Emery exposing extent of Ten Hag and Pochettino’s failings

Unai Emery knows better than most the suffocating pressure that comes with managing some of Europe's biggest clubs, so the Aston Villa manager will know first-hand what Mauricio Pochettino and Erik ten Hag endure at Chelsea and Manchester United respectively.

Two of the Premier League's most successful clubs, who have each reached three Champions League finals in the last 15 years, have become the very definition of dysfunction. Both clubs have made a habit of tarnishing the reputations of some of football's most respected coaches before paying them off, hiring another big name and repeating the process. But when a team fails, it's ultimately because of the coach. They either have a feel for the team and its performance or they don't. Emery does this at Villa, but neither Pochettino nor Ten Hag succeed in their roles.

– Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (US)

When results and performances fail to meet the expectations of big clubs, coaches can – and do – find many extenuating circumstances and excuses to justify their failure to meet expectations. It could be injuries, poor recruitment, bad luck in refereeing decisions. In Chelsea's case, Pochettino could argue there are too many new players trying to settle in – he even called for more signings in January after Sunday's 2-0 defeat at Everton – while Ten Hag could point out that his United squad is overloaded with inadequate players. players who have been there too long.

Emery endured the managerial nightmare of losing control of his position at Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal, each time suffering a combination of unsatisfactory results and an inability to successfully manage top players. But the four-time Europa League winner is now enjoying an exciting renaissance at Villa. Perhaps the 52-year-old has learned from his bruising experience at Arsenal, where he spent 18 months, and Villa are now reaping the rewards. But as James Olley's report on Emery's time at the Emirates highlights, it was a failure to communicate properly with players and staff, tactical confusion and an inability to choose a stable team that combined to accelerate his departure in November 2019.

Pochettino and Ten Hag are both making similar mistakes at Chelsea and United at the moment. That's bad enough for their job prospects, but what makes it worse for both is that Emery also took Villa out of the middle rankings and also moved into the top four in space of 12 months. The Spanish manager arguably did so with an inferior squad, and certainly with fewer resources, and his success highlights the failures of his counterparts at Stamford Bridge and Old Trafford.

What Emery is achieving at Villa is an example of how a manager can master a team and turn its fortunes around in a positive way. The opposite is happening at Chelsea and United. The best coaches simply find a way to overcome the obstacles that stand in their way. Emery is doing this at Villa with largely the same team that was heading for relegation last year under Steven Gerrard, but United and Chelsea are lurching from one crisis to the next because their respective managers are causing problems in already difficult circumstances.

play

Why Aston Villa can 'dare to dream' in the Premier League title race

James Olley explains how far Aston Villa can go in the Premier League following their 1-0 win over Arsenal.

Chelsea lost 2-1 at United last week on a night when Pochettino selected out-of-form left-back Marc Cucurella on the other side of defence. This poor selection led to United dominating this flank through Alejandro Garnacho until Cucurella was taken off at half-time. Similarly, Ten Hag selected right-footed centre-back Victor Lindelöf at left-back in the 3-0 derby defeat to Manchester City earlier this season, although specialist left-back Sergio Reguilón is fit and on target. the substitutes' bench. With Cucurella and Lindelof, the coaches made an inexplicable selection decision that backfired and eroded the players' trust in their coach.

They may have just been small issues, but Pochettino and Ten Hag have made other selection errors and each one creates a sense of confusion and doubt. They've shown too much faith in Nicolas Jackson and Anthony Martial, neither of them have been willing to give up their own error-prone goalkeeper and they still can't fix the defensive issues that led to each team losing seven of their 16 Premier League matches. far this season.

For two coaches with such experience at the highest level, both domestically and in the Champions League, Pochettino and Ten Hag have failed to instill the basic principles of good defense and organization in their teams. So while players at both clubs can rightly be blamed for their underperformance, ultimately that comes down to the manager.

It is the coach who selects the team, develops tactics, works with the players on the training ground and is supposed to motivate and cajole them. Sir Alex Ferguson ticked those boxes while guiding United to the title in his final season at the club in 2012-13. The following season, with the same group of players, David Moyes was fired after 10 months in charge because United were seventh. One manager did everything right, the other did almost everything wrong, but that's how it works with coaches. Emery did the trick in reverse by inspiring Gerrard's faltering players into Villa's title race.

So, despite all the mitigating factors, a team is usually only as good as the coach tasked with making it win, and that's why Pochettino and Ten Hag fail.