Suarez - How Emery got the best out of me

Denis Suarez is clearly a big fan of Unai Emery.

Our head coach signed the Spanish midfielder on loan from Barcelona B during his time at Sevilla, where they would both go on to win the Europa League in 2015.

 

Now that they have been reunited once more, Suarez is desperate to pick up where he left off under Emery.

 

“I think he made me a football player,” the 25-year-old told Arsenal Player. “When I joined Sevilla I was a prospect. I was coming off the back of a great season in the second division with Barcelona B, but it was a big step up to the elite level. He really helped me.

 

“He was really demanding and methodical and delved right down into the detail. He works really hard both on and off the pitch and dedicates a lot of time to his work, and I think that’s partly where his success stems from. 

“He’s worked his way up from Segunda B – nobody has given him anything for free. He’s got to where he is now through hard work and because he’s very good.

 

“He wants his team to press hard,” Suarez added. “He does a lot of work in training, not just tactically and with the ball, but also physically. He likes really dynamic players. He takes the tiniest details into account and does a lot of work around video analysis. He gives you hours and hours of video footage. In the end, the players realise that it’s good for them.

“There are similarities [between Emery as a coach now and then] but he has changed a bit because La Liga is very different to the Premier League. Perhaps we don’t focus so much on combination play as we did in Sevilla, but it’s a mix of combination football and counter-attacking. That’s the difference. I think he’s changed in order to adapt to the Premier League.”