Aston Villa fell to a 4-2 defeat to Leicester City this weekend, and Unai Emery will undoubtedly be left bitterly disappointed with what he saw from his side defensively.
Villa played well for large periods in possession, as we created countless openings and had a number of efforts on goal in search of three important points that could have moved us into the top half of the Premier League table.
READ MORE: Villa player ratings vs Leicester: Woeful defensive performance in defeat
However, a surprising and painfully poor defensive performance ultimately led to our own downfall, as we conceded three first-half goals at home which is ultimately not acceptable, and the manner in which we conceded them added to the frustration and disappointment.
Emery will have taken positives away from the display too, but this game showed that we’re still searching for consistency and to execute what he wants as we didn’t do enough to control the game nor did we defend well enough to then allow our attacking players to go on and win it.
Mistakes prove costly as Villa let big opportunity slip
Villa very much contributed to our own downfall in this one, as there were countless mistakes made across the pitch and they were ultimately punished.
Whether it was losing possession in dangerous areas, simply not defending well enough as a unit, not having enough control in midfield and lacking a cutting edge in the final third, we fell short in major areas.
Despite all that, we still managed to impress at times and we had enough chances to come away with at least a point, and perhaps even more had we been more clinical in the second half.
A win would have seen us move up into the top half of the standings, but instead we’re left to rue a disappointing day after shooting ourselves in the foot.
Villa to continue playing out from the back, improvement needed
As per BBC Sport, Emi Martinez spoke after the game and insisted that Villa will continue to play out from the back as ultimately that is the way in which we want to build our attacks under Emery.
“It was a strange one, we had a good run in January and have been solid defensively and today mistakes cost us the game.
“We are trying to play from the back and mistakes will happen, it’s about how we react now. We made more than one, Leicester deserve the win, they pressed really high.
“We are going to keep doing it.”
Once again it resulted in a costly error that led to a goal for the opposition, and although we initially recovered to retake the lead, our defence wasn’t anywhere near good enough thereafter.
There are major benefits to the approach Villa are taking if we get it right. The players need to improve that aspect of our play, as we only have ourselves to blame for the way in which we gifted the first goal to Leicester.
Rare off day for Kamara
Having impressed since he arrived at the club, it feels almost strange to assess a poor performance from Boubacar Kamara.
Unfortunately though, when we talk about mistakes costing us in this game, the French midfielder was guilty of losing possession twice in the build-up to two goals, with the first being the most glaring as he took too long on the ball as we attempted to play it out from the back.
“It’s a way of building the game and, sometimes, it just doesn’t work for you. I was pleased tactically with our setup to press it, putting pressure on Kamara,” Brendan Rodgers said after the game, as per BirminghamLive.
There is a sense that we’re not going to see too many off days from Kamara, but those comments from Rodgers should perhaps be noted by Emery moving forward if that’s an approach opposition sides are going to take more often.
Moreno over Digne?
There was a slight raising of the eyebrow when seeing Lucas Digne come straight back into the starting XI after recovering from injury.
While both options at left-back are at a high level and Emery would have made his decision for clear reasons, it did feel a little harsh on Alex Moreno for him to drop out after impressing in the last two games.
The decision to make the change at half-time to bring him on for Digne perhaps justified the question marks prior to kick-off, albeit Moreno impressed with his attacking play but should have done better to prevent the fourth goal.
Positives too, time to regroup ahead of tough run
There were positives to take from this game too, but naturally the result overshadows them and the feeling of disappointment overrides it.
However, Villa now have to regroup, learn from the mistakes we’ve made in this game and improve quickly as we have a difficult run of fixtures ahead with Man City, Arsenal and Everton up next.
We’ve shown under Emery that we’re capable of winning any game if we perform to our best ability, and with the attacking quality we showed at times against Leicester, we’ll cause those three teams problems.
Nevertheless, it won’t mean anything if we don’t tighten up defensively again and cut out the mistakes. Perhaps this was just a one-off goalfest of a game that comes around every so often. Emery will no doubt work tirelessly this week to ensure we don’t see a repeat next Sunday.