Sport
‘Lazy’ Aston Villa are in serious trouble
Unai Emery didn’t hang around after full time to applaud the Aston Villa fans who’d travelled to the Stadium of Light to see another dismal performance by their team on Sunday, quickly disappearing down the tunnel to mull over his thoughts. Some of those thoughts came out in the Spaniard’s post-match comments.
“We are not playing like I want,” said Emery after the 1-1 draw against 10-man Sunderland. “I am frustrated with how we played, how we are not feeling comfortable with our style. We were lazy sometimes defensively. For example, the way we conceded, we were lazy. When we are playing here, we have to fight in the duels and we were not fighting in all duels. I watched the goal we conceded and we were lazy.”
Usually one to defend his players, Emery had never criticised his team so strongly in the media before. It provided a window into the mind of the 53-year-old who seems increasingly concerned by what is unfolding in front of him. He knows Aston Villa have some deep-rooted problems he might not be able to solve.
Chief among them is the profile of Villa’s forward line. Leon Bailey, Jhon Duran, Jacon Ramsey, Marcus Rashford and Moussa Diaby have all departed the club over the last year or so, taking a lot of speed and directness with them. These qualities are critical for an Emery team
In their place have arrived players like Harvey Elliott and Jadon Sancho who operate in a very different way. Elliott and Sancho want plenty of touches of the ball. They are attackers who want to stand up and beat opponents rather than burst into open space behind them. This is a fundamental shift in attacking approach.
Across the pitch, stagnation has set in. Nine of the 11 players that started against Sunderland on Sunday were at Aston Villa before Emery’s appointment three years ago. While the club showed ambition to sign Marco Asensio and Rashford on loan in January, Villa have failed to meaningfully evolve their squad.
This has resulted in Aston Villa having the oldest squad in the Premier League. While so many of Villa’s rivals have young stars on an upward trajectory, Emery has a group of players who are sliding down the other side of the mountain. Villa have played like the league’s oldest team so far this season.
Monchi must shoulder some of the blame. The Villa sporting director failed to source the players Emery needed to continue pushing his team up the Premier League table, leaving some gaping holes in the squad – Aston Villa currently don’t have a recognised right-sided attacker.
Last season’s run to the quarter-finals of the Champions League where Aston Villa pushed eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain all the way hinted at the start of a new era for the Birmingham club. The hope was that Emery’s team would use this as a platform to achieve even more.
Instead, Aston Villa were hit by the reality of their PSR (Profit and Sustainability Rules) situation which limited the business they could do in the transfer market. The club had to wait until the end of the window to add any sort of depth, leading to a series of loan and bargain bin signings being made.
There is a general air of malaise around Villa Park. Emery is struggling for solutions and the fact of the matter might be that he lacks the tools required to point Aston Villa in the right direction again. The Spaniard has been left in a bad situation that is currently reflected in Villa’s continued wait for a win. There might be more days like Sunday at the Stadium of Light.
