Arsenal: A good team, poorly coached, playing badly

Arsenal are in a poor run of form, despite scoring five goals at Anfield on Wednesday night. To summarise their season thus far, they are a good team, being poorly coached, playing badly, and that is on Unai Emery.

From a detailed perspective, it is quite difficult to describe how one team is well-coached and another is poorly coached. But if you take a step back and just watch a few games, the cohesive ones very quickly become distinct from the disharmonious ones, and that is the symptomatic difference between coaching quality.

Find the latest episode of the Pain in the Arsenal Podcast here — The Granit Xhaka One

Wednesday night’s 5-5 draw between Liverpool and Arsenal was the perfect illustration of a well-coached team playing a poorly coached one. You do not need me to tell you which was which.

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Jurgen Klopp is a tremendous manager. There are many reasons for this, but perhaps the most influential is the instruction that he provides his players, so that when they take to the pitch, they know precisely what they are being asked to do in each and every situation. Liverpool’s slick movement, cohesive high press and quick combination play is not just because they have capable players. They are extremely well-drilled. They practise these patterns, over and over again.

Unai Emery, on the other hand, has not been able to install the same well-connected and effective plan. Arsenal look like a collection of good players who have not been taught how to play in a complementary manner with one another. They are not a team.

And the underlying reason for this is from one of three possibilities:

• Unai Emery’s plan is a bad one
• Unai Emery’s plan is a good one badly communicated
• Unai Emery’s plan is poorly executed
• Unai Emery’s plan is nonexistent

As you can see, only one of these possibilities are not due to Emery’s poor coaching, that the players are not capable of executing what he wants them to do — even then, some blame still lies at Emery’s doortstep, as he  should be able to tailor his plan to the players he has, recognising their specific skill sets and limitations. Asking a player to do more than they are capable of is poor coaching.

Liverpool, in contrast, have a very clear identity, a specific system that they use in almost in every match. And when they adapt it for certain matches and opposition, it is only done marginally, woth specific roles changed, still keeping the basic tenets of the overall approach. Klopp brilliantly drills his players, such that they inherently understand what he wants them to do. This allows them to play on instinct, at speed and without hesitation and doubt.

Arsenal, on the other hand, are often confused, ponderous, waiting for individual imagination in every circumstance. They have no directed plan to break out of the high press, their goals come from freak turnovers and moments of inspiration, usually thanks to their two elite strikers, and the overall structure of the team is easily dismantled by two or three quick passes by the opposition.

All in all, then, Arsenal are a good team, that is poorly coached and playing badly. And at the end of it all, that is the responsibility of Emery.