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