Arsenal: Unai Emery overcompensating with Sokratis, David Luiz

Unai Emery looks set to stick with Sokratis and David Luiz all year, but is this just a classic case of the Arsenal manager overcompensating for himself?

All season long, I’ve been baffled by Unai Emery’s resilience to change up his centerback pairing. Arsenal have suffered at the feet of poor defenders for years, and while there have been upsides to Luiz, Sokratis looks to have left all his upside in last season. It’s not a good fit, there are other options available, and we shouldn’t have to wait until next year to try it.

Calum Chambers continues to go wanting. The only away clean sheet we’ve kept in about two years was the only time he started at centerback. But please don’t try to draw any correlation between the two, Emery. That would make too much sense.

And Rob Holding has himself a present and a future at the club, yet every single Premier League matchday, we’re treated to some Greek wrestling and a Brazilian foul artist. It’s not working.

There has to be an explanation for it, and I wonder if it doesn’t stem from Emery understanding his own deficiencies as a manager.

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I’ve been supremely annoyed by Emery’s unwillingness to make tough decisions. Ask him what he wants for dinner and he’d have to call a player counsel, appoint five captains of the decision making process and put it to a vote.

Emery is not a leader. He’s not a man manager. That’s why he’s handed out so many vice captaincies. And that, in my humble opinion, is why he continues to send Sokratis and David Luiz out there.

They’re both seasoned veterans, Luiz is outspoken and a leader, and Emery wants these two defenders to be the beacons that guide the team forward. Since he can’t do it himself.

On the one hand, props to the manager for recognizing his own faults and trying to deal with it, on the other hand, f*** that. Start your best players and man up let me tell you, Sokratis and Luiz are not the best players. Put together they’re even worse than they are in individuality.

Predicted

The club can’t move forward without the right personnel, and the more I see of Emery, the more I question if he is the right guy. We have a wealth of talent that is being woefully mismanaged, and you can’t see that anywhere better than at centerback.