Unai Emery: We Controlled The Match, But We Must Defend Long Balls Better

By The Editor
on 2nd September 2018

Unai Emery once again highlights area for improvement…

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Arsenal boss Unai Emery believes that although we controlled the match against Cardiff, he admits that we must defend balls into our box better, Sky Sports reports.

We conceded two silly goals against the newly promoted side, a team who were yet to find the net in their opening three games.

Both goals were as a result of balls being pumped into our box, and Emery wants to cut the supply line for those types of scenarios.

Following our win against West Ham United last week, the Spaniard identified the like of balance between our defending and attacking as an area of weakness.

We were often caught with both our full-backs high-up, leaving huge spaces for the counter-attack. We certainly improved in that area against Neil Warnock’s side, but it seems Emery has identified a new issue.

“I enjoy winning, but in the 90 minutes the reaction of the team is very important when we concede two goals,” the boss told Sky Sports after the game.

“We controlled the match, not the whole game but maybe 70 per cent of it, with our control of possession and positioning on the pitch.

“But we need to find the best way of dealing with the opposition when they like the long ball and put it in our box, we need to keep working to improve on that.”

Since we’re intent on pressing high up the pitch so squeeze the opponent, we should expect more teams to go direct in an attempt to catch out our high line.

It’s refreshing too to see that in the past two matches – despite picking up six points – Emery has identified areas for improvement and they mirror exactly what we see happening on the pitch.

Check out his interview in the video below.