Arsenal Vs Liverpool: The case against Unai Emery

Unai Emery failed to strike the right balance between his preferred tactics and practicality in Arsenal’s defeat to Liverpool. He got it wrong.

Unai Emery negated Arsenal’s strengths with his line-up and tactics against Liverpool. To be certain, no one really expected Arsenal to beat Liverpool. In spite of that, there is enough talent in the squad to make Liverpool sweat a lot more than they did.

Find the latest episode of the Pain in the Arsenal Podcast here — Dani Ceballos, the Best Player in the World

Unfortunately for Emery, the seeds of this defeat were planted on the team sheet. Lucas Torreira’s energy and determination were sorely missed in the midfield, while last year’s Player of the Season, Alexandre Lacazette, was also left on the bench.

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It is the latter decision that really cost Arsenal. Lacazette is the team’s most prolific scorer versus the top six, while his work rate and determination to press for the ball are unmatched by any other forward in the squad. This makes Unai Emery’s decision to drop him from the first XI all the more curious.

It afforded Liverpool the luxury of covering two forwards with four defenders because Arsenal didn’t get anyone else into the final third. Most importantly, Lacazette, playing in the middle of a front three, leaves Nicolas Pepe in his natural position on the right flank, where he can cut in on his preferred left foot. For all these reasons, Emery leaving the Frenchman on the bench made Liverpool’s job much easier than it should have been.

There were also problems in the structure of the midfield. Take the role of Dani Ceballos, who is an excellent pressure relief valve when playing the ball out from the back. After his star turn against Burnley, everyone raved about his ability to pop up, receive the ball and escape tight spaces. Obviously, Liverpool is a giant step up in quality, but it stands to reason that Ceballos would be given the same role that he thrived in the week before. Instead, Emery had him playing out on the right, where he was largely disconnected from the team. This left Granit Xhaka and Matteo Guendouzi passing backwards and sideways into Liverpool’s press all night long. It led to predictably disastrous results.

Speaking of passing sideways, can someone please tell Emery that playing the ball out from the back is suicide? That may be his preferred tactic, but he has to strike a better balance between preference and practicality, especially against teams like Liverpool.

At least mix it up a little bit. Where was the long diagonal ball over the top that David Luiz is famous for? That ball should have been a key component of Arsenal’s build-up, but it wasn’t. This is especially perplexing given the fact that Liverpool were scared to death of Pepe and their fullbacks were pushed so high up the pitch.

On the positive side, Arsenal showed a lot of grit for the first 40 minutes of the game and missed some very good opportunities to open up the scoring. Missed chances aside, the most frustrating aspect of this loss is that it feels like Emery could have given the side some better options to deal with Liverpool’s press. The strategic use of long, diagonal balls out of the back to Aubameyang, Lacazette or Pepe open up more space for the rest of the team to play the ball on the deck. And yet, it was never utilised.

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Newcastle and Burnley didn’t make Arsenal pay for being so predictable in their build-up play. Liverpool did. If Emery doesn’t add some wrinkles to his side’s play in possession, as well as selecting the best players in the right positions, the rest of the top six — and perhaps others further still — will too.

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