Following Thursday’s dismal display at Rennes, we ask the most burning questions for the manager.
1. Why did Mkhitaryan play at right-back?
One of the weirdest decisions we’ve seen from Emery came this week when he thought it’d be a good idea to play the Armenian at right-back even though he has absolutely no experience or ability. It would’ve been wiser to sub Ainsley Maitland-Niles or Kolasinac on or play Xhaka or Torreira if Emery didn’t want to use a sub.
Get a RB on fs what ya doing, ruining Mkhitaryan’s confidence— Chris 🇮🇪 (@SwissItXhaka) March 7, 2019
2. Will we ever see Ozil and Ramsey on the pitch at the same time again?
The duo is arguably the two best players at the club and Emery never uses them together. He might have his tactical reasons but the link up play that the two create between themselves is phenomenal and it’d be nice to see it at least one more time before the Welshman leaves this summer.
3. Who will replace Sokratis in the return leg?
It’s most likely that Mustafi will be called upon at the heart of the defence, but after yet another abysmal performance today, it’s really difficult to be confident in a defence where the German features. Another option would be Greek youngster Konstantinos Mavroponos, who featured quite a lot at the end of last season, but he was not included in the Europa League squad for some reason.
4. Why is the team so unstable?
Of course, one might say we would’ve won the game comfortably today had Sokratis not received that harsh second yellow, but we lost and in the end that’s all that matters. What’s especially worrying is how we managed to turn from a team with lots and lots of confidence who are playing well to a team that is extremely shaky in defence and has a striker who is constantly sitting in an offside position and not willing to pass to his teammates.
5. Will Denis Suarez ever get a start?
After each match we ask ourselves the same question over and over again. Why doesn’t Suarez feature in the starting XI? The answer is probably that Emery doesn’t think he’s good enough at the moment. But in that case another question arises – why did we even sign him?