Mustafi wrote:Emery just needs to be brave, play to our strengths and not respect the opponents too much.
Laca, Auba and Pepe need to start together the majority of games.
We need to play with our strongest formation 4-3-3 almost every game.
I like managers who know when to adapt and when not. They are games, where you apply different tactics to your usual ones.
Emery overdoes adapting, that we don't have any own style. We would play Burnley at home, and Emery would still play to their strengths and weakness instead of playing our own game and that's my issue with him.
He should just stick to our best players and formation in the majority of the games and adapt only when needed.
And that has always remained the case with Unai Emery. His career has been riddled with criticism on tinkering with the system, playing negative football, poor performances in big games, struggling in away games, a poor final run-in in the league, and his rigidity as far as personnel go.
It won't change at Arsenal.
Let me ask you something: how many of us actually wanted Unai Emery at Arsenal? Apart from Cripps here, I can't think of any. I wanted Conte or Simeone. Others wanted Ancelotti, Allegri, or Tuchel. Heck, some wanted Arteta. It's simple. He's a good manager but he's not elite.
In fact, Unai Emery is a great manager for a club like Everton. But sadly, he's too smalltime in his approach for Arsenal. I'll hope we finish in the top-4 and win a trophy this season. But that doesn't mean he's immune to criticism.
We had the same problem with Wenger at Arsenal. The same fans who're going out of their way to defend Unai, defended Wenger in the same rigid style. We don't have to do that. The performances speak for themselves.
The sad part for me would be fans "celebrating" a draw against Spurs next week as a display of tactical nous and innovation. Don't be surprised to hear, "We're playing the UCL finalists and people are overreacting because we're drawing against them?"
Give me any manager. If they underperform, I will criticize them. Loyalty to managers ended with Wenger and Wenger is an Arsenal legend. If a new manager wants to see such loyalty, they'd have to win big at Arsenal first.
Top-4 is a cakewalk this season. United and Chelsea are so poor that if Lampard or Solskjaer outwits Unai to 4th place, it'd be the worst season for us in recent times—simply because how clear cut we have it in the race for top-4 this season.
Yesterday, Unai made a huge blunder with the line-up. It's not the first time. If Wenger stuck to his guns, in Unai, we have someone who's too afraid to own a gun. We can't dither in such extremes. We have to be protagonists in matches—using Unai's own words.
I've heard that Klopp found it amusing that we played a diamond. That should tell us everything. We allowed two of the best attacking FBs of last season ample space and actually left two of our most robust players on the bench.