While Aston Villa were eventually able to secure a 1-0 win over Zrinjski in the Europa Conference League, it took a dramatic injury-time winner to secure the three points.
Unai Emery opted to make six changes to his starting line-up on Thursday night, with Diego Carlos, Clement Lenglet, Leander Dendoncker, Youri Tielemans, Leon Bailey and Jhon Duran coming into the side.
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Much has been said about our rotation so far this season given it didn’t deliver the desired impact against Legia Warsaw and Everton, and while many perhaps expected us to go strong in this one, the Villa boss showed faith in others to step up again.
That’s been his mantra throughout the campaign thus far, as he has insisted that he has a squad to utilise and every player will have a role to play. Emery echoed that sentiment in his post-match press conference, when asked about the performance of Youri Tielemans.
“We have to play winning or losing with the players we have in the squad,” he told the media, as per BirminghamLive. “We have to share because we are going to face different competitions, the Premier League and Europe. We have to try and get our level playing with different players and in the first half it was not for Duran, Dendoncker, Lucas Digne.
“It was a tactical change. I knew before the match it would be difficult. It is going to be difficult because they are going to defend and because they are going to be excited as well trying to play their game plan. That happened in the first half and I made some changes.
“Hopefully we can build a team with everybody, giving everybody a chance to play and opportunities to increase our level with them. That is the reason we are trying to build as soon as possible with the circumstances we have. In this competition hopefully we can do something.”
While Diego Carlos was physical and imposing with his defensive work and tidy in possession, Jhon Duran was a presence at the other end of the pitch and had his moments in a lively first half.
The latter can feel slightly disappointed he didn’t make it out for the second half, while Clement Lenglet and Leon Bailey put in decent shifts as we continued to dominate the game and push for a breakthrough.
However, it was our midfield duo that were arguably the disappointing aspect of the performance, as they were unable to set the tone, tempo and rhythm of our display, and a lack of creativity and quality in the final third ensured frustration grew as the first half went on.
Emery ultimately felt he had to go to his bench, and early, with Ollie Watkins, Douglas Luiz and Matty Cash coming on at the break.
As the Villa boss rightly points out above, he has to use the squad at his disposal. We need to rest and rotate to compete on multiple fronts, and so while in an ideal world our strongest XI would be available every game, it’s simply not sustainable.
Particularly with Alex Moreno, Jacob Ramsey, Boubacar Kamara and Moussa Diaby missing out due to injury in midweek, along with long-term absentees Emiliano Buendia and Tyrone Mings, it it certainly limiting what Emery can do.
Nevertheless, he needs to rely on those coming in to step up, and neither Dendoncker nor Tielemans really provided the answers we were looking for as we ultimately had to go back to Luiz to come on and help salvage the win, and as brilliant as he is, we can’t keep doing that when he’s given a chance to rest.
They weren’t necessarily negative displays, as it was tidy and safe for the most part. However, that in itself was a problem against a stubborn defensive side, as we needed more quality in midfield to unlock their backline and pick apart their defensive shape.
Our tempo and intensity tailed off as the first half went on, and so while those coming in need minutes to build their fitness and sharpness, we need more from them moving forward to get results. Emery will continue to give them chances, and with crunch encounters coming in Europe, it’s hoped that they can deliver.