Aston Villa was once under the tutelage of Champions League winning manager but his stint ended in dismal result.
Every team always has its high and low moments, including Aston Villa. Back in the 2016/17 campaign, they had one of the their lowest one in modern era. It was their first season competing in the second tier after their last one in the late 1980s. The management and the fans certainly hoped for the instant bounce back and return to the top flight as soon as possible.
Soon after their relegation in 2016, Villa quickly swooped a big name to lead the Lions to the instant Premier League promotion. He was the Italian boss who surprisingly just won Champions League with the star-studded team, Chelsea in the previous four years, Roberto Di Matteo.
He was just back from his spell in Germany with Schalke 04 in the previous season. The expectation was high and the fans was excited and hopeful for his immediate impact at Villa Park.
Unfortunately, such high hopes soon turned sour. Villa sat 19th in the Championship table after 11 games with only one win, seven draws and three defeats. Di Matteo shared the issue with his team as reported in Sky Sport.
“When we are going into a lead we are not managing to see it out and it keeps occurring. The last 10 minutes were nervous because of that. It is something we need to work through.”
Unfortunately, that was the end of his comment and stint in Villa Park. Di Matteo’s tenure only last in 127 days. In fact, it was his last club in his managerial career. So, why did he fail miserably despite having success with the elite team?
The inferior mentality, which might come from last season’s dismal campaign in the Premier League, was probably the main issue of the team. As Di Matteo underlined himself, his side was so nervous to kill the game. Consequently, they kept failing to protect their lead when they had the advantage or hung on defensively to stay clean sheet.
Such happened in the game against Huddersfield, Nottingham Forest, Brentford and Barnsley. Villa conceded in the last five minutes of the game to cancel their one-goal lead. Meanwhile, at the opener against Sheffield Wednesday, they lost to a narrow defeat from the late goal in the 85th minute as well.
One obvious example was when Villa played host to Brentford in September 2016. The Lions were dominating the game and in control. Yet, when their forward Ross McCormack was injured, Di Matteo did not replace him with another forward but with Jordan Amavi, a defender, at half time.
Another example was Di Matteo’s last game in charge, against Preston. When Villa was 1-0 down, his team became hapless instead of being motivated to find the equaliser. Their lack of confidence eventually led them to concede another goal and put the nails in the manager’s coffin.
Apparently, the Italian boss himself contribute to his team’s failure. He seems to lack belief in his own team to stay in control offensively, either to score more or put them back on level terms. It could stem from the Italian defensive mentality or the doubts of his own team’s potential.
The Italian manager was expected to rebuild the team almost from the scratch. The then owner, Tony Xia, had invested heavily in the summer transfer window with the likes of Australian international Mile Jedinak, Tommy Elphick, and the distinguished figure in the Championships such as Adam Adomah, Ross McCormack, Aaron Tshibola, and Jonathan Kodjia.
Unfortunately, Di Matteo was unable to meet the expectation. He failed to make the team gel after 12 games, which was fairly a bit too long. The goalkeeper, Pierluigi Gollini often stumbled in blunders, Jedinak’s experience in the Premier League was barely seen in the second line and McCormack did not impress much, plus suffered an injury.
The former midfielder might have succeeded in Chelsea but only as a caretaker when he already been with the team and identified the problem inside out after working as an assistant manager for Andre Villa Boas for 40 games.
Yet, when he was in charge of The Blues at the beginning of 2012/13 season with some summer signings in the squad, the ex-Lazio man was struggling again to replicate their fine form in the previous season and eventually dismissed after just 21 games. So, in short, Di Matteo was probably not a proper figure to rebuild the team.
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