In the Aston Villa Analysis meetings by Unai Emery: detailed, intensive and inspiring

Analysis sessions for Unai Emery are what hair dryers were for Sir Alex Ferguson.

Or what electricity was for Benjamin Franklin, gravity to Isaac Newton.

You have the idea. In short, Emery, 53, is known for his meticulous analysis. Every player talks about it and every person who has witnessed the many meetings describes their difference.

On Tuesday evening, the villa returns to the crime of crime against Club Brugge, after being in Belgium this season and delivering one of its worst performances under Emery. The analysis of what went wrong is an essential part of the preparations for the Last 16 Uncoating of the Champions League.

“Emery's attention to detail is the best thing I have ever seen,” says a very experienced employee who worked in several clubs and how any other person who was cited in this piece spoke The athlete Under the condition of anonymity to protect relationships.

It is known that the Spaniard holds up to 90 minutes of team meetings and even has two to three on the day of the game to drill the responsibility of the players into them. In addition to individual units meetings, a session focuses especially on set pieces. The players stay in a hotel in the night before home and away games in a hotel, regardless of when the kick-off is. You have a set schedule if you expect you to arrive when you travel there yourself and enable the time for every meeting.

For a variety of reasons, he is based on analysis sessions, not only to prepare for opponents or to explain the nuances of his system pushy. One player said Emery's intensive attitude to preparation was a shock and had to adapt.

“There were two meetings today,” said Morgan Rogers after Aston Villa's victory against Bayern Munich. “We are used to it. That's why we win games – we do everything. We know what the properties of every player are. “

The lengthy presentations of Emery are partly designed to test the concentration of the players, but overall there is a buy-in. Since Emery's arrival, recruits have to be considered psychologically robust in order to cope with the intensity of Emery.

“We don't have to do meetings because we are together all day,” Monchi, President of the football operations, told Movistar in November. “We meet for breakfast, for lunch, we live here, we are here all day, we practically spend 12 or 13 hours together.”

As a rule, Emery stops three meetings before the game in advance. The first one is to think about an earlier device that shows the players where they were good and the areas of improvement. The next meeting then enters the tendencies and properties of the opponent and conveys what solutions can contest to combat their strengths. In the meantime, Emery explains the responsibility and the most important functions of each player.

Finally, the last meeting is used as a motivational tool to trigger his squad for the match. It will be the closing message and use a personal page, inspire the players and remind you of how good you are and can.

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Emery's exhaustive methodology meant that early results were present after his appointment in October 2022 older players. The difference in preparation between him and his predecessor Steven Gerrard was great because the players and employees were now asked to enforce long meetings before the games.

Regardless of this, Emery recognized at the end of 2024 how important it is to reduce his intensive approach and to compensate for the player burnout. Emery tried to reduce the pressure on the players, to free additional days during the week and quote the importance of calm. He led individual conversations to the mood of the players.

At matchdays, Emery brings its own whiteboard, which he places in the changing room. Before the presentations, he will exceptionally write “rest” in capital letters on the whiteboard.

The dependence on the analysis has increased this season. Less time for training has led to more days being recovered inside, the analysis forms an increasing part of the schedule. The work on the field was often reduced to walkthroughs in which the players are stationed in the form in which villa is used in the next game. Emery held meetings in the gym, with players sitting on mats and fitness boxes.

The Villa Manager performs its analysis, which his six analysts do to prepare for games before comparing notes. He will often observe recordings of the upcoming opposition on the treadmill or a static bike.

Last season, a source joked how Emery would work after 8 p.m. on Fridays, which would get in the mood for his employees' weekend plans. On another occasion, a signing arrived in Bodymoor Heath late into the night to do paper stuff and was able to see Emery in the office in his office and look at his tactical board.

“He just drove like this,” said midfielder John McGinn after the 2-0 victory of the Champions League of Villa against Bologna in October. “I've never met someone like him. He said a few times that he was an OK soccer player, but he wishes that he had the determination and the work rate he had as a manager. Nobody can wonder what he puts in the effort – everything that comes to his back hard work. You feed on your leader. He is our leader and we eat. “

Emery has changed the way Villa analysts work this season. Instead of half of the analysis team who works on the upcoming game – three employees who concentrate on the next game, with the other three preparing – preparing for themselves – this semester – they all have to go to the next game, but separate the tasks.

For example, some of the analysts focus on goalkeeper analysis. Others then drill the deadball situations, which in turn insert themselves into the deputy coach Austin Macphees's own analyst Jose Rodriguez Calvo. The rest concentrates on the opposition and identifies how they press, team form and demonstrable assembly patterns.

Throughout the season there were cases in which every analyst was on a Sunday, the day after a game in Bodymoor Heath. This time is spent the relevant video clips to study the next day, just in time for an upcoming Champions League game like that against Club Brugge.

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The overall process tends to work like chain, with the film material being put together to Victor Manas, Emery's long -time analyst. Manas will then refine the analysis, add its observations and create an opposition report for the next 90-minute meeting. Together he and Emery watch every opponent at least five times before giving information to the players.

Emery will study footage wherever he is in Bodymoor and sometimes observes opponents while cycling or running. He uses his own software that can be quite limited compared to modern analytical programming that others use, even though it works for him.

Emery manas' clips comment on this software and puts notes about his analysis about how Villa can combat the system of an opponent. The presentation can look messy for the inexperienced eye, but the players understand what he wants. There are no other words about the presentations, only comments overlap.

The fact that he carries out his own analysis in addition to his six employees is an additional workload, but Emery is always hardworking to compare notes.

When he arrived, some sources believed that Emery potentially humor because he himself works a lot himself. However, they quickly realized that Emery preferred a second opinion of what he sees and often tests their observations. This includes who will predict them will be in the XI of the opposition. He tends to go to your room a few days before the games and initiate discussions.

Emery doubles its principles and working morality, when she is away from home on a bad form with today's downward track, with eight defeats in 10 games. It will be more diligent than ever, watch more clips and be more introspective when looking for solutions.

An outstanding part of his manager is how he can transfer his messages to players. It is a formula that has been built through the decades of coaching and has to be based on Villa's reservations in Bruges.

(Toptoto: Darren Staples/AFP via Getty Images)