Aston Villa boss has given slightly contrast response on how Aston Villa disappointing opener and his star’s latest absence.
The concern of Aston Villa fans on their team following the mass star exodus came to reality yesterday at the Premier League opener. Unai Emery’s men were without their key men who are expected to leave this summer, Ollie Watkins and Emiliano Martinez, albeit with different reason, and had a woeful display in AMEX stadium and were well beaten 4-0 by Brighton.
Villa boss seems aware of his team’s hapless form and did not blame on his team, which is currently on the rebuilding phase. The Lions practically played without a frontman as Emiliano Buendia was fielded as a number nine. Then Joao Gomes’ red card worsened the situation as they conceded four goals in the first half. Villa only had seven shots compared to the host who could produce 21. What was even worse, none of Villa’s seven shots was on target.
Nevertheless, Emery responded with positive tone focusing on the players’ commitment to play for despite their heavy loss, as reported in Sky Sports.
“The players that are here, they showed it, their commitment and it’s really fantastic and this is the way. Of course losing, but this is the way.”
The Spaniard appears to be quite confident that this defeat would not break his team. He remains certain that they could bounce back as Villa have experienced it before.
“We know, we had it before here. We had it in different moments. In four years we had it maybe five times in different circumstances.
“But we are going forward, moving always forward. My responsibility is to try to analyse, to find solutions and for the transfer window we have 10 days to find solutions, and we have then of course a way to find solutions with the players we have and we are doing [that].
“We did a fantastic match against PSG in the only official match we played, and today the first 10-15 minutes and the second half how we responded through our commitment, through our keeping up our focus and motivation, this is the best response I can find today. And then try to continue to find solution tactically and find solution with some needs in the squad. We always recover and came back from situations like that and I’m confident we will now.”
Emery’s tone, on the contrary, sounded different when he was inquired on the absence of their frontman Ollie Watkins. The 30-year old forward has been linked to a move to Saudi Pro League side, Al Hilal. He has been offered a contract extension but has not given his final answer yet. Yet, his being unavailable in the squad is probably hurting the fans and probably his own boss, even more.
When the press asked Emery specifically on Watkins, he simply responded flatly.
“Ask him. I only can answer it by silence.”
Such clearly hints how Emery is disappointed with Watkins. He and the club does not want to sell him but apparently, the player himself is more into pushing his move out.
Meanwhile, Emiliano Martinez was not available because he was not included in the travelling squad. Following his request to leave, the Spanish boss gives the Argentine the clearance to seek for the solution before the deadline day and will be reintegrated if he fails to find a new club, just like last year.
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