Enrique linked. Why prestige managers are generally a bad idea

by .

via @t0wey (instagram)

There are a lot of rumours doing the rounds that Unai Emery could be entering the ‘win or you’re out’ zone. Sarri heard rumours about a similar situation at Chelsea before the Europa League final last year and basically said, if that’s the view, fire me now, it’s no way to run the football club.

I tend to agree. Don’t sack if you don’t have a plan in the back pocket of what’s next. Also, don’t sack if the plan is terrible.

The stark reality the club are facing is this: Lose against Leicester and you will likely be 9 points behind 3rd and 4th. Not insurmountable, but certainly a huge body blow heading into the dark months of fatigue and rainy days against top 6 sides.

Raul doesn’t have the most elite taste when it comes to managers, my worry with him has always been that he’d see us as a Barca-lite. We know he’s an ego guy that mixes in high society circles. That, in my opinion, has led to a false sense of who we are. I raise that, because when you spend your time hoping to be something you are not, you make bad choices. David Luiz will cost us £40m all in, it looks good on paper, but it’s been a disaster and he’s 32. That sort of move is a high society move.

Dinner with Jose Mourinho is a bad choice. Dig into it though, why would you go to dinner with that man? Because it’s a statement about who you are. It’s star fucking. Is it good for the club? No. But it says something to people who roll those circles.

I think the backlash from most of the major Arsenal media will put an end to Jose dreams, though we can’t be sure. However, I don’t expect that to push us into the path of the sort of manager that will be good for us.

We should be looking at names that do a lot with a little, or coaches that have untapped stardust.

A manager like Lucian Favre is desperately untrendy, but he’s been all around the world and he’s working magic with a superb young cast at Dortmund. He consistently outperforms his xG, the football he plays is exciting and he’s truly a tactical master. The way he turned around that Inter game last week was something else.

He’s not trendy though. There’s nothing saucy about his resume, though he’s built for an underdog job, which is exactly what we are.

There are plenty of hip names out there that could also excite. It’s hard not to pay close attention to the work of Paulo Fonseca; the saucy Portuguese created a mini-Man City over in Donetsk, now he’s sitting in 3rd with Roma. He has style, he’s grounded in Italian football, and the Premier League would be immense for him. He also has real nice hair.

He recently lost to Marco Rose’s Monchengladbach, as you know, he’s my new dream. If you want clarity about who he is, check out his 11 principles of management. He has sauce, he took Salzburg a long way in the Europa League and he went unbeaten in Austria. Now he’s transported his heavy pressing vision of football into Monchengladbach, who are topping the German league.

It’s early days, he could go the way of Ralph H at Southampton, but his partnership with Rene Maric seems to be built on something solid and smart. Here’s some details on his tactics so far this season.

I will run a deeper analysis at some point, but my point here is that now we’re being linked to Luis Enrique. A man that rocked the treble at Barcelona, a player of extreme prestige, someone that is a high society type of guy… but would he be right for Arsenal?

I don’t think the filter of, ‘better than Unai’, is where we need to be looking. We need to be hiring in a manager that has a distinct vision of where the game is going, and we need to have someone that has an underdog mentality. That’s why I like Ralph Rangnick. That’s why Nagelsmann is impressive. Even Allegri to a certain degree was an underdog at the highest levels of European football, the Juve spend to success was impressive, they were run a little like Spurs until recently.

Can you create a competitive edge with top tier managers with with midlevel money, or does that create an imbalance? Jurgen Klopp is still out greatest miss because he was a top tier manager with a midtier mindset to creation. He had never had £200m to spend until he went to Liverpool. He was an underdog. He was the perfect manager for a rebuild. That’s what we need.

I also want to hark back to my point about vision. I know that people associate this sort of babble with hipsterism, but just as oat milk and elite couture shouldn’t be frowned at, an understanding of where the game is going shouldn’t be either. Case in point: Thiago Motta.

He caused ructions in the football world when he played a 2-7-2 in the PSG youth leagues. His belief is you take out the power and pace era by flooding the midfield. He sees the keeper as an integral part of that process. That’s advanced thinking. Here are the details.

Will this work? Who knows. But the exPSG player landed a job at Genoa and this is what he’s producing after three games (also worth checking out the quality of goals here).

So in short, the next Arsenal manager needs to be a statement of vision, not a big name because it gives the club a short hit of prestige.

Who would you hire for a replacement?

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Rambo Ramsey

Excited about the ass-whopping Emery’s side will be given tomorrow.

TitsMcGee

Win or you’re out practically means he’s out because if he had the answers he would have sorted them by now.

Rambo Ramsey

EME-RID!

Drey

Yo

Drey

finally got the coveted Tro4hy

Champagne Charlie

Top 4 lads?

Champagne Charlie

Top 6 then… how very Arsenal

HighburyLegend

Enrique, a “prestige manager” ??
Lol Wtf ??

azed

I wonder what the reaction will be if Emery doesn’t get sacked tomorrow.

jwl

Bill Burr Joke Friday –

Who the fuck would run for a job where it costs 100 million to get it so you can make 400 grand a year? That isn’t a red flag to anybody?

jwl

Some guy workin’ at Home Depot, he wants to fuck just as many women as a celebrity. But he can’t do it, because whores don’t care about lumber.

jwl

There’s this critical point where you’ve stayed single for too long and your brain switches from ‘You know, maybe I shouldn’t say that.’ to ‘Eh, fuck it, say it, see what happens.’

jwl

Inter-racial sex is probably some of the best sex on the planet. You know what that is? Because with inter-racial sex there’s like this whole added pressure to perform. ‘Cause it’s kinda like you’re not just humping for yourself. You’re humping for your race. You got to represent your people.

jwl

You have no idea how long a year is until you’re stone sober.

HighburyLegend

@azed : he’s very capable to do what I call a “wenger” – win a game everybody see us losing, just to save his ass for a few weeks.

Left testicle

Emery on Xhaka…
“He’s working well, he’s training well, but he said to me that he’s not feeling good enough at the moment to play. We are going to wait.”

This is fudging unbelievable. Can we stop his £90,000 PER WEEK until he does ‘feel good enough’.

bennydevito

Good post Pedro,

Last good ebening of the failed Emery experiment?

Mics

I suspect it will be difficult to pry away one of the top managers mid season, but surely we can’t continue with Unai. Perhaps Arteta would be allowed to leave City if he’s offered a head coaching position? I’d take that gamble, though it is definitely a risk in terms of top four finishing. If we could get Rafa to return from China, I’d take him until the end of the season. He’s experienced in the prem and knows the league well, can sort a defense, and although he has a reputation as a pragmatist, I suspect our attack would… Read more »

Left testicle

Hopefully ‘Good ebening’ will soon be ‘Goodbye’.

HighburyLegend

“Who would you hire for a replacement?”
Arteta of course, why do you ask when you already know the answer ?? Lol

Marko

Raul doesn’t have the most elite taste when it comes to managers, my worry with him has always been that he’d see us as a Barca-lite.

His time as DOF for Barcelona begs to differ. Pep started the same year and he hired others winning a fuck tonne of trophies and success.

Wild guess but I imagine that you’re already laying down the ground work for us not hiring Arteta and messing up and the new manager being a disaster before we know who it is.

azed

The tenets of positional play is to move the opponents not the ball.

This statement basically explains why we struggle. To move the opponents, you have to play quick shorts passes and then from time to time, switch the play from one side to the other when you’ve moved the opponents.

Watching us play, you see Guendozi, Sokratis, Luiz, Chambers, Xhaka, Pepe all take multiple touches of the ball and make very slow passes. Its why teams look so compact against us.

Words on a Blog

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/arsenal-left-confused-mess-hope-20841582

Good piece on the all-over-the-place nature of Emery’s tactics.

Whoever comes in, and whatever the extent of their experience and/or sauciness, here’s hoping for some clarity and consistency in terms of the football played. Oh, and I’d quite like to watch some attractive football being played too.

Marko

Fonseca is Portuguese btw technically born in Mozambique and not Italian. Only been there months so steeped is a stretch.

CG

Another fabulous post.

And I off course give thanks to fabulous PedRo for it.

Quite Simply

No mas Spanish Dung.
(🐃 stop tormenting and torturing 🐂).

Eg. Enrique or Emery types

Although Anglicised Spanish Ok.

Eg. Arteta, Cesc, Rafa B.
(They are civilised Spaniards)

Marko

My personal preference for the next manager is to have a remit for sorting out the midfield and back him in making it happen. Tell us who he wants and go get it. If it means replacing everyone then so be it.

TheLegendaryDB10

Crap, did the mistake of reading the post. The trick is that we need someone who is ready to instill the basics into this team. This team needs foundations before we do a full on re-build. We need an identity and the players need to know what they are doing, in particular how to defend as a team/ making sure our back 3 or 4 know what they are doing when defending. With that he’ll need to also focus in stabilising our midfield and get This can only work if the team learns 1 suitable formation so that players end… Read more »

Words on a Blog

Pedro,

The Mirror, nah, I was already too far gone.

The prospect of being 9 points behind Leicester and Chelsea in 3rd and 4th and consistently dire performances this season at the Emirates finally broke me, not to mention the very real prospect of being disowned by my own fervently anti-Emery son.

Marko

I feel like you’re giving me shit but I’m just here to help you look like you know what you’re saying.

As for Farve yes he’s overall doing well at Dortmund but major warning signs for consist of his training regiment cause they always seem to have injuries and perhaps most importantly failing to win the league title last season despite being 9 points ahead of a really poor Bayern Munich at a really decent point of the season.

Dan Ahern

Checked the match on google and they’re currently giving us a 26% win probability.

Leicester is at 49%.

Hope Raul has those interviews lined up!

Valentin

Emery on Xhaka…
“He’s working well, he’s training well, but he said to me that he’s not feeling good enough at the moment to play. We are going to wait.”

Basically Xhaka is saying that he is unwilling to get into the bear pit and get mauled by Arsenal supporters to act as diversion for Emery.
If Emery really think that putting Özil in the team is going to win him back any fans, he is seriously mistaken. The arsonist is now playing fireman.

Words on a Blog

Pedro,

One concern I have is that Emery (who is known to be a voracious consumer of football tactical analysis videos) will have come across the Motta 2-7-2 formation video you linked to, and decide to adopt it in the match against Leicester, only with his own twist: Laca and Auba as the 2 defenders, and Torreira and Guen as the two attacking spearheads……

Guns of SF

happy Friday all…

Emery almost out yet?

Words on a Blog

Joking aside, I have a strong feeling that a)Emery will try to spring a tactical surprise against Leicester, and b) that tactical surprise won’t work.

Elmo

Nelson

Why would Newcastle want Xhaka? Hasn’t the observation been made over many years here that he’s a poor man’s Shelvey?

Champagne Charlie

Imagine we pull a storming performance out the fire and win 3-1 or something.

Nailed on that the uppers buckle and we continue kicking the can. That’s my fear. We should be hoping for a win but expectant that the necessary changes are coming regardless.

Not entirely sure that’s the truth of the matter.

CG

Guns of Sf

“””””Emery almost out yet?””””””

One Final push tomorrow Guns, and then the Tick Tock will be over.

Long Live The Tick Tock!🍾

Dan Ahern

Thiago Motta can fuck off with his “2-7-2” formation, the click-baiting bastard.

Guns of Hackney

More 180 turns on here than a sink estate in Sunderland on joy riding Friday. Emery was a dumb choice from day one. Fact. We need the following in a manager: 1. Looks. He has to appeal to the media and be the housewife’s choice. 2. Sauce. 3. Good hair. Facial or head or both. 4. Under 50, nearer 40. 5. English speaking. 6. Progressive. 7. Style. Must wear a suit on match day with a proper overcoat, not sports jacket with suit. No. 8. Personality. Not. Enrique. You can’t manage Barca and Messi and come to this shit show.… Read more »

Guns of SF

Emery will do a 1-8-1 formation.

salpardisenyc

Is that Dan Ahern I see, takes a managers near sacking to roll you out.
Bastard.

Guns of SF

I think Emery is done if Leciester beat our ass
Which will most likely happen

Leedsgunner

What about a hungry ambitious South American coach?

A younger version of Jorge Sampaoli if you will?

I’m sure if you asked Edu he would have a few names…

Guns of SF

Xhaka does not want to play… ok fine.. says it all
Dani is hurt?

Willock, Guen, Torr in midfield- will need more mobile players against Foxes

Valentin

The problem with Emery’s tactic is that he is trying to copy what master tacticians have been doing without realising the demands/weaknesses of some of their tactics. Some only work because of specific personnel. Some can’t work because of the personnel available. We don’t have an athletic set of central midfielders, so asking two midfielders to control the play against 3 midfielders will always end up in failure. Putting a very one footed player on the wing or inside attack position means that he will always come inside narrowing the attack, making it easier for the opposition to defend against.… Read more »

71Guns

Whatever happens tomorrow I just hope Emery goes before we start losing decent players. Rumours already about Auba and Torreira going (I know most of us are still unsure about Torreira, but I think we need to see what he can do under a decent coach and playing in the right position). I’d personally be fine with Rafa coming in till the end of the season on a ‘see how it goes’ basis. OTOH if the club opts for Maureen I will be positively ILL…

Leedsgunner

Keeping Emery on because he wins tomorrow would be pointless in the long run. Emery has shown more than enough reasons why this job is too big for him.

When did getting a win over Leicester become such a mental trophy? Oh how the mighty have fallen!!!

Win lose or draw, I want Emery gone. We’re all but treading water with him at best… sinking into irrelevance at worst.

Marko

Also I wouldn’t talk up Thiago Motta just yet as anything really. In the 3 games he’s managed they’ve lost twice conceded 6 goals. 3 at home to Udinese. Sounds like he’s playing checkers when he should be playing chess

Leedsgunner

Torreira his strongest position with Guendouzi and W.illock providing runs into the box… with Özil feeding Auba or Pepe with pinpoint passes…

Is it too little too late?

Guns of SF

Who is their right mind thinks we will actually win tomorrow??
Our goal will be peppered once again…

If anything, Id like to see Martinelli start a game to really see what he can do to help
Sub him with Saka…

Lets see what Pepe has in mind…

I dont know but it just seems really depressing and I feel the mood of the club is very low. I wonder what if anything, Emery has been doing differently in training.
I will bet $ that the team comes out again with no identity or plan…

DaleDaGooner

Did someone say Bumford10 had massive calves? O_o

Leedsgunner

Xhaka doesn’t want to play, because he’s too busy feeling sorry for himself.

What a complete melt.

To think Emery thought he was suitable for the captaincy tells you all you need to know about Unai’s judgement.

Champagne Charlie

Pedro

Do you think we can course correct (long term) with a mid-season hire?

My concern is the uppers have been caught cold by this (amazingly) and they won’t make a smart move to replace, but maybe double down on the dreary with another bum hire.

Would prefer safer hands as interim with a view to making a thoughtful change in the summer tbh.

Luteo Guenreira

Calling it a 2-7-2 is purely a troll move, it’s a 4-3-3 as is explained in the video.

We’ll see how hard the players play for Emery if his job is well and truly on the line from here on out. It will be telling to see what kind of effort is given in a tough away match against a team that is in form.

Micheal

After almost 18 months in charge, there is no evidence that Emery is getting better. If anything were are going backwards – a bit like most of our passes.
Personally I feel if people like Raul and Edu cannot see realistic signs of improvement, then change shoud be made sooner rather later. Does anyone seriously believe we will get better in the next, say, 3 months ?

Valentin

Thiago Motta has the PSag U19 play very well offensively. But they were also very naïve defensively. However he is one of the few coaches who went back to the old South American tactic of lopsided attack to create space. Nowadays most of the coaches work on the assumptions that the formation must be symmetrical. That has not always be the case. Some teams used to have one of the winger a lot more attacking minded than the other. He was tasked with less defensive duty. So the attack tended to go through one side. The main advantage of a… Read more »

Leedsgunner

Ljungberg as caretaker now or Emery until the season’s end… which is a greater risk?

We need to get this right, and get top 4 or we can kiss Laca and Auba goodbye.

Pierre

I see that Emery has thrown Xhaka under the bus with his “Xhaka is not feeling well enough to play ” comment .

How does he think this comment is going to help the situation.
Surely it would have been better for Emery to say something like it was a joint or club decision that he should not play against Leicester.

This is just another example of Emery and the club being naive and issuing a statement that will only exacerbate the situation.

Marko

What about a hungry ambitious South American coach?

Lack of English would probably be the stumbling block on someone like Gallardo.

Mr Man

Friday Joke – Young lad walks into a pharmacy and says to the pharmacist I need a pack of 3 condoms. Pharmacists says you going to need 3? Lad replies I’ve got a meal at my girlfriends tonight and I think her mum and her sister both fancy me so I’m going to smash all three of them, they’re well fit. Pharmacist says lucky you. That night the young guy sat at the dinner table with his girlfriend and her mum and sister when her dad walks in and joins them. Young lad sinks into his chair and starts to… Read more »

Marc

OK this place is getting too surreal for it’s own good. You have Pedro talking up a young manager who has vision etc etc and is playing a radical formation, who after 3 games is producing great signs and had advanced thinking.

Marko then points out that in the 3 matches played they’ve lost twice and conceded 6 goals.

Either Marko is talking bollocks or Pedro’s medication needs to be turned down a touch.

I’m seriously beginning to wonder if Pedro’s been locked in someone’s basement and been replaced by a Spud who’s trolling us.

Valentin

Raul remind me of a managing director at a big company who has to adapt to life at a start-up. Still used to the big company lack of direct accountability. Start by hiring one of his minions to work under him. Not realising that initial hire is the first step toward his demise. Once that ally has messed being recovery, he has to make the big decision but is afraid of messing even more than he already has.

Valentin

Pedro,

I don’t think that Freddie would be as bad as OGS. However what is now common knowledge is that Freddie is not a happy bunny. He may be regretting that switch with Steve Bould. In contrast Steve Bould seems to be re-energised.

Marc

Pedro

Now that I agree with – what’s wrong with Allegri? He was a serial winner at Juve and is still a “relevant” manager. You’ve made the point a few times about not repeating the ManU path and again I agree 100%, Mourinho would be Van Gaal and the ManU Mourinho hire combined into 1 and put on acid.

Graham62

Pedro

Is this the same informant who told you Gazidis was a splendid chap?

Valentin

Marc,

There is a difference between being a good coach and a good manager. I think that Thiago Motta has the seeds of being a great coach. Time will tell if he has also the ability to be a good manager.
Marcelo Bielsa is recognised as a terrific coach (according to Pep one of the best), but in my view he is a mediocre manager. Too rigid in his approach and not necessarily ready to shake things up early in games.

Marc

Pedro

I got behind the manager and the team. What you seem incapable of understanding is that if we had of hired Arteta whilst thinking it was a risk I would have gotten behind him 100% and prayed to the football Gods that you were almost right because Arteta was even better than you were predicting.

A guy going full on radical might be interesting but you of all people know football is a results business. Interesting can easily turn into “he’s a fucking clown”.

Dan Ahern

Sal — I was on strike since Pedro sidelined me from the pod. The Özil of LG. Emery nearing the sack was too tantalising a prospect though, I had to jump back in the comments.

TheLegendaryDB10

I’d be happy with Freddie taking over. He surely must be seeing what’s wrong. It would be great if he then called Keown to work as a defensive crack or even be his assistant?

But if we can get Allegri, that would be even better. His experience would definitively help settle the team and get them playing like a proper football team for a start.

Graham62

I would guess Freddie is not a happy bunny because of Emery.

Join the club Mr Ljungberg.

salpardisenyc

Dan

Thats called relegated.

Marc

Pedro

A manager too elite for the situation? Perhaps but we had a pretty dire season under Rioch and Wenger turned that team around with a handful of signings and a huge influence on existing players. Could Allegri do that with the current squad?

I’d argue that we’d be in at least an equal position if not stronger as a club now if Emery were sacked than when Rioch left.

DigitalBob

Nice post Pedro – alot of good ideas for the next boss! I’d favour most of Emery at the moment as they have a clear and precise vision for their management.

However I doubt most will leave mid-season so we’ll be stuck with Emery or Freddie in charge till then.

Unlike rambo-ramsey I hope we win tomorrow as I actually want champions league footie next year, tired of this fucking thursday night mockery of a competition.

Marc

Pedro

I have no issue with ideas. Some I’ll agree with some I’ll disagree with and some I’ll ask “where the fuck did that come from”.

My original point was the way you presented Motta was as an advanced radical thinker who was achieving things after 3 matches – Marko then pointed out that they’ve lost 2 of those and conceded 6 goals. That didn’t tally up with the way you’d mentioned him. If you’d have said he’s got some radical thoughts and might not be getting results but he’s worth watching it would have been a different case.

Marc

Pedro

Come on mate I thought you were the marketing guru. You telling me you couldn’t sell London and Arsenal to Allegri!

Champagne Charlie

“CC, I think if we made a really good mid-season hire, then yes.“

Of course, but how likely is that with guys actively working?

Can see us pushing back a decision until a breaking point, or fake charge for top 4. Basically I don’t see us pulling the plug even with all the chatter.

CG

PedRo

“”””Or will they down tools.””””

Those tools ain’t even getting out of the Toolbox.

They are staying put.Right put.

This Ends Tomorrow.

And the Champagne is on me.

November 2019!

Marc

CC

That’s really the question. Do we have a no smoke without fire situation or just more newspaper bollocks.

Dan Ahern

Pedro I’ve been advised not to comment on it further, my agent Dr. Erkut Sogut will be releasing a statement shortly.

Marko

Genuine question but where the hell are people getting that Freddie went to Germany and got relegated? From what I can tell he was assistant manager at Wolfsburg for 6 months before Jonker and everyone got the sack but they weren’t relegated.

Spanishdave

We are in relegation form at the moment.
We are struggling to score, most of our recent goals have come from defenders, despite the fact we supposedly have we forwards.
We cannot defend a lead, and the same poor errors will not stop.
It’s more of last seasons form, continuing.
It’s over for the Spaniard, but will the other Spaniard act?

Pierre

Digital Bob “Unlike rambo-ramsey I hope we win tomorrow as I actually want champions league footie next year, tired of this fucking thursday night mockery of a competition.” Are Arsenal fans the only set of fans who think the Europa cup is a mockery. Of course it doesn’t generate the excitement of the champions league but watching the Europa game s last night , to me it looked like most clubs fans are embracing the competition. Even Manchester united supporters , with all their champions league history , appear to enjoy competing in the competition. So why do Arsenal supporters… Read more »

Marc

Valentin

I’d be interested to hear your take on Arseblog’s piece today re Torreira?

CG

Spanish Dave

“””It’s over for the Spaniard, but will the other Spaniard act?””””

And replace him with another dopey Spaniard ?

His Chum…

No to Enrique.

We need Premier Proven, English speaking men of substance.

No more ‘learning on the job’ ‘ pals act’ types!

Ample of good candidates out there if Jose is too acerbic for their yellow guts.

Howe
Dyche.

71Guns

Dyche?!?
I’d rather be dead than a Dyche…!

Marc

Pierre I sit on both sides of the fence on this one. Firstly anyone writing off winning the FA Cup hasn’t been to a final and certainly hasn’t been on the end of losing a Cup final – I did the Cup Winner’s Cup final in Paris in 95. Not a happy memory. On the other hand the EL is a pain in the arse – I think Saturday was our first 3pm kick off this season at home (I stand ready to be corrected). I get the EL matches on my season ticket but just be bothered with the… Read more »

CG

71 G

Dyche is the best pound for pound manager in the UK

Tough as teak.
Ginger.
And a good type of Ginger.

He dont adhere to the 11 Principles of management Nonsense like his German counterparts.

Just the 1
(1= win)
He is raw.
He is Old School.
(Fergie Lite)
He could be just what the Doctor Ordered.

And dont be a footballing snob.

71Guns

Sorry CG, couldn’t resist the joke is all…
Although to be honest I would be underwhelmed by his appointment, so maybe I am a footballing snob after all.
Actually I do think Howe might be worth a punt.

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