Interview

When to pass it out, and when to play it long?

Unai Emery

Unai Emery’s media duties ahead of each Premier League game go something like this:

First, our new head coach spends some time with Arsenal Media. Then he faces the broadcast journalists - footage that you can see on Arsenal.com.

 

After that, Unai talks to newspaper reporters. And this week, those reporters asked him about his policy of playing the ball out from the back, and the goalkeeper’s role in that.

 

Here’s what Unai said:

 

“Goalkeepers can play like a player, to start short with the centre back or the right or left back. It is not compulsory to start each action that way. Maybe if the opposition is doing high pressing against us, then we need also to find another option and to play the ball long in the second action.

 

“We are training for each situation. I want in each moment to know what is our best action to do in the match. This is our creative style and idea. We need with security, with confidence, to build in each match and training session. We are in this process.

 

“We didn’t lose [against Manchester City] because of our personality, our idea, our style. We didn’t lose for that. We lost on other things, we can improve on other things, tactics, improve for our learning on the next match. But also, we are building our style because we think it’s the best way, to have the control on each match, to find the best way to win.

 

“It’s clear that when you lose, it’s a bad result. When you win, it’s a good result. For me, this is the resilience I am explaining. It makes me resilient, when you win, when you lose, it must be consistent, you must stay regulated, keep thinking positively every day. You need to take the positive things out of the game to build our identity.”