Unai Emery has spent his first couple of months at Arsenal trying to teach his players to follow his tactics of playing out from the back and pressing when they haven’t got the ball. But it is not easy getting all the players onside and teaching old dogs new tricks, according to the Gunners legend Ray Parlour, Emery may need to be as ruthless as his fellow countryman Pep Guardiola up at Man City.
Parlour said: : “I know he [Emery] is trying to play out from the back. There were occasions during the Manchester City game especially when it wasn’t working.
“And they are trying to play out like the manager said but as a football player you have to make the right decision and if it isn’t on – you go a bit longer.
“It’s the right way to play, [Pep] Guardiola has cracked it. He knew he had a problem with the goalkeeper and he addressed it with Ederson.
“He had a problem with the right-back, he addressed it with Kyle Walker, so maybe Emery has to go through some sort of situation as him.
“He needs to find out what his players can do and if they can’t do what he wants them to do, he may have to change some personnel and find the players who do that because that is the way he wants to play.”
“You have to demand out of your players. If Ozil isn’t doing his job for the team then he’s letting other players down around him,” the former Arsenal defender added.
“It’s a team game, it’s not about individuals, and it is about getting that team format saying we can win the game now.
“I like that in a manager, if you are not doing your job, look at [Granit] Xhaka at half-time, he took him off and put [Lucas] Torreira on, because he was having a poor game.
“And Aaron Ramsey, he was on the bench, he’s made a big decision already. He has put a young 19-year-old in midfield instead of Ramsey.
“He’s not scared to make these decisions which I personally like as no one is bigger than the manager and he wants to make the decisions.
“If you don’t stick to those decisions and play the way he wants you to play then you won’t play, simple.”
Emery already looks like he won’t be picking his team according to his favourite players no matter how they are performing, and to be fair he will not be given oodles of time to get it right so will need to be ruthless. The Arsenal players were said to be “stunned” when Emery dropped Ramsey but if it gets the message across that no-one is indispenable then it will be worth it….
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