Emery to go guns blazing?

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Unai Emery dropped his prezzer and strongly hinted that Pepe was close to being ready for his first start.

“I think his individual performances are progressively getting better. For Saturday, he is maybe ready to have more minutes.

“I am going to decide tomorrow, but really his progress has been positive and has been good for the team and for him.

I think part of our defensive strategy has to be lining up with players that can spring a counter. We’ve not been a pace threat for many years, now we really are looking quite formidable in that department.

The manager also has two new options to choose from, Xhaka and Ozil returned to full training.

“Tomorrow is the last training and we are going to decide tomorrow. Today they trained, but really, I need tomorrow to have the last training, to be really sure how we can be better there. I know some players need to be fit and to improve 100 per cent to be in their best fitness. But tomorrow is the day. Really I am positive with some players for Saturday but I don’t want to decide today or to say to you today how we are because tomorrow can change.”

Those two are huge options and what the manager does will gives us a good indicator of their importance to the team moving forward. My gut says he’ll start Xhaka, but I’m not so sure about Ozil.

The manager also had some interesting words on Matteo.

“We have a lot of young players and they can develop a lot. We are going to help them, to push them and also they need to break different levels and achieve individually in their performance. We are here to help them and give them chances. Matteo is very young but he has talent and his talent is also to adapt to what we need or what is needed in the Premier League. It’s also to be physically strong. We are working tactically and individually to improve, we are working with him on the videos and on the pitch and we are speaking to him because it’s a big challenge for me, for our coaches and for him to achieve a big level here. He is in this process. Last year, for me he was very good in his process but he missed a lot to achieve in his career the big performances and big moments for him and to help us. But really I am very, very optimistic with him because he has this talent and I think we can also improve him on other things, like physically we are working with him in the gym, and mentally. He’s a young player with potential who can now help us to achieve the best performances.”

I was told that some of the other players thought he was a bit meek last season, in the sense that he’d duck physical confrontations on the pitch and shirked challenges. I also think there’s a bit of perception that he’s into the finer things in life, which is maybe part of the mental side Emery is referring to.

He’s a very good player, breaking into the Premier League and running the midfield is a true rarity in the game. For me, I want to see where he takes his talents. What is his special sauce? There’s a debate that the top midfielders these days are all-rounders, versus the specialists they could be maybe 10 years ago. There’s a lot of merit in that debate, just look at the Liverpool midfield… even with that being said, I’m hoping there’s more to come. Goals? Assists? Kante like brutality? We’ll see…

I really liked Emery’s dad answer on social media.

‘I only use it when I think it can give me some good information or help me in some opinion. But really, when people cannot control the social media, it’s not positive for us.’

Thanks, Unai.

I also like that the manager is TEAM VAR.

“For me, VAR is positive. It’s coming to help us, to help the referees and to be fair in different circumstances in one game. After this, I think it’s also right to think to not stop the intensity and the rhythm in the matches and not to stop for a lot of minutes. At the moment, sometimes it’s going to be positive for us, sometimes it’s going to be negative. But really, now, in my mind, it’s positive for everybody, for every team and for the Premier League to help them. Sometimes it’s helping us, sometimes it’s not helping us, but it’s fair.”

It’s not perfect right now. They need to use it less and give the refs a little more power over decisions. The flow of the game being interrupted for every goal is not how I saw it playing out. It should help the game flow, it shouldn’t hinder. It should be an arbiter, not go to. It should bring the fans into the decision making in the ground.

When that’s all fixed, I don’t see how we’ll miss rampant injustice.

Right, that’s me done. LISTEN TO THE DAMN PODCAST. x

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Thorough

Receding.
Our right full backs are so soft and we can’t get a better model to toughen them up. Meunier is a proper bully and our defence needs that toughness. And I guess hell be going for pittance by next year too. If someone had suggested Alves 4 years ago a lot would have turned their noses up at him.

Thorough

Graham 62.
Of course.

Marko

No to Meunier he had his chance. I predict that when Vieira comes he might insist on bringing Atal with him. Might have a great path to him next summer because a lot of teams are pretty well stocked in that department. Could see us and Chelsea (dependent on Reece James though) being the clubs most likely

Guns of Hackney

10 minutes of Aquaman and I want to drown myself. Holy shit.

Graham62

England will be lucky to reach 100 at this rate.

34-4!

Guns of Hackney

England choking at cricket?

Next minute, someone will say Emery isn’t boring.

Receding Hairline

Thorough Alves is several classes ahead of Meunier..not even comparable

Meunier will be 28 in September, yes maybe if he is going for a pittance he might still do a job but i think we can do better.

Nelson

Emery is telling Elneny and Mustafi to sign for another team so that they can continue their careers as footballer. The same can be applied to Micki. As for Ozil, since we can’t trade him, he can be an entertainer for some home games where we need to better our goal difference. He still has some sexy football in him.

G8

Protagonist is the new mental strength!

Marko

Given the insistence on and the type of player that Tierney is I’m guessing that they’d be wanting something similar at RB too and that’s not Meunier.

Sid

Chambers better suited for this game than saucekratis.

Uwot?

B4 meunière I’d have upemacano.Then we’ll be cooking on “ special sauce”.😋

Marko

AS Monaco strike €15m deal with Alaves to sign 25-year-old Chilean international defender Guillermo Maripan, medical tomorrow

Those Mustafi feelers ain’t doing the trick. Also apparently Monreal is close to leaving?

Receding Hairline

“Chambers better suited for this game than saucekratis.”

Yea Sokratis was woeful last time he was at Anfeild, they ran rings round him i feared he may get concussed

Marko

In what world is Chambers better suited for anything anywhere. It doesn’t make sense we’re thinking of starting him away to Liverpool because….

In both defeats to Liverpool last season Fulham played him in midfield and RB not CB.

Graham62

I know there are some poor pundits on TV and Radio but Steve Harmison( cricket)must rank as the worst.

I’ve never known him to get a prediction correct and if Sky/TalkSport are ever reviewing their finances, surely they have to question putting his name in the books.

Sorry Stephen but you know zilch.

Eduardo

G8

To be fair to Emery, protagonist is a bit more meaningful than le mental strength, the ultimate cliche. He means they should go elsewhere and be the centre of their own story. It’s a more artful way if saying go and play for a club that values your abilities, because I don’t.

Bob N16

He is on Talk shite Graham, we’ll suited!

Thorough

Receding.
I was speaking longevity actually.

Thorough

Uwot.
You think if we buy Ceballos and Havertz for circa 150mil, we’ll still have enough in the till for a mega buy like Upamecano? I don’t think so. Last time I checked he’s still to cost around 60mil even with one year to go.

Elmo

What an embarrassment England’s batsmen are. 54-6, knowing they have to desperately dig in, and out first ball after lunch. As Mark Waugh says, it’s not Test cricket standard.

Graham62

55-8!

Lucky to reach 56.

Graham62

Oh well, yesterday wasn’t that good after all.

KAY Boss

Pedro being Pedro. Seems he can’t get off Emery’s back. I agree with most of the things he said though.
I’m confident we’ll get more than a point at anfield.

kenyangunner

Sokratis has the verve but Liverpool will run rings around him tomorrow.
Chambers would do a better job but needs to man up!

Guns of Hackney

Kay

A win then.

Nelson

I think Klopp is going to put someone to shadow Ceballos. We need Guen to play along side him. Torr will be our DM. I like our midfield better than Pool’s midfield. Pool’s two FBs are way better than ours. It will be critical for our two wingers to push them back or at least keep them in check. We should send some long balls very early in the game for Auba and Pepe to run into. It would put some doubts in their FB’s mind. The game will be very interesting as long as we can keep the score… Read more »

Cesc Appeal

Luiz and Sokratis have to be the CB pairing, the full backs are a real worry but there’s not much we can do there.

I can take losing, but it really will be a kick in the balls if we gift them the game with a Maitland Niles error or similar.

I cannot wait for November when Holding, Bellerin and Tierney will be up to speed and added to the starting line up.

Cesc Appeal

As much as Luiz’s long balls could be a way of getting at Liverpool I also think Dani Ceballos’ ability to dribble under pressure and turn his man could be of equal importance. If he can turn and avoid the press of Milner/Henderson/Fabinho he too could start a counter as Liverpool’s defence is left without pressing cover.

Really interesting game tomorrow. Big test for us.

We don’t have our complete starting 11 yet but Liverpool aren’t quite at their level yet. Would be much more confident if we had a fit and up to speed Bellerin and Tierney.

Guns of Brixton

We re gonna get battered again aren’t we ??

😪😪😪😪😪😪😪

*Sobbing maniacally*

Valentin

Graham,

Cheers up.
England did beat 56.
Need a miracle or total collapse by the Australian for England to not lose that one as well.

Akilan

Chambers single handedly lost us the game vs Pool at The Emirates, a couple of years ago. Zero composure with the ball. Folks want him to start at MF, LOL. Bambi on ice. He’s become decent since but starting him at Anfield isn’t a good option for him, when we have Luiz & Papa.

Last year, our defense was Kolasinac, Sokratis, Mustafi & Licht. Liverpool ran rings around every single one of them, not just Sokratis.

Valentin

Last year, we were let down by our midfield who let them run amok.
Their midfield is functional and well organised rather than superbly talented. We need to put them under pressure and see if they can cope.
However that means a mobile, aggressive midfield and that can not happen with a combination of Xhaka and Torreira.

Akilan

I’d start the same team as last week with the addition of Pepe in for Reiss.

Emery would probably play Xhaka for Joe/Guen. Also if the rumours of Monreal leaving are true, then we’re likely to play 3 ATB. In that case Chambers will come in for one of our midfielders.

Also selling Monreal is suicide right now. We’re not gonna get decent money for him anyway. We’re better off selling Kolasinac. For some reason, Nacho looks fitter and sharper than Sead.

shaun

that’s why I can’t quite get with Emery he seems to have faith in Xhaka only god knows why for me he is just as bad as mustaffi ….he should really give torriea , ceballos and Willock a try at least that will limit the mistakes and give us a really mobile midfield as apposed to XHAKA who cannot turn or run

ChimaA

Emery should be decisive tomorrow. Play Xhaka, Ozil and Micky,then we are doomed. But go with Lucas Toreira, Guendozi and Dani Ceballos in the middle. Pepe, Laca and Auba upfront and Papa, Louis, Mithland Niles and Moreal at the back, we will at least get a draw. Then stock the bench with Willock, Martinez, Reiss, Kolasinac, Chambers, Xhaka and Micky. We have to get something out of this game bcos the record is pretty bad against Arsenal at Anfield in the past 4 years.

Gonsterous

Really looking forward to a big game in a very long time. Just hope we don’t do something stupid like give torreira the role of marking van drijk during corners.

Samesong

Norwich are conceding a lot of goals.

PhD2020

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