Arsenal: Unai Emery must not respect hierarchy too much

Unai Emery has stated that he delayed starting Lucas Torreira and Bernd Leno because of the prior hierarchy at Arsenal. He must not respect it too much.

When a new manager comes to a new club, it is important that he respects the players that are already at the club. Although a new manager wants to bring in his own players and his own style of play, he will still have to use some of the players that already there. It is important that he does not enter all guns and blazing and upset many of the players that he will then be working with.

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It is not something many of the Arsenal players have had to deal with in recent history. Arsene Wenger has obviously been at the club for 22 years. The same manager-player loyalties and relationships remain.

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But this season, that all changed. Wenger resigned in May and Unai Emery, a coach with no prior experience of the Premier League, took his place. Emery, though, is more aware than many other managers in this scenario when it comes to replacing the old with the new.

This week, in an interview with Marca, Emery was asked why he delayed starting Bernd Leno and Lucas Torreira. This was his response:

"“Because you have to respect hierarchy. Leno arrives, but Cech is doing well and you must respect that. Petr was first. The same thing was true with [Matteo] Guendouzi and Torreira, who arrived later. I gave him [Guendouzi] the chance first, which I was delighted about, but now he’s not playing as much and Lucas is.”"

Emery has been extremely aware in his man-management thus far. He has rotated cleverly, given players a fair crack to impress, and also, slowly, entrenched his ideas in the squad. But he must also not be overly respectful of the hierarchy, as he puts it.

As Arsenal continues to change, evolve and be further shaped and designed by Emery, it is critical that the Spaniard is not scared of making the difficult decisions. Yes, he must adapt to the players that he has inherited. And yes, he must be respectful of them as he will have to work with many of them for the foreseeable future. But he must also be willing to stick to his guns.

It is something that he has been willing to do. Aaron Ramsey was swiftly dropped from the number 10 position, with his play seeming awkward and uncomfortable. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang started just three matches at centre-forward before being shifted out to the left flank.

These are the type of decisions that Emery must continue to make. He must continue to tread the line between respect and resolve. The best managers can be steadfast and principled at some moments and adaptive and respectful at others. Emery has shown himself capable of doing precisely that. Let’s hope it continues.