Robert Pires backs Unai Emery and offers him some sensible advice.
Pires claims Unai Emery is a good manager and that he should pull the players together to work out a solution to the current problems with the team.
The Gunners have been struggling recently and they enter the match against Southampton without a win in their last six games in all competitions.
This run of form has seen them drop eight points behind the Premier League top four and only a win against the Saints will be acceptable to the fans today.
Pires who spent most of his career playing for Arsenal believes there is still time for the Gunners to turn their situation around and end the season successfully.
Unai Emery has been accused of struggling to pass his methods across to his players because of his poor grasp of the English language, but Pires believes that he is a good manager and may just need more time since the Premier League is more intense than the leagues he has managed in before.
“This team has such quality,” he said as reported in the Daily Star. “The squad can improve this situation. The most important thing now is that Unai Emery needs to talk to the group to try to find a solution together. I hope they can, for the players, for the club, for the manager.”
Pires added: “I know he is having trouble. Unai is a good guy. He is a nice person. He is a good manager. He is under pressure unfortunately.
“Fans can’t always appreciate the details of the situation but to be a manager is very difficult, especially when you work in the Premier League. You can be a manager in Spain, France or Italy but when you come to England the intensity is totally different. It is about the fight, the spirit. The intensity is extremely difficult.”
Pires follows on from fellow Arsenal legend Thierry Henry who also gave his support to the Spaniard.
I have to ask, what is that they see that the rest of the fans are struggling to see?
I’m just wondering if we’ll make anyone look like Messi today? Danny Ings or James Ward Prowse??
Good question, what do they see that we don’t? I do not see him picking a decent tean, getting defensively organised, knowing how to unlock defences…. So where are the positives?
If at least he had improved some absolutely basic stuff in even the most minute way, we could have had some sympathy with Pires’ view. But there is NOTHING apart from regression in all areas.
Why not just start wuth a 4.3.3 formation like most top clubs and countries do, get them to play consistently and then gradually implement new philodophies?
The man is an idiot, and his players do not understand him. No amount of dressing room chat will change that.
Personally speaking, I agree that any manager would take at least 3 seasons before Arsenal gets back on track. I just don’t believe that Emery is the one to take Arsenal there.
I’ve said before, I don’t put blind faith in any manager. I look for reasons to support. Sometimes even good tactics might fail, or may not produce good results. There are many variables in a football match. But we should have a tangible tactic to begin with! One that makes sense, even it might fail sometimes.
That’s how us fans can get behind a manager with our support because we understand what he’s trying to do! It may fail because other team countered us, or some players put on brilliant individual performances, but it should make sense.