Dragontao >> Пятница Июнь 1 - 09:55

There aren't many clubs who could have.

Looks like Courtois may be off from Chelsea. Discussions on a new contract have stopped.

Kesvick >> Пятница Июнь 1 - 14:17

@Dragontao, I think that buyout clauses MAY exist in Italy and South America: countries that allow entities to hold 50% of the player's contract.

Kesvick >> Пятница Июнь 1 - 14:55

Also, have I waxed lyrical stuff about Unai Emery yet? What does this forum think of him?

holt >> Пятница Июнь 1 - 17:32

Nguieh.Unsure how will he go about with his business,manage the defense and the attack.

Kesvick >> Суббота Июнь 2 - 14:21

The tl;dr version is that he's a younger Arsene Wenger with much more emphasis on drill than creative freedom.

Having looked into his time at PSG, it felt like he did a good job trying to manage the club; it was simply that for his methods to work, he required people to listen to him. It's a lot harder to do so when some of the key players in the squad the backing of the board.

His preferred formation is 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-2-1 (attacking triangle), but has been proven to be adaptable when required (4-3-3 with a defensive triangle at PSG being the most obvious case). His Valencia team, from what I could find, was focused on very fast transitions and slick teamplay (think Lucien Favre's Borussia Moenchengladbach and OGC Nice sides). His Sevilla team was built for counter-attaks, while his PSG side is only meant to attack and nothing else (but I don't really blame him for that).

If you believe the story that made its way around fan forums, he said that he will build the Arsenal team around Aaron Ramsey and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. This would imply that:

- Aaron Ramsey will play in central midfield with a role similar to how he plays for Wales: running from deep to capitalise on loose balls.
- Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan will be playing out wide.
- Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is our main forward. Depending on the formation used, Alexandre Lacazette will either start or play second-fiddle to him.
- Granit Xhaka will do much better this season; people know him for his long passes from deep. For whatever reason, Arsene Wenger did not use this trait of Xhaka's. I theoreticised that this meant that Xhaka was often put under unnecessary pressure because he wasn't being asked to play it long, instead choosing to look to play short passes. However, the way teams play nowadays, this meant that if he was not given enough time, he would very quickly run out of time and space to act, losing the ball and thus exposing us to transitions. This has at times meant that Mesut Ozil needed to come deep to play the ball, which ironically meant that at that stage of the game, there was no one sitting between the lines trying to play the ball in attack (at that stage, Alex Iwobi and Danny Welbeck stay out wide before cutting inside in the final third).

Beyond that, Unai Emery loves drilling, will focus on 'back-to-basics defending (Shkodran Mustafi and Granit Xhaka should prosper here) doesn't really like using his full-backs as overloading options, instead choosing to play them as inverted full-backs when they have the ball.

I am expecting a return to his Valencia days: a disciplined, well-drilled Arsenal that is able to press cohesively and work hard for the ball every second, and yet be capable of lightning-fast transitions.

holt >> Воскресенье Июнь 3 - 12:41

It will be Auba and Laca as strikers.Not sure about Ozil though,whether he will stay.

Defense needs a pep talk though.or a couple hundred of them.

Dragontao >> Воскресенье Июнь 3 - 12:59

Not sure Guardiola will be willing to talk to Arsenal's defence though. Even if he did, I'm not sure defence is his main focus.

Kesvick >> Воскресенье Июнь 3 - 17:52

Pep Guardiola doesn't do defence in the normal sense that people will know. His teams focus on pressing as a unit and keeping the ball away from the opponent in order for them to be unable to attack as a result. When it comes to defending counter-attacks, I think Guardiola's team commit fouls on purpose to stop play for them to recover.

From how his players have talked about his tactics, his attacking plan is extremely fluid and dependent on his players using their brains. Based on that, there isn't much to talk about beyond using full-backs to pull the opponent's fullbacks wide, allowing the attacking midfielders to attack the half-spaces.

Dragontao >> Воскресенье Июнь 3 - 19:58

Do you hear that sound - whoosh.

holt >> Понедельник Июнь 4 - 05:57

@Kesvick Maybe you could ask Zlatan and Eto'o on their views on Pep....

Kesvick >> Понедельник Июнь 4 - 07:43, Отредактирован Понедельник Июнь 4 - 07:50

The Zlatan v. Guardiola clash is well-known. Around this time, Pep saw the potential of putting some scrawny youngster called Lionel in the middle of the forward line, deployed as a false nine. Zlatan did not like that; Zlatan did Zlatan things and he was very quickly kicked out of Barca for that.

I am not sure about Eto'o and what he did. Could you enlighten me, holt? I will look up on the clash later.

holt >> Понедельник Июнь 4 - 10:27

You will get all the info from this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CYMYynhf4M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwmdqUu0uaQ

I beleive that Pep really humiliated Yaya Toure.

Kesvick >> Понедельник Июнь 4 - 11:39

I feel that the interview where Samuel Eto'o called Guardiola 'average as a player' showed why he was quickly showed the door. He was not a saint, and the statement felt very bitter. The team that Guardiola played for was one of the best Barcelona teams in history, until Pep became manager of Barcelona himself.

The way I see it, he considered people like Zlatan, Samuel and Yaya as problems that could poison his dressing room, so instead of dealing with the problem, he just kicked them out.

Could he have handled them better? Absolutely. At the same time, can you argue that in hindsight, he was wrong to do so?

holt >> Вторник Июнь 5 - 03:25, Отредактирован Вторник Июнь 5 - 03:26

But Yaya was illtreated.

Pep spoke to Yaya twice in Barca,after which he moved to Man City.When Pep came to Man City,they had a feud again.Barely played him in the Champions League squad.Only started in his final game.

AND THIS:

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/969364/Yaya-Toure-Pep-Guardiola-attack-Manchester-City-break-myth

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44364542

Kesvick >> Вторник Июнь 5 - 05:05

By the time he reached Manchester City, the bridge was already burnt. Besides, again, could you really say that Pep was wrong to do so, results-wise?

In other news, Fellaini to Arsenal. Oh God pls.make it happen.