“Times” reporter Matt Hughes recently wrote an article describing the changes that Arsenal’s new coach Emery brought to the team. Hughes said that compared to Wenger, Emery is more focused on hands-on, and he is also a workaholic.
In artistic terms, the Arsenal players replaced the expressionist paintings with graffiti filled with numbers. Emeri’s team is also often able to play pleasing football, and Wenger is the same, but the way they are implemented is very different.
Wenger’s teaching philosophy is to give players the freedom to express and let them develop and progress. Emery believes that if he is to take the helm, the process will be more rapid.
Emeri pays great attention to the hands-on teaching. Every training session is planned by him personally. The teachings of the players are often accurate to every minute of play. Emeri has taken care of all aspects of the player’s life, from their training schedule to diet, to their habit of restoring energy, but Emeri has also brought great changes.
When the players returned to the team in the summer, the first thing they noticed was the team’s new outdoor gym on the training ground. This is what Emeri asked, so that the gym and the ball training can be more seamlessly connected, and the players don’t have to spend ten minutes to go to the indoor gym. This also reflects Emery’s insistence that he hopes that all training sessions will have a certain rhythm and intensity.
At the same time, Arsenal’s training sessions are longer than ever, and players are also required to spend more time on the training ground. The theme of many trainings is the continuous movement that Emeri requires, pressing when there is no ball, and starting to switch when there is a ball. Arsenal also did a lot of training on counterattacks, as well as a system specifically designed to target opponents’ weaknesses.
Emery himself is a person who knows what he or she is, and who speaks and says. In addition to Arsenal’s away game, Emery is basically like living in a training ground. Emeri, 46, will arrive before 9:00 every day and will rarely go home before 9pm. Emeri’s son, who is still adolescent, still lives in Spain, feeling that Emery is married to his new job.
In the 12 hours from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm every day, Emery had at least two hours in class to improve his English. Every day, there are private teachers who come to the training ground, give Emery a two-hour class, and even when Arsenal plays the preseason in Singapore, these classes are also unstoppable. Now Emery feels more comfortable talking to the players, although he still has a few Spanish words when he meets with the technicians.
Compared to Wenger, Emeri is more willing to listen to the ideas of the technical staff. Calcedo had followed Emery in 6 clubs and was his confidant. But Arsenal’s former coaching staff, Boulder, also has a very important position. In addition, Emery has a very close cooperation with Arsenal’s performance director Dylan Burgess. Together they analyzed the players’ training data and the state of sleep and diet, which also played an important role in Emeri’s selection of the team.
Although Emery pays great attention to detail, he is less precise in time than Wenger. Wenger always carries a chronograph with him and always lives as accurate as his Swiss watch. Contrary to this, Emery believes how long it takes for the training class to be practiced, especially when preparing for the season. He will continue to practice with the players until they can complete the training perfectly, instead of setting a specific disbanding time. Therefore, the two days of the preseason are practiced at 10 am and 5 pm, respectively, and the arrangement is more slack, but the players are also required to stay longer.
Emeri’s daily schedule also makes him energetic in video analysis, which is an important part of his coaching philosophy. Emeri will spend several hours reviewing Arsenal’s training sessions, friendly matches, and watching the future opponents’ games with the staff. Emery will make video briefings with the players every day.
Compared to Wenger, Emery also has more one-on-one or group conversations. Many are pre-arranged. Wenger expresses very clearly that his door is always open to the players, and Emeri is more active in this matter, he will organize interviews with important players to discuss some specific matters.
Another weapon of Emery is to cheer up the video. This could be a movie clip or a clipped team video. He also reads literary works or fragments of biography, which usually describe how to move from defeat to glory. His goal is to send a message to the players, no matter how hard the task looks, ordinary people can often overcome very serious difficulties.
Although Emeri is very strict in training, he also has a relaxed side. In Singapore, Emery organized a team of players and coaches to have dinner together. In Seville, Emery also joined the ranks of tennis when the players were on holiday. Due to time constraints, Arsenal has not yet been organized, but such a friendship will definitely be there in the future.
In the end, Hughes wrote: “Arsenal players must have gotten used to Emery’s voice, because when he was at the club, they felt like their coach was everywhere.”