Unhappy Unai Emery calls out Aston Villa stars after damaging Monaco defeat
Neil Moxley
4 – 5 minutes
Aston Villa spurned the chance to wrap up qualification into the last 16 of the Champions League as they were beaten 1-0 by Monaco after a thoroughly underwhelming display
Unai Emery
Unai Emery was unhappy after watching Aston Villa lose to Monaco (
Image: TNT Sports)
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21:52, 21 Jan 2025
Unai Emery questioned the mentality of his Aston Villa players after a night to forget in Monaco.
Villa’s boss was unhappy with several members of his squad, saying they ‘didn’t follow the plan’ after an eighth-minute Wilfried Singo goal earned the hosts a 1-0 win. Emery’s side produced a flat display, and when asked what his side lacked in the Stade Louis II, he twice pointed to his head.
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Asked as to the reason why Villa lost, he said: “I could be here for two days, explaining it. It’s difficult in one minute. My first point of view is that we played for 70 minutes like I want.
“I am trying to build a team with a strong mentality like I want. We want it. And we need it. We are going in a direction with the players we have – but some are not following the plan.
“We need to get the team as strong as possible. I’m very happy with Emi Buendia. We needed him. He played fantastic.
“Morgan Rogers was a little bit sick. We have a lot of players playing matches in a few days. Boubacar Kamara, Youri Tielemans, Tyrone Mings. They played doing everything we were planning.
“We have some players injured. We lost the opportunity to be in the top eight, and this was the key to get it.”
Emery also flagged the issue he has playing strikers Ollie Watkins and Jhon Duran as a twin spearhead. He called it ‘his challenge’ in the pre-match build-up after West Ham had made a package worth £57m for the young Colombian forward Duran.
Wilfried Singo scored the winner for Monaco (
Image:
Pascal Della Zuana /Icon Sport via Getty Images)
What he saw last night didn’t impress him – although he was happy to accept responsibility for it. He said: “It was my mistake.
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“The last 20-25 minutes when we were playing with two strikers. We lost it and we were out of position. We weren’t threatening them like we were in the first 70 minutes.
“We have two good strikers. Playing together we have to have the same structure. It’s my challenge to get those players on the field, offensively and defensively. Both are very good players. But it didn’t work well.”
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