wingers/fullbacks on the edge of the box – probably due to our lack of a target/lack of effort from Morata.
Ruben seemed to offer that go forward from midfield when he played, and despite F365 calling for him to move every week, maybe the kid could stay fit before we start criticising Chelsea not playing him enough. Every time he could get a chance of a run of games, he gets injured.
It’s also been discussed that we’re not getting the best out of Hazard in the false 9 role – to which I agree to some extent (his stats there are far from shabby), so I’ve started to wonder, why we don’t play him in advanced central role instead of the third midfielder (a la City)?
Kante is more than good enough defensively to do the job of two midfielders, having Hazard closer to Jorginho will likely cause any midfielder attached to Jorginho (a common tactic currently) to have to think twice about his positioning and will likely allow Hazard to turn and run into space which is what he does best. This also means that we can play a striker that Hazard can work off whilst also giving us plenty of width from Willian/Pedro/CHO causing their fullbacks to be pushed back, as well as a target for Alonso/Azpi to start hitting with early balls (something that has been lacking this season).
This tactic may not work for the big games, but surely we’ve got to try something different against the lower teams to stop us getting drawn into a 4th place scrap.
Adam (we’ve got the possession, just need to use it better), Birmingham