Arsenal: The concerning Unai Emery whispers

This week, Alan Smith reported that he had heard whispers of Arsenal’s players not understanding Unai Emery’s instructions. If true, it is very concerning indeed.

Arsenal head coach Unai Emery is now in his second year in charge. He has churned over the squad drastically, began to build a team that resembles the way he wants to play, and moved the club on from the Arsene Wenger era. And yet, if you were to ask fans to list key elements of his tactical identity, the foundational tenets of the system he wants to implement, they would struggle to provide you with a decent answer.

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In essence, Emery has not yet established his identity at the club. It has been a gripe of many fans on social media, his willingness to adapt to the opposition almost seen as being over-accommodating, losing his own style and system in the process, and will undermine the overall progress of the team.

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And now former Arsenal striker and national reporter Alan Smith has had his say on the apparently muddled tactics of Emery. Writing in the London Evening Standard, Smith compared England’s midfield troubles and confused structure in a 4-3-3 system to that of the Gunners. And there was a key paragraph in the heart of the piece. This was it:

"“Maybe it [Arsenal’s confused tactics and defensive struggles] is down to a lack of understanding.  I have heard whispers, after all, that some of the players find their manager’s instructions confusing, that they do not really know what he wants them to do. If so, that does not bode well. A clarity of purpose is essential.”"

Now, I have no idea if those whispers are true, but Smith is a reputable reporter who will certainly have links at the club and I have little reason to doubt his rather substantial claim — he must be confident in his own reporting to say it in the first place. But I do know this: if the players are struggling to understand the instructions that Emery is giving them, that is extremely concerning for the future prospects of the team.

As Liverpool and Manchester City are proving at present, being a cohesive, well-drilled, innately executing unit is critical to being a relentlessly triumphant team. Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola have implemented systems that every single player intuitively knows. That means that each can execute their particular role without any moment of hesitation, and every half-second of delay is critically important.

It would be fair to argue that Arsenal do not always look like the most cohesive team. Sometimes, their defending lacks structure and smart organisation. The midfield does get dragged away from central areas, especially against the counter-attack, as proven in the North London Derby, the match Smith is discussing. And the high press that Emery is very keen to use can look a little slow and unhinged, opposing teams often playing through the traps with relative ease.

It remains to be seen just how well the Arsenal players are understanding Emery and his instruction. But in the modern game, in which the margin for error is infintessimal and executing across every blade of grass and in every tenth of a second, collective understanding is vital. If true, then, Smith’s reporting is rather concerning indeed.