Aston Villa defender Tyrone Mings has conceded that we simply weren’t good enough in our 1-0 defeat to Monaco in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
Villa were bitterly disappointing on a night where we had an opportunity to take a big step towards automatic qualification for the knockout stage, but instead, we produced a sloppy and wasteful performance, that started with conceding another soft, early goal.
READ MORE: Five key talking points as disappointing Villa suffer defeat at Monaco
Mings was at fault in the lead up to the corner that ultimately led to Monaco’s opener, and the Villa centre-half took responsibility for that, but Villa had more than enough time and chances after that to turn it around and come away with a positive result, but failed to do so.
Unai Emery was unsurprisingly more frustrated and critical than he usually tends to be in his post-match comments as he admitted his mistakes in the game while also insisting that he demands more from the players and coaching staff, but Mings summed it up pretty well after the game as Villa just weren’t good enough and deservedly came away with nothing to show for our efforts.
“Frustrating,” he told TNT Sports in his post-match interview. “Football’s a very simple game, and we weren’t good enough. Definitely wasn’t a lack of effort, no excuses, I gave a poor ball away and we didn’t defend the corner very well. We couldn’t take our chances, and those are the fine margins of football.
“We absolutely have to be better. It wasn’t a good night, not a single person in there who feels good about that, our fans have travelled a long way, to not win for them is really disappointing. We’ll go again.”
It’s easy to get the right message across, but this has been a consistent trend through our season thus far in that we’ll produce these passive and lacklustre performances, which invariably either end with a disappointing result or a spell in the game where we’re able to produce a spirited push or comeback and secure points.
Not only have we struggled to put together a 90-minute performance all season, but it’s a far cry from the identity and style we played with last season, as this was the type of game we’d inevitably run over a pretty average opponent and take the game away from them.
While it must be difficult for the players to juggle the Premier League and Champions League, as well as domestic cup competitions, Villa have changed and moved away from the intensity and urgency we previously played with. Having said that, if we’re simply better at both ends of the pitch and stop conceding silly goals and take our chances, it would certainly make life a lot easier for ourselves.
