Emery and Ancelotti speak, one says tie is 50-50 the other confident of victory by Martin
Arsenal manager Unai Emery and Napoli coach Carlo Ancelotti have both been speaking about Thursday evenings Europa League quarter-final second leg clash and there is an interesting difference in approach, well, certainly in public.
Ancelotti expects a brilliant performance from his lads, he questioned their courage in the first leg but fully expects a completely different attitude this time around.
‘I’m sure we’re going to put in a brilliant performance tomorrow. Will it be enough? I think so, I think we can do it,’ Ancelotti said: ‘What do we need in three words? Courage, intelligence, heart. I didn’t see much courage in the first leg, especially in the first half.”
He has to be hoping that calling out his players like that will have the desired effect, though that has not always been the case, players do not like being called cowards basically.
Emery was more circumspect and to some degree more relaxed claiming that the tie is finely balanced and when asked about how he sees our chances of qualifying for the semi’s he responded: “Fifty-fifty, it’s not changed for me. We played the first leg at home and we won. But if you did one question about the first leg when at home, we won. That’s a normal result”
“But when you play here against Napoli and think they can beat you, it’s a possibility because they are very strong at home. We are 50:50. It’s not changed, but our mentality and target is to play to win tomorrow.”
So, Ancelotti’s approach is to attack his player’s courage but is confident they will put in a brilliant performance, whereas Emery is more balanced and sees a tough game ahead that can go either way.
I am not sure that the way Ancelotti is approaching this game is necessarily the best method, though if he somehow manages to overturn the two-goal deficit he will be called a genius, on the other hand, I feel that Emery is playing it just right, he is not motivating the Napoli players with any antagonising comments and is instead being respectful saying the tie could go either way.
In fact, Emery went even further in his praise of Napoli
“They are a great club with a great president and a great coach here”
“Ancelotti is a three-time Champions League winner. They have great players. Their history is great history and their present gives them great opportunities and optimism to win things”
They’re second in [Serie A] and they will play against us in this round of the Europa League”
He really is a classy guy is our Emery, he knows how to butter up the opposition before he delivers the fatal blow as I am 100% certain he will do tonight.
Martin
Obviously ancelotti is confident, he’s looked at our away results and sees us there for the taking.
Given our away form, and that this is Emery’s first real test away from home against a big team, he MUST pick Leno. Leno proved his heroics again on Monday night when he saved us. Our goal is likely to come under a barrage of attacks, so play your best keeper! Leno is also our player of season in my opinion as well. I was really worried in the first leg, but luckily Cech had nothing to do, but it won’t be the case tonight.
If Cech plays, and we go out, then Emery cannot say he gave it his best shot.
first real test away from home *in Europe
Spot on! With Cech retiring in a month or so it is pointless playing our definitely SECOND BEST keeper tonight. It is a huge mistake and could prove the difference between going through and not going through. Why try to keep a soon retired player happy and risk crashing out? Plain daft!
Please let Ozil be involved in the game.in fact it should be Leno, koscienlly,scratis,monereal,Torreira,Ramzy, zhaka, kollasnack, Neill’s,Auba,and ,lackazet.
Two nil might not be enough if it was Arsene in charge. But this is Emery!
We must setting the trap well and make full use of it. Otherwise it could be 1-3 or 1-4.
I think we need to unleash Leno over Cech on this match. We need GK who can make extra ordinary saves.
Am glad he feels confident and he wants us to know. At least Emery knows what the job specification is, let’s see what we are going to offer. Am a little bit confident we can win.
Arsenal will win this tie tonight l, I strongly believe.
Arsenal will win this game 2 nul in Arsenal favour
2-0 lead is not difficult to mess up. It’s far from an insurmountable lead. Napoli could score one or two quick goals for example, then we are in trouble
We need to put out our best team and play our very best
I have strong belief that we will qualify
We can definitely do it
COYG
So you are “100% certain then , Martin? I am certain you are not being 100% honest with yourself! We have a chance, some think a small one, some a medium one and some a large chance. But those who claim to be”100% certain” are either fools or liars!