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Highlights
- Aston Villa’s defensive set-up in big games has been a cause for concern early in the season.
- Pundit Jermaine Jenas can’t believe some of Villa’s defending, particularly the starting positions of Pau Torres, Diego Carlos, Lucas Digne and Ezri Konsa.
- Aston Villa will have time to regroup during the international break before resuming Premier League action against Crystal Palace.
Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has some serious problems to fix during the international break, and BBC pundit Jermaine Jenas is extremely worried by their defensive set-up.
What’s the latest news involving Aston Villa?
The Villans have endured a mixed start to life in 2023/24 and sit tenth in the Premier League table, having taken six points from twelve available under boss Emery so far, as per BBC Sport.
Of course on the positive side of things, Aston Villa will also compete in the Europa Conference League group stage this year and will participate in Group E of the tournament alongside AZ Alkmaar, Legia Warsaw and HSK Zrinjski after they successfully disposed of Scottish Premiership side Hibernian by an aggregate score of 8-0 in the play-off phase.
Nevertheless, one worrying trend of the Villans’ play this summer has been their risky high line deployed by Emery, which has resulted in the Midlands-based outfit conceding the joint-second most goals in the English top-flight alongside Luton Town.
On the opening day of the campaign, Aston Villa were thrashed 5-1 by Newcastle United in an encounter where Tyrone Mings was withdrawn due to an injury, as per Sky Sports. Pau Torres came into the side as his replacement and achieved a WhoScored match rating of just 6.37/10 as he struggled to make his presence felt in Aston Villa’s backline.
Last weekend, the Villans were on the end of a 3-0 defeat against Liverpool at Anfield and once again were cut through several times by their opposition, yielding a second consecutive heavy away loss that will undoubtedly be a concerning trend for Emery.
What has Jermaine Jenas said about Aston Villa’s defence?
Speaking on Match of the Day 2, cited by Birmingham Live, former Aston Villa midfielder Jenas was less than complimentary about his old side’s defending during their loss to Liverpool and vented his frustration at the Villans’ back four being so high up the pitch.
Jenas stated: “I think their game plan defensively today was quite worrying. First and foremost mistakes like these and inviting pressure at Anfield, you’re asking for trouble when you start playing like this, you’ve got to be much more incisive. There’s certain things in football that never change. If you’re going to play the high line you have to have pressure on the ball. It’s just that’s set in stone in football because otherwise, you have players like Trent (Alexander-Arnold) who is one of the best passers in in the league.
“When they do press high at the pitch, it’s like they’re forcing the ball to the best passer of the ball on the pitch. You’re supposed to get like Matip or someone like that on the ball. It’s too easy because Villa are playing a high line and Liverpool are just picking just when they want to play the ball over the top and this is how simple it is. I mean, he could not have believed his luck, Trent. He must have just looked there and gone ‘hang on, you’re really gonna give me this kind of time.’ You have to pressure him, authorise or dictate the game. Unai Emery’s got some work to do.”
What next for Aston Villa?
Aston Villa will be left to lick their wounds over the international break before returning to Premier League action against Crystal Palace on September 16th, as per Sky Sports.
According to UOL via Birmingham Live, Brazilian playmaker Phillipe Coutinho is closing in on a move to Qatari side Al Duhail and has travelled to the Gulf region to complete his exit from Villa Park.
Diego Carlos suffered a knock and was withdrawn in the defeat to Liverpool; however, Emery has confirmed that his injury is not significant.
Following an inconsistent start to 2023/24, Aston Villa will be keen to improve once the international break draws to a close and put together a run of results to set them up for the rest of the campaign.