Opinion – Is Emery’s tactics to blame for Arsenal’s lack of confidence?

Sokratis believes Arsenal lacks confidence; I believe so too

A senior member of the Arsenal playing staff, Papa Sokratis has added his voice to issues plaguing the club at the moment. In his own wisdom, he believes that once confidence is restored in the team, Arsenal will start winning games.

Speaking to Arsenal.com, Sokratis said “It is a season that has a difficult moment, but we have still a lot of time and we need to improve, we need to play better and of course we have the time to do it…We also have the quality to do it. The team needs confidence and calm to show the quality we have. This will give confidence also.”

Asked if the side could make the top four, he continued, “I think we can … because if we find one or two games where we can play very good and have a good result, after the team will take confidence and after that we have the quality. The quality is here but I think we need confidence.”

Sokratis in my opinion just stressed what we the fans have known for a long time. Confidence comes from playing well and winning games. In a situation whereby a team keeps losing games, confidence stays far away from them. Now, how do we restore confidence to a team? Simple…

A team needs to have an identity and a playing pattern: A team with a playing pattern plays with confidence and high expectations. If I were to resume work in an organization, I expect the organization to create a conducive environment for me to succeed. I need to be given the right tools; I need to be told how to handle difficult situations. All these will make my work easy and encourage me to achieve results that are beyond people’s expectations.

A team needs to flow on the same page as its coach: Watching Arsenal play makes one think that the team is not riding on the same train. Emery wants his team to play from the back, but looking at the players trying to play from the back and getting into trouble, makes you wonder if Emery has really inculcated his ideology into the team.

What I am trying to say here, is that Arsenal needs to create an atmosphere that will give confidence to the players.

Sylvester Kwentua

11 Comments

  1. I would say Yes.

    Torreira needs to always be played as a Defensive midfielder. He has also said that he doesn’t like the way he’s played.
    I was so happy when Emery bought him but he needs to play the role of a DM

    Also Bellerin, Holding, Tierney should have started more PL matches since they came back from injury

    Chambers should have played more as a CB to challenge Luiz.

    It’s not too late to correct this

    I’ll support Emery until January
    Hopefully we will be in the top 4 by then

  2. How many times will our players repeat same sentence-we need to improve? Of course everyone knows that, but it seems its all talk and no action.
    Coach need to put his tactic under microscope, its not working, in fact, the way we defend as a team is so poor. Every time we lose the ball everyone start running back to our goalie creating more space and time for the opposition to think on how to create damage. Against Leicester, all Leicester goalkick were like freekicks, no one challenges their gk or defenders, all our players kept running back leaving Madison and co time, and time on the ball, for how long will those continue. If we fail to get the ball from opposition how do we score? Emery should go back to the basis, which is-keeping ball and not loosing it, whenever you lose ball, ensure to get it back immediatly, not running away and leaving the responsibility to another. I think if we have more of the ball and get it to the guys in our frontline, we will have high chance of winning all the time

  3. Klopp once explained his belief in the effectiveness of Gegenpressing in creating chances:

    “If you win the ball back high up the pitch and you are close to the goal, it is only one pass away a really good opportunity most of the time. No playmaker nor no 10 in the world can be as good as a good counter-pressing situation”

    That’s why his tridente and his midfield brutes could crush our silky midfielders. Emery also needs to start players with similar work rate against Soton and bench the ones that rely on their teammates to win the ball

    1. @gotanidea.
      You are right.
      The issue is Emery doesn’t have a playing pattern like Klopp.
      He believes in a football idea that his players don’t understand and is obviously not working.The reality is Emery look confused most times when Arsenal is losing..

  4. A resounding YES. No doubt whatsoever. Confidence or rather conviction, which is more important than mere confidence, is a thing you can’t just wear like clothes. It has to be real or it doesn’t exist. Emery has definitely killed it. THERE IS NO FIXED STARTING XI IN ONE AND HALF YEAR! I hate writing in caps, but that is a huge deal really.

    And what style of football do we play? Do we play tikitaka? No. Do we play Counter Attacking football? NO. Do we like to play one touch attacking possesion game? No. Are we defensive and like to play long balls? No. Do we gegenpress? No.

    No wonder our players lack conviction that they can go and win a match.

  5. When he first came, he was talking about pressing and attacking football. But he seems not to have coached the team to play that way. Instead, our approach to games is based on the opposition’s game not our way and style. He should go cos he has made us toothless and worse than ever. But if he starts playing attacking, one-touch football then we should give him the six matches to turn things around. But for that to happen, he must not play the same players he has been using in the same positions. If not we will be seeing the same boring games.

    Quick, one-touch football is the key to success.

    3-4-1-2

    ——————Leno————-

    Chambers——–Socratis——Holding

    Bellerin—-Torriera——-Luiz—-Tierney

    —————Martinelli———-

    ——-Pepe/Laca———-Aubamayang

    OR (4-1-4-1)

    ——————–Leno——————–

    Bellerin—–Chambers—-Socratis—–Tierney

    ——————–Luiz——————-

    Pepe…….Martinelli—–Ceballos—-Lacazette

    ———————Aubamayang—————-

    1. Sensible comment, except Emery won’t budge. He hasn’t admitted his mistakes, and refuses to adjust when he gets things wrong. For example, when he states “Our tactics worked,” but we got shut out 2-0. Or when he says he wants Torreira higher up the pitch to be the first line of pressure, except we never press as a team, and Torreira is a DM, and a very good one at that.

      Or foolish setups like Tierney playing in a soft Europa league game, but then benched and Kola starting an important Premier League game we have to win to stay up on points.

      Or Emery starts Ozil, but pushes him out wide on the RW where he is not effective; how stupid is that?
      1. Ozil is a decent 10, so play him there or not at all. He’s too soft in other positions.
      2. If Emery wanted to set up with a RW then start Pepe who had found a bit of form recently, but who knows now after being on the bench last couple weeks.

      There are dozens and dozens more examples scattered around this shop of horrors Emery has brought us.

      My complaint with Emery is that he has not done what he said in his first interview after getting the job.
      What happened to the protagonists without the ball?
      What happened to the pressing?
      What happened to the attacking football he said he favored and preferred?
      What happened to rather winning 5-4 than 1-0?
      Or improving the defense like he said was a priority?

      He has failed, period. 200 million in transfers hasn’t helped him, having one of the top strikers in the world hasn’t helped him, and more time won’t help him either. He can’t compete tactically in the league, he doesn’t set up team to win, and doesn’t play to team’s strength, but rather his misguided notion of disrupting opponents tactics.

  6. Even if we get our confidence back ,what happens when next time we lose it again .. that means we will never challenged for anything it will be going round in circles .At least when before when wenger was in charge it would be the manager who after three games would get us back to winning ways now it’s taken 10 games and still it’s not there just like the end of last season when we fell over the line to just get into 5th Emery out

  7. It not confidence, rather being exposed to shots on our goal.

    Time for a proper tactician. There are so many good managers out there, and we ended up with the one that conceded most shots on goal! Yet there are Arsenal fans who thinks Emery is a coach!

  8. Well, what to we expect the player to reply, a resounding yes we will make top four, the player knows we don’t have a chance of making top 4 unless in fantasy leagues.

  9. Emery has lost the plot, at times he looks confuse, just observe when we are trailing, our coach looks like a kid caught stealing lollypop, no plan B to turn things around. His body language don’t even inspire players and it trickle down to players performances on the bitch….. end result no confidence

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