Differences revealed between Freddie Ljungberg and Unai Emery

Report claims Freddie Ljungberg and Unai Emery never agreed on tactics.

Freddie Ljungberg got his reign as Arsenal interim manager off to a mixed start with a 2-2 draw at Norwich City on Sunday. That result had some commenting that the Swede is not really any different to his predecessor Unai Emery.

Well, it seems that may not be quite the case according to an article in written by James McNicholas

The subscription-based report, as cited by The Metro is claiming that Ljungberg and Emery never had the same views on tactics.

Apparently, Ljungberg has admitted in private that he and Emery never agreed tactically.

Personally, I am inclined to go along with this. It makes sense to me because Emery’s tactics were bewildering on occasions. They did not represent the way Arsenal historically played and Freddie would have known that.

We will know soon enough with games coming up quick and fast starting with Thursday evenings Premier League clash with Brighton at the Emirates.

I just cannot see Freddie taking the same sort of pragmatic approach that Emery employed, especially near the end of his reign.

I fully expect a far more attack-minded approach and if that is what we get to see then it will confirm, to me at least, that the report in the Athletic is accurate.

18 Comments

    1. Watched liverpool employ the long ball game (apparently Luiz and Xhaka can do the same for us) to devastating effect.imagine Auba at the end of those long passes

    2. Because they’re the only top managers he knows well enough personally to just call. Although, calling Sven ‘top’ is stretching it a bit.

      The biggest problem is we cannot be playing effective attacking football by fielding too many forwards but buy dominating the midfield. But with Ceballos injured, Ramsey and Mkhi gone, the only midfielder with any creativity we have available is Ozil. Not enough, so we should try more long balls from Luiz and/or Xhaka towards Martinelli and Auba.

      A sad state of affairs for a club that always had at least 3 or 4 creative midfielders.

  1. Yeah? The same Ljumberg who tried Unai’s failed diamond last weekend? Made ill timed subs bringing on the wrong players? He made subs at times when they wouldn’t have had an impact leaving on players like willock for too long

  2. It would be interesting to see whether the players improve in the coming games or not.

    The biggest issue I’ve seen with our current Arsenal team is the players don’t seem to do the basics right. Freddie needs to improve this.

    For example, we try to be too clever and flick the ball too much, or the players overthink where they should be on the pitch, who they should pass to, and especially defending, all our players overthink defending and we give the opposition too much time on the ball to make decisions.

    Looking at Man City & liverpool and how Pep & Klopp sets them up, you can clearly see that the basics are done without too much thinking from their players. Players know they need to make the do something once they’re in a certain scenario and simply trust that other player in their team will be there and vice versa.

    Far too many times I’ve seen our players either run themselves into a corner until they’re dispossessed or they pass back killing any momentum, and react so much to what the opposition are doing that their team mates become confused. (example: Guendouzi dribbles the ball and other players make runs or get into good positions the Guendouzi sees the opposition and holds on to the ball for far too long thn we lose momentum and chances to get forward and make progress, then he has no choice but to pass back)

    1. Agree. Keeping things simple is the secret for clubs like Liverpool and Man City. Their players do bare minimum that will get the job done, but do it with greater precision and accuracy (which comes through practice and repetition). No fancy stuff usually, because consistency is more valuable than trying to nutmeg defenders and failing 9 times outta 10. They don’t do that. And that’s why they are effective.

      1. Daulat, the description of their players doing the work with great precision and accuracy, while not having to keep running around in order to please some fans, reminds me so much of a certain player we have.
        That’s why Ozil is so effective – great little post and observations sir!!!

      2. I think there is a massive difference between Freddie and Emery, one is Swedish and bald, the other is Spanish and has far too much hair.

  3. I never got how Emery just dropped his pressing tactics. I remember last season all the numbers we were hearing about the hard yards being put in, then this season looked strange, a deep deep backline yet we had high forwards that don’t press in unity, and a bare midfield in two minds whether to join attack or sit back close to the defenders. It was bewildering.

    1. @Break-on-through
      I remember, how last season, just about everybody was praising Unai for his tough training of the players and how their fitness levels were much better than with AW. I also remember how he slagged off AW for neglecting the defence and how he was gonna fix it and the fans once again heaping huge praise on him… Look where we are now. 🤔

  4. See what two men were caught doing in the bush(clicks and sees two men hold a branch), all click baits.
    Truth of the matter is FL was a part of a failed system and going by Sunday’s team selection and performance it’s obvious that there is a part of Emery in Freddie or maybe it was a part of Freddie in Emery. All I saw from our performance on Sunday was a more attack minded Emery. But thank God we are finally attacking. It was his first game so he has a free pass for me plus he only had two days to instill his tactics which wasn’t enough. So I think he did the best thing, just two days was definitely not enough so play an Emery type team since the players are used to it already but make it more attractive minded. So he has a free pass for me though but we might need an experience manager faster than we think we do.

  5. I think we should just give Arteta the job. We need a coach with a tactical onus and one who knows the EPL well. He had turned Sterling into a world beater and I can’t wait to see what he can achieve with Pepe and Martinelli who I believe are more talented than Sterling. Besides, every coach speaks highly of him so it’s a risk that could pay off.

  6. All my instincts tell me – even though I cannot possible know for certain – that Freddies instincts on setting up a team and its attacking intent are in direct contrasI to the silly Emery’s instincts. A little proper thought and anyone who knows Freddies playing Arsenal history will easily show the strong likelihood of this being so. That being said though, Freddie still has NO proper top quality outfield defender at the club, from which to pick a so called “DEFENCE.”

  7. With Freddie having a ittle more time for training and talking to the players, I believe we will see a gradual improvement on the field. Don’t expect miracles without a new backline and a commanding midfielder, but do expect more flowing and attacking football.

  8. Neither Klopp nor Pep would take this Arsenal squad into the top four.To my mind Tierney is the only top quality defender available and while Guendouzi and Willock are promising midfielders we are also mediocre in that area.Ironically we have some real talents up front including Martinelli and Pepe who I feel will come good in the not too distant future.

    1. 👍 A realistic assessment;too many players who appear to have got to this level without the commensurate basic skills, technique and decision making under pressure.

  9. Give it a few more weeks and we will have enough actual data/games to debate the merits of Freddie over Emery. At this point, everything is speculation which is a bit less exciting.
    I can’t wait till tomorrow and am excited. I guess that this shows that most Arsenal fans are posetive and want to be excited.

  10. Fitness, agility, mentality, and skills are lacking in majority of our players. I saw Auba and Laca losing the ball on first touches for crying out loud, don’t even get me started on the others. Xhaka for example is just too scared to play the ball forward, he passes backward to be safe.
    We can heap all blames on coaches and tactics but they ain’t going to come play on the pitch. Our players are too mediocre. Compare Auba & Laca to Sterling, Firmino, Aguero….compare Xhaka to Debryne, Kante, Ndidi….compare Pepe to Salah….they are incomparable, right?

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