The reason why Emery hasn’t dropped any of the current faulty stars by Kandy
Over the past four games, some of our senior first team players have been making errors that would have arguably caused them to be dropped, Petr Cech, Granit Xhaka and the centerback pairing to be exact.
There is however a theory as to why it has not happened yet, and it could be that Emery is looking to see his defense settle and be consistent before introducing Leno to the starting eleven, who, compared to Cech, is less experienced in the EPL and although he is much better suited to the current system considering his ball playing skills, he does not have the leadership skills that the veteran goalkeeper possesses.
The Premier league can be very cruel, teams take advantage of any misunderstandings and mismatches. By starting Cech, the manager hopes that his vast Premier league experience and leadership will help his backline settle, or at least show signs that they can play alongside each other, and reduce the leak of goals before introducing Leno and either Holding or Mavropanos. At the moment, it would be a risk to start either one of them under the current defensive circumstances at the club.
With Lucas Torreira, I believe that it is the case as well, plus his lack of communication in English also playing a role, that’s why his integration into the starting eleven has been slow and a rather cautious one, therefore prompting Emery to start with Xhaka and Guendouzi, who, compared to the Uruguayan international, he probably felt that they are much better suited to starting alongside our shaky defense at the moment with Xhaka in particular boasting lots of EPL experience.
I’m not saying this is the case, it is just a theory, which I’d say makes sense but if it’s really the case, it isn’t settling any of our nerves as we’d like to see those fellas in the starting XI. Torreira in particular has had impressive cameos and I hope Emery is done starting him on the bench! In a nutshell, all hopes of seeing Leno or Torreira start hang on how well our backline play with each other, or at least that’s what I think, otherwise Emery will have to drop some of the defenders and push from a different perspective.
Kandy