Unai Emery knows better than most the stifling pressure that comes with managing some of Europe’s biggest clubs, so the Aston Villa boss knows all too well 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 the Champions League finals three times in the past 15 years, have become the definition of dysfunction. Both clubs have made a habit of discrediting some of the most respected coaches in football before paying their salaries, hiring another big name and repeating the process. But when a team fails, it’s ultimately the coach. Either they control the team and how it performs or they don’t. Emery does that at Villa, but neither Pochettino nor Ten Hag succeed in fulfilling their role.
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When results and performances do not meet expectations at top clubs, coaches can – and do – find plenty of mitigating factors and excuses to justify failure to meet expectations. This could be due to injuries, poor recruiting, or bad luck in refereeing decisions. In the case of Chelsea, Pochettino could argue they have too many new players trying to settle in – he even called for more signings in January after Sunday’s 2-0 defeat to Everton – while Ten Hag could suggest United’s squad is overburdened. By deficiency. Players who have been there for a very long time.
Emery endured the coach’s nightmare of losing control of his position at both Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal, suffering each time from a combination of unsatisfactory results and an inability to successfully deal with prominent players. But the four-time Europa League winner is now enjoying an exciting renaissance at Villa. The 52-year-old may have learned from his traumatic experience at Arsenal, where he lasted 18 months, and Villa are now reaping the rewards. But as James Ollie’s report on Emery’s time at the Emirates Stadium highlighted, it was a failure to communicate properly with players and staff, tactical confusion and an inability to choose a stable team that precipitated his departure in November 2019.
Both Pochettino and Ten Hag are making similar mistakes at Chelsea and United at the moment. That’s bad enough for their job prospects, but what makes the situation worse for both is that Emery has also moved Villa from mid-table to the top four in the space of 12 months. The Spanish coach arguably did so with a less competent squad, and certainly with fewer resources, and his success shines a harsh light on the failures of his counterparts at Stamford Bridge and Old Trafford.
What Emery is achieving at Villa is an example of how a coach can take control of a team and turn their fortunes around in a positive way. The opposite is what happens at Chelsea and United. Great coaches simply find a way to overcome the obstacles that get in their way. Emery is doing so at Villa with the same team that was heading towards relegation last year under Steven Gerrard, but United and Chelsea are swinging from one crisis to another because their coaches are creating problems for themselves in already difficult circumstances.
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Chelsea lost 2-1 to United last week on a night when Pochettino chose out-of-form left-back Mark Cucurella on the other side of the defence. This poor selection led to United dominating this flank through Alejandro Garnacho until Cucurella was withdrawn at half-time. Likewise, Ten Hag selected right-footed central defender Victor Lindelöf at left-back in the 3-0 derby win against Manchester City earlier this season, despite having specialist left-back Sergio Reguilón available and on the bench. With both Cucurella and Lindelof, the coaches made an inexplicable selection decision that backfired, while at the same time eroding the players’ trust in their coach.
They may have been just minor issues, but both Pochettino and Ten Hag have made other selection errors, each creating a sense of confusion and doubt. They have shown too much faith in Nicholas Jackson and Anthony Martial, neither of whom are willing to part with the error-prone goalkeeper, and both of whom continue to fail to solve the defensive issues that have seen each side lose seven of their 16 Premier League matches. away this season.
For two coaches with such high-level experience, both domestically and in the Champions League, Pochettino and Ten Hag have been unable to instil the basic principles of good defense and organization into their teams. So, while players at both clubs can be blamed for poor performances, it ultimately comes down to the coach.
The coach is the one who chooses the team, devises the tactics, works with the players on the training field and is supposed to motivate and cajole them. Sir Alex Ferguson ticked those boxes as he led United to the title in his final season with the club in 2012-13. The following season, with the same group of players, David Moyes was sacked after 10 months in charge as United trailed in seventh place. One manager did everything right, the other did almost everything wrong, but that’s the way it is with coaches. Emery has done the trick in reverse by inspiring Gerrard’s failed players in Villa’s title race.
So, for all the mitigating factors, a team is usually only as effective as the coach responsible for winning, which is why Pochettino and Ten Hag have failed.
