Aston Villa midfielder Amadou Onana has praised Unai Emery’s influence against West Ham which helped seal our 2-1 win in our FA Cup clash.
The two Premier League sides met at Villa Park on Friday night, and after Lucas Paqueta had given the visitors an early lead, Villa struggled throughout the opening 45 minutes to create and pose any kind of threat in the final third.
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Things undoubtedly changed after the break though as we began to open the Hammers up and create chances, and that in turn led to our ability to turn the game around with goals from Onana and Morgan Rogers securing a 2-1 win and subsequently our place in the fourth round of the competition.
Onana, a substitute himself as he replaced the injured Ross Barkley after just 23 minutes, has hailed Emery’s influence on the game, as he pinpointed his tactical changes at half-time as being key to Villa producing our comeback.
“The first half, they were very, very compact,” he told VillaTV. “They didn’t let any balls through the middle, so it was quite hard for me and Youri [Tielemans]. But then at half-time, the gaffer made a couple of tactical changes, took Bouba [Kamara] on the side to play a little free, to create an overload on the side.
“Once we got there, we did pretty well, so I’m very happy with the performance tonight.
“It was really special. That’s the right way to celebrate it for the fans. I think we needed a win. They came tonight supporting us, giving us the extra cheer we needed, so I’m really grateful for that.
“It was very special because I’ve never scored at Villa Park so far.
“The last couple of weeks for me have been very frustrating. I’ve been out with my injury for four or five weeks, then I came back, started enjoying it, then I had the flu, went back out the team. I really needed this energy and the goal. The little stare [celebration] was to let them [Villa fans] know I’m back!
“That’s the part of my game that was missing a little bit last season, and I’m trying to add more goals to my game.”
That was a very noticeable aspect of our play early in the second half, as Kamara dropped deeper into the role of a right-sided defender in a back three when we were in possession, and the knock-on effect of that was Matty Cash having more freedom and room to give us an attacking threat down the right side and to stretch the pitch.
The timing of Emery’s substitutions and the personnel he brought on after the 70-minute mark was also critical, as Emiliano Buendia, Jacob Ramsey and Kosta Nedeljkovic all gave us a boost in energy and urgency, and that helped spark our turnaround and then to see out the win.
Ultimately, there’s no getting away from the fact that Villa were pretty dire in the first half, and although we might have had control and were patiently probing, if we don’t play with the right tempo and intensity, it leaves the door open for the opposition to grow into the game and coupled with our habit of conceding poor goals, it doesn’t usually lead to good things happening.
We rectified that in the second half though, and it’s great to see us in the hat for the next round as we remain in the hunt for silverware via the FA Cup.
