The Unai Emery Thread | Page 70 | Vital Football

The Unai Emery Thread

Xchurch Villa said:
Now, now Dave, how can you criticise somebody that brought in Kamara? Altogether- thank-you Stevie.
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I am not going to be a revisionist about Gerrard's time here, he and Garde are duking it out for the worst manager in my 25 years of supporting Villa.

With that said I do wonder how much of the recent signings like DC and Kamara and even Emery were down to Gerrard putting us on the map? Or is it simply because the EPL really is the super league?

Kamara is truly a difference-maker, midfielders like him do not grow on trees. You add in Pau Torres and a finisher and this is a team that actually might worry the European places.
 
Whatever Emery is saying to the players it's working. Making me have to be more careful with my words, can't slate Olsen so much anymore.

Took square pegs and is fitting them into round holes. That's a trick.
 
Great result Sunday, but we are far from the finished article. The premise (from what I saw) was making us hard to beat - which is exactly what Steve Bruce and Steven Gerrard did when they first arrived. Four games (three against the Sky 6) and 9 points - absolutely bloody fantastic. The proof of our resurgence will be against the so called lesser teams and getting results that we all believe we should be getting.

I've seen enough to be optimistic, but we have to sweep up the vast majority of points against the West Ham's, Crystal Palace's, Leicester's and Wolves' for us to challenge the top end of the table. Wednesday will be another key milestone against a team that are scrapping in the relegation zone. We must pick up maximum points, break down a team that will be coming to Villa Park for a point before I truly believe the Unai revolution has arrived. 21 games to go and my target would be 2ppg average (or damned close) for the rest of the season which is 60+pts. While that is a high bar, it is exactly the kind of target we should be setting to judge Emery by, not a couple of (very) good results early into the regime.
 
Villan57 said:
I can understand him but I'm English and I can piece together the word and think oh yes that's what he means but imagine not being a native speaker like many of out players
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Every PL club training session, classroom session and even dressing room will be packed with professional interpreters for exactly this reason. A year's salary for an interpreter is a drop in the ocean for a PL club.
 
"Merd" said:
Great result Sunday, but we are far from the finished article. The premise (from what I saw) was making us hard to beat - which is exactly what Steve Bruce and Steven Gerrard did when they first arrived. Four games (three against the Sky 6) and 9 points - absolutely bloody fantastic. The proof of our resurgence will be against the so called lesser teams and getting results that we all believe we should be getting.

I've seen enough to be optimistic, but we have to sweep up the vast majority of points against the West Ham's, Crystal Palace's, Leicester's and Wolves' for us to challenge the top end of the table. Wednesday will be another key milestone against a team that are scrapping in the relegation zone. We must pick up maximum points, break down a team that will be coming to Villa Park for a point before I truly believe the Unai revolution has arrived. 21 games to go and my target would be 2ppg average (or damned close) for the rest of the season which is 60+pts. While that is a high bar, it is exactly the kind of target we should be setting to judge Emery by, not a couple of (very) good results early into the regime.
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Yes. Looking forward to see if we're capable of opening up and blowing away some of the teams around us and below.
 
CDX_EIRE said:
I am not going to be a revisionist about Gerrard's time here, he and Garde are duking it out for the worst manager in my 25 years of supporting Villa.

With that said I do wonder how much of the recent signings like DC and Kamara and even Emery were down to Gerrard putting us on the map? Or is it simply because the EPL really is the super league?

Kamara is truly a difference-maker, midfielders like him do not grow on trees. You add in Pau Torres and a finisher and this is a team that actually might worry the European places.
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I don’t think they gave a toss about Gerrard and certainly he did not put us on the map. These players want to play in the PL and they want the mega wages which we can now afford. I’m sure speaking with Gerrard during the transfer process was more helpful than if Deano was in charge, but unfortunately I think that’s more of a Smith factor than a Gerrard factor and I’m sure Emery has greater pulling power as he’s actually proven to be a competent and even a successful manager across Europe in recent years.
 
Villan57 said:
I can understand him but I'm English and I can piece together the word and think oh yes that's what he means but imagine not being a native speaker like many of out players
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Well he speaks French so Digne is covered. He can speak Spanish to Martinez, Buendia and the Brazilians Portuguese being similar. The only real problem he's got is Mcginn.
 
Hifriedelity said:
Well he speaks French so Digne is covered. He can speak Spanish to Martinez, Buendia and the Brazilians Portuguese being similar. The only real problem he's got is Mcginn.
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Don't forget Kamara. He is French speaking.
My Portuguese son in law would feel very aggrieved at you comparing Spanish to Portuguese though 😜.
 
"Merd" said:
Great result Sunday, but we are far from the finished article. The premise (from what I saw) was making us hard to beat - which is exactly what Steve Bruce and Steven Gerrard did when they first arrived. Four games (three against the Sky 6) and 9 points - absolutely bloody fantastic. The proof of our resurgence will be against the so called lesser teams and getting results that we all believe we should be getting.

I've seen enough to be optimistic, but we have to sweep up the vast majority of points against the West Ham's, Crystal Palace's, Leicester's and Wolves' for us to challenge the top end of the table. Wednesday will be another key milestone against a team that are scrapping in the relegation zone. We must pick up maximum points, break down a team that will be coming to Villa Park for a point before I truly believe the Unai revolution has arrived. 21 games to go and my target would be 2ppg average (or damned close) for the rest of the season which is 60+pts. While that is a high bar, it is exactly the kind of target we should be setting to judge Emery by, not a couple of (very) good results early into the regime.
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Fully agree but I think 1.5ppg or 50+ points is a more reasonable benchmark. He's won almost 50% of the points we have and he's only had 25% of the games. So contextually asking him to get 2ppg in the final 21 is a bit too high IMO. Gerrard blew half of the "easy" games already.

This isn't a team built to break teams down so it'll be really interesting to see how he approaches it. I also won't be judging him too much on the Wolves game, IMO its the trickiest of the next 4 league games. How he does overall against Wolves, Leeds, Southampton and Leicester will be a big indication of where we go. 8-10 points is what I'd be hoping for.
 
CDX_EIRE said:
Fully agree but I think 1.5ppg or 50+ points is a more reasonable benchmark. He's won almost 50% of the points we have and he's only had 25% of the games. So contextually asking him to get 2ppg in the final 21 is a bit too high IMO. Gerrard blew half of the "easy" games already.

This isn't a team built to break teams down so it'll be really interesting to see how he approaches it. I also won't be judging him too much on the Wolves game, IMO its the trickiest of the next 4 league games. How he does overall against Wolves, Leeds, Southampton and Leicester will be a big indication of where we go. 8-10 points is what I'd be hoping for.
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Think you are probably being more realistic about our final points total CDX, but 60pts would be a remarkable achievement given our paltry start to the season and a glass ceiling we haven’t broken since the MON years. I’m aware that it won’t be plain sailing but it would blow my mind and put us on a fast track to greater things and attract better players - it should provide European football as well.

In the time worn saying of taking one game at a time, I am definitely “reaching” with this target. Is it achievable? We’ll just have to watch this space, but having watched other teams above us in the league, I don’t see why not. Keep winning and it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. I ache for success, as I’m sure we all do, and I’m calling 60 points as the promised land and something clear to build upon. Anything under 55 would demoralise me :cry:.

COYVB :utv:
 
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