Unai Emery was in reflective mood after our Emirates FA Cup campaign came to an end with a 3-1 defeat against Manchester United.
Our head coach discussed our injury situation, where it went wrong on Friday and the balance of our team in his post-match press conference - and you can read every word below.
on where it went wrong…
Good evening. I’m happy because I think our work is good, but the result is bad. Today it’s the result and the injuries. They don’t help us to be in the match, maybe when the result’s 1-2. In this moment we had the possibility to grow and to win, but these injuries - especially the one to Koscielny - didn’t help us because our rhythm went down. Also, we needed to change different players to play at centre back. They were very clinical today and in the moments when we attacked, we got into the box but couldn’t produce the last action to score. We deserved more but we played against Manchester United who are in their best moment of the season, and they have a lot of players to make the difference. Rashford and Martial came on as well.
on how bad the injury situation is now…
I think they weren’t big injuries for Sokratis [his ankle]. Maybe Laurent Koscielny is going to hospital to [analyse] what injury he has. Maybe he’s broken [his cheek or jaw] but I hope not.
on if team balance needs remedying…
Yes, but today for example we worked to stop their counter-attack. They have very big players to do the transitions and they gave us problems with that. We worked well, the second goal was in the transition, but the first was [due to] our positioning. In the second half, we took some risks and that’s what we needed to do. They scored [a third]. We need to keep improving. I think the matches against West Ham United and Chelsea we played and worked well defensively. Today was more difficult to stop their transition. We need to work on attacking [too] because we wanted to win. Our idea was to go in with a good balance. I think we have a good balance in a lot of moments but they have big players with big qualities who can make the difference.
on how he can fix it…
Working. I know the way is working. Also today, we had two injuries that changed ur possibility to take more balance.
on why Ozil didn’t start…
He played. I can play other players [too].
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