Five key talking points as Villa fall to defeat vs Hansa Rostock in pre-season

Aston Villa fell to a 3-1 defeat at Hansa Rostock on Saturday in our second pre-season friendly of the summer.

Jacob Ramsey put us ahead in the first half with a delightful finish, but after Unai Emery opted to make multiple changes after the break, the hosts turned things around and scored two late goals to secure the victory.

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Villa now head to the USA for our pre-season tour later this month as preparations for the new Premier League campaign continue, with the expectation that our work and intensity will really show signs of picking up as we head closer to our opening game against Newcastle United on August 16.

It’s only pre-season…

While it’s never nice to see Villa lose, it feels as though this point does need to be reiterated every summer. The results simply don’t matter at this stage of our preparations, the most important thing for all concerned is getting minutes, building their fitness and coming through without any injuries.

Naturally, a few wins wouldn’t hurt morale and confidence heading into the new campaign and so it’s hoped we finish the summer in better fashion than we’ve started it after defeats to Walsall and Hansa Rostock, but Emery surely won’t be losing sleep over these losses.

Eintracht Frankfurt are up next as part of our USA tour, and the same thinking will be applied to that game as well in that the focus has to be on playing time and adapting to new instructions from Emery.

Big year for Jacob Ramsey

After a lovely touch and shift to set himself, Ramsey produced a brilliant curling finish from the edge of the box to put us ahead in a clear display of quality that we need to see more of on a consistent basis in the upcoming season.

That’s the ability that the 24-year-old possesses, and while he has to stay fit and avoid injury setbacks, this is a big year for him to prove he’s got a major role to play for us, particularly amid ongoing speculation over interest this summer.

He’ll hopefully thrive when other senior players return to the Villa XI to help open up space and time for him, but he has to show that class and ruthlessness in the final third this year.

Return of senior players will make huge difference

Emiliano Martinez, Ezri Konsa, Ian Maatsen, Youri Tielemans, Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins are just a few of the players who haven’t yet featured in pre-season after being granted additional time off this summer following their international exploits.

That absent group forms a significant part of our starting line-up and influences how we play, and so it shouldn’t be much of a surprise to see us struggle to get positive results without them.

The expectation is that they will return to the fold in the USA having linked up with the rest of the squad at Bodymoor Heath last week, and that in turn should see an improvement in our performances.

Expect step up in preparations from USA tour onwards

With the late returns for many of our senior players, it was always likely that the Villa squad would really ramp up preparations for the new season when the group was complete and putting in the hard work in the USA.

While training will continue at Bodymoor Heath this week, the squad will soon fly out and get stuck into that next leg of our pre-season work, and so the intensity and urgency will no doubt improve on the pitch too.

It will be fascinating to see any signs of evolution and development in our playing style as well as any new recruits that arrive during our time Stateside, but things will certainly pick up from this point onwards.

Good experience for our youngsters, Bizot gets first run-out

Given the notable absentees, these two friendlies were great opportunities for our youngsters to get minutes and showcase their talent in front of Emery and his coaching staff.

Time will tell if any of them have made a big enough impression to warrant further assessment this summer, but playing in front of bigger crowds at senior level will hopefully have given them valuable experience.

Meanwhile, there was also a first Villa appearance for Marco Bizot, and he’ll certainly have benefited from that as he looks to adapt and integrate himself into the backline.

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