How Emery evolves to remain a world-class manager

If you are regarded as one of the best managers in the world, how do you get better? It remains a preoccupation for those that achieve it. Unai Emery has competed in Europe for 18 consecutive seasons but only because he is prepared to keep learning.

“Football is changing and we must adapt quickly because it demands that you update every day,” Emery tells Sky Sports. “In every process, you must identify how football is changing and the direction is it changing. Update everything. Now, again, I am doing it.”

It must be difficult to change what has worked. When Pep Guardiola does it, he is accused of tinkering. Why not just leave it alone? Because football is ever evolving. Just when a coach thinks they have all the answers, the game changes the questions.

For Emery, it required a reset to really spark something new in him. That moment came after he was sacked by Arsenal, returning to Spain to reflect on his career to date. He was 48 and hugely respected. But he wanted more for himself – and from himself.

“I had a lot of key moments in my career but one of them was when I came back to Spain,” Emery admits. “I needed to perfect something in myself as a coach as well. I used the moment with Villarreal for myself to refresh a lot of things. I changed.”

He adds: “Arsenal had been a fantastic moment for me. But of course, as in all of my career, I tried to get better. I tried to learn, I tried to identify the things that I needed to update in myself and in my management. I needed to update a lot of things. And I did it.”

Imagine that. Emery had already risen from relative obscurity to enjoy some success with Valencia before winning the Europa League three times in a row with Sevilla. It had earned him opportunities at Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal. But he was self-aware.

He knew that while he delivered seven trophies in two seasons in Paris, there was disappointment at the club’s Champions League exits. In London, he was no failure, reaching another European final, but he heard the criticism and wanted to improve.

For all that came before, that time at Villarreal, during which he won the club’s first ever major trophy, was a learning experience. “Playing in Europe with young players and the challenge of developing them. And for myself too, practising different ways tactically.”

Such as? Emery leaned into positional play more than before, examining those aspects of the best sides that set them apart. But he borrowed from other teams too – even other sports. He refreshed his coaching staff, expanded it. He studied and reflected.

Speaking to Emery soon after coming to Villa and asking him which teams impressed him most in European football, he name-checked FC Andorra, playing in Spain’s second tier. Even the notably direct style of Jose Bordalas’ Getafe could deliver fresh insights.

Guillem Balague, in his book Rise of the Villans, reveals how, after Arsenal, it was a trip to watch Getafe that inspired Emery to reinforce the importance of a higher defensive line. He had worked on it at Lorca, his first job, but was persuaded to focus on it again.

At Villa, that high line is fundamental. This season, as in the previous two, they have caught their opponents offside more than any other Premier League team. It requires meticulous planning because Villa control without the ball rather than press recklessly.

In possession, meanwhile, the opener in the FA Cup win at Tottenham showed how the positional game can expose a zonal set up with movement and speed of passing. Spurs’ shape looked solid but two passes between the lines cut through them in just seconds.

But the ease with which Villa did that is rare. Opponents are increasingly wise to their tendency to pack the centre of the pitch and try to pass through, exploiting the ability of Morgan Rogers to make that move from out to in. New solutions are being sought.

Emery talks of “trying to add some tactical ideas” because the process never stops. The game does not stand still so neither can the game’s greatest coaches. The rise of man-to-man marking has been a particular challenge to positional play, requiring a response.

In a recent conversation, he referenced how Gian Piero Gasperini’s influence is being felt. “Football is becoming man-to-man all over the pitch.” The idea was used to great effect by Gasperini at Atalanta when winning the Europa League two seasons ago.

Regular Emery listeners will know that the word ‘demanding’ is one of the most used in his English vocabulary but that sums it up. “In this country, we must work hard every day to improve and develop different ways with the players. This is my challenge every day.”

He says: “The Premier League is the most demanding competition that I can face because the best coaches and the best players are at clubs of huge potential. You play against teams at the bottom and they have good coaches with their own tactical ideas.”

It must take it out of him, the long days, the incessant planning, watching games over and over. But he loves it. “The hours before a match, for me, are always very exciting. I enjoy preparing each game tactically, to be focused strongly. This is my every day.”

There is always something new to deal with and it means elite coaches must possess an odd blend of characteristics. There is a need to be curious and flexible, to embrace those new concepts that can provide an edge. But there is also a need for certainty.

Emery encountered such a moment early in the season when even some of the more fidgety Villa fans were wondering whether the team’s race had been run. Winless six games into the season, they were the last club in England’s top four divisions to score.

How did he handle that noise? “I did not listen to it. I focused on that moment,” he says. But he was not oblivious. “I was worried,” he admits. “It was a worry. I told the players. Because our emotion was so poor as well. We had some problems in the summer.”

He adds: “Until we completely closed the transfer window, until the last day, we did not know exactly the squad that we would finish with. But it is football. We started to improve. Progressively, we settled together. [Regained] our focus and our demands.

“The players responded to the demands, they committed to their performances. We needed more from them. We needed consistency to build the team as soon as possible after August. We got the consistency we needed and kept it. Until now, more or less.”

Villa have lost just one of their last 15 matches in all competitions, that defeat away to the leaders Arsenal last month. But ask him about the constant need to improve and it is his first thought. “The match at Arsenal was something to refresh in myself,” he says.

Not a blip, not just a team shorn of players through suspension, but a reason to examine what more is required. It sounds exhausting but Emery wants to be what he calls “protagonists” and this is what it demands. “That is our challenge. And we are doing it.”

He talks of wanting to “increase everything at the club” and having picked up more points than any other team over the past 17 games, it appears possible. There is an eight-point gap to Liverpool in fourth. Villa are favourites to win the Europa League.

“The objective progressively can change, even in our best expectation. Because our expectation was, at the beginning, to try again to be in the top 10. And then to try to get a top-seven position.” Emery doesn’t make it explicit but it is no longer his target.

“We achieved something more until now,” he acknowledges. “We are third. Of course, it is something amazing. At the beginning, we were not contenders to get this trophy. Now, we are in front of other teams who want to be in our position. So, enjoy the moment.”

Enjoy the moment. But never stop finding ways to improve.