Just as it seemed as though Aston Villa were launching another winning comeback, Ipswich Town had other ideas as they secured a 2-2 draw in our Premier League encounter on Sunday.
Liam Delap put the hosts ahead at Portman Road in the early stages, but Villa did what Villa seemingly often do now as the first half progressed, with goals from Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins turning things around in our favour.
READ MORE: Villa player ratings vs Ipswich: Key duo decisive but weak link in defence a concern
Unfortunately, it didn’t follow a similar path to our other games this season, as Delap pounced once again in the second half to secure a share of the spoils for the home side, and Villa were left to rue dropped points heading into Champions League action in midweek.
Full focus now switches to Bayern Munich, but this was a missed opportunity that we must learn from having once again shown great resilience and quality to overturn a deficit, but also displayed familiar deficiencies at the back. Credit must also go to our opponents, with the general consensus after the game being that a draw was a fair result.
Porous Villa defence a problem that must be fixed
While we’ve all enjoyed our thrilling comebacks and the memorable moments that they’ve delivered in recent weeks, we simply can’t afford to continue to be so porous at the back and make our lives more difficult so consistently.
Villa continue to concede soft goals which often involve our own individual mistakes, and that is something that we must cut out.
We’ve not kept a Premier League clean sheet since our win at Arsenal in the back-end of last season, and that has to be rectified as we must become a harder team to face and break down to compete at the top level.
Konsa at right-back, an ongoing conundrum
Unai Emery defended utilising Ezri Konsa’s versatility to play him at right-back after the game, as he pointed out our wins over Arsenal and Manchester City last season involved a similar solution.
He’s not wrong and it does certainly have its strengths and benefits, but ultimately we’re seeing it cause more problems than solutions over a wider sample size in more recent times.
Aside from Konsa looking less comfortable and effective, we don’t look as tight a defensive unit when we make that tweak, and so with Matty Cash hopefully not too far away from a return from injury, it remains to be seen what is the best solution viewed by Emery ahead of a big week.
Diego Carlos form a concern
After his misplaced pass led to Wolves’ opener last weekend, Carlos was all at sea for Ipswich’s equaliser in the second half in this one.
Not only did the Brazilian centre-half play their attacker onside in the build up, but he was then beaten far too easily by Delap in the box as he was spun around and lost his balance entirely as the Ipswich ace applied the finish.
While he can be a commanding and imposing figure, Carlos looks like the weak link at the back for us currently. If Emery is going to stick with him, he must raise his level, as his current form is only strengthening the voice of those who were open to seeing him leave this past summer amid intense speculation over his future.
Draw highlights how Kamara return will be fundamental
The all-Belgian partnership of Amadou Onana and Youri Tielemans has rightly earned plenty of praise so far this season, but at times, we’re going to need a different look and alternative tactical solutions over the course of the season.
Villa lacked control in midfield as the game went on this weekend. In the first half, we were patient, probing and built sustained pressure. After the interval, even Watkins conceded that it became like a basketball match as we lost that element of control and ended up playing to Ipswich’s strengths and preference.
At that stage, Kamara was the first player to come to mind. With the Frenchman, we get a composed figure who can, not only dictate play from deep, but is a physical presence and midfield destroyer when it comes to snuffing out the opposition’s threat and wrestling back control of the game. His return after the international break will be huge for us.
Watkins looking sharper and building momentum
One of the biggest positives over the last few games has been the improvement from Watkins. The Villa striker admitted last month that he was still struggling with knocks and wasn’t 100 percent, and that was evident in his performances as he lacked his usual sharpness and clinical edge.
As he often does, once he finds that breakthrough, he goes on a run, and we’re seeing him not only score goals more consistently now, but his overall play in leading the line for Villa is getting better.
He provided the assist for Rogers before heading home to put us ahead, and hopefully he can continue to maintain this level and show a ruthlessness about his play in front of goal as we go into a big week both in Europe and in the Premier League.
