Unai Emery is failing to turn Arsenal into Liverpool

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but Unai Emery is failing to turn Arsenal into Liverpool in the Premier League.

Unai Emery knows imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Liverpool should be flattered because Arsenal’s head coach is desperately trying to emulate the Reds’ playbook for success.

Sadly for the Gunners, those attempts are failing and undermining Arsenal’s quest to return to relevance. Emery appears totally unaware his squad lacks the tools Liverpool used to win the Champions League and become Manchester City’s toughest challengers in the Premier League.

The Emery bizarro world was Arsenal’s ugly reality during Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Tottenham Hotspur in the north London derby. It marked the second time in as many matches the Gunners played a top-six rival and failed to win after losing 3-1 to, of all teams, Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool at Anfield.

Arsenal couldn’t beat Spurs because Emery picked a workmanlike midfield and left his best creative talent on the bench. The Gunners couldn’t win because Emery instructed his team to press high in every area of the pitch, even though his defense lacks the pace to carry out such a risky strategy.

Emery wants Arsenal to be Liverpool mark II. He wants a front three as prolific as Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah.

The Spaniard wants an industrious midfield to win possession through counter-pressing and not have to rely on the mercurial brain of a No. 10.

Emery also demands a high defensive line to condense the pitch and stifle attacks at their source.

There’s just one problem, and it’s a big one: Emery doesn’t have the right players to put his dream blueprint into efficient practice.

He doesn’t have a defense athletic and aggressive in the way Liverpool’s unit is. The Reds can play a high line because of Virgil van Dijk’s core speed, the long-striding quickness of Joel Matip and the recovery pace of full-backs Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Emery has the mistake-prone David Luiz and plodding Sokratis Papastathopoulos in the middle. Meanwhile, neither Sead Kolasinac nor Ainsley Maitland-Niles is a natural defender out wide.

It’s why Spurs found it so easy to isolate and sprint past this static, stumbling group on the break. Striking on the counter worked for the opening goal when Heung-Min Son broke clear and teed up Erik Lamela, whose shot was barely kept out by Bernd Leno, leaving Christian Eriksen with a tap in:

Tottenham’s 4-4-2 shape regularly gave the visitors numbers to commit to the counter and also pinned Son and Harry Kane on Arsenal’s center-backs. The pair combined for Spurs’ second when Son was fouled in the box and Kane converted the penalty.

Kane and Son had profited from Arsenal’s reckless high press. Spurs responded by going direct and getting the ball forward quickly with long passes.

The simple approach had pedestrian Arsenal defenders creaking and lurching on the turn. They were no match for Tottenham’s pace.

Son had been felled by Granit Xhaka, so often the guilty party when the Gunners go into self-destruct mode:

Xhaka struggled as a member of a midfield trio chosen more for its graft than artistry. Lucas Torreira and Matteo Guendouzi, two committed scrappers, joined Xhaka in a functional engine room.

Emery left elegant Real Madrid loanee Dani Ceballos on the bench until the 63rd minute. He didn’t introduce the guile of Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who is now bound for Roma on loan, according to BBC Sport’s David Ornstein, until the 67th minute, and Emery decided to do without Mesut Ozil’s wizardry altogether.

Arsenal spent two decades being defined by technical quality in the middle on Arsene Wenger’s watch. Yet Emery appears determined to make fidelity to flair a thing of the past in his midfield, even though his team is ill-equipped to handle the change.

Emery’s determination to shape players to his tactics rather than let those tactics be shaped by personnel extends to the forward line.

He’s abandoned deploying a central striking duo in favor of a front three. It’s good news for club-record signing Nicolas Pepe, the winger who arrived from Lille this summer.

Relying on an attacking trio isn’t such good news for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. He has to move out wide to let Alexandre Lacazette operate through the middle.

Lacazette is the worker-bee willing to drop deep, forage for possession and create spaces and chances for others. In other words, he’s Emery’s Firmino equivalent.

The tribute to Liverpool’s roving center-forward worked well at times against Spurs:

https://twitter.com/StatmanDave/status/1168197794500435968

Lacazette scored just before the break, but Aubameyang had spent most of the first half as an ineffective wide man. Although he eventually equalized in the second half, it was telling Aubameyang’s goal came after Lacazette had been substituted and he’d been moved back though the middle.

Aubameyang is Arsenal’s best finisher, but his instincts are neutered on the flanks. He doesn’t have the same relentless range of movement as Mane or Salah, whose runs from wide areas define Liverpool’s fluidity up front.

Forcing Aubameyang out of his comfort zone is yet another example of Emery imposing a tactical blueprint Arsenal aren’t suited to carry out.

It’s why his Gunners rebuild is failing. Arsenal aren’t athletic and coordinated enough to press with Liverpool’s intensity and timing.

However, there are still enough pass-masters to continue the elaborate possession-based game Wenger loved. Ozil would thank Emery for respecting the past, and the Gunners would stand a better chance of finishing in the top four.

Emphasizing strengths and hiding weaknesses is the cornerstone of coaching in any sport. Arsenal’s head coach still has this golden rule backwards at the start of his second season in charge.

Emery’s Liverpool imitation is wasting the Gunners’ strengths and exposing their weaknesses.