Aston Villa boss Unai Emery was delighted to welcome back Emiliano Buendia to the fold on Sunday morning, while he wasn’t too worried after our 4-1 defeat to Columbus Crew.
Villa’s sloppy play in the first half was punished by the hosts as they took a 3-1 lead into half-time, with Cameron Archer’s goal temporarily giving us hope of launching a comeback.
READ MORE: Five talking points as Villa fall to defeat to Columbus Crew in USA pre-season opener
After another mistake led to a goal shortly after the break, it was clear that there was a gulf in difference in fitness levels between the two sides, with Columbus in an entirely different period of their season to us.
Still, it was a good pre-season test that forced us to raise our level and dig in, and that is ultimately what we want at this time of the year as we step up preparations for the new campaign.
One of the biggest positives was of course Buendia coming off the bench for the last half hour or so, and Emery was thrilled to welcome the Argentine playmaker back to the team.
“The best news is his comeback,” Emery said, as per the club’s official site. “Emiliano Buendía’s comeback after one year.
“We are happy with his return and we have to work now with him trying to get the best of him progressively. The first 30 minutes he played, really, is fantastic for us and for the team.”
Meanwhile, the Villa boss refused to be too concerned by the result, as although he noted we would ideally continue to pick up positive results throughout the summer, the most important thing is improving as a team and integrating our new players successfully.
As well as being off the pace compared to our opposition, Villa may well have been fatigued going into this game too given we’re training intensely around our games, and so there’s no need to take too much away from these performances in terms of negatives, as we’ll no doubt correct them and improve as we get closer to the opening weekend of the Premier League season.
We’ll hopefully show progress and improvement against RB Leipzig and Club America before returning home, but Emery was pleased overall and downplayed the result to an extent as he focuses on analysing and pinpointing to our players where they can improve and cut out the mistakes that we saw on Sunday morning.
“We’re in pre-season and we played against a team who were very focused and played very well,” he added on our defeat. “And they pressed us in some moments.
“Even when we were playing in control of the game and creating chances, their transition was good and they deserved to win. But we are working now for our structure again, trying to get better with the players we add in this season. And with the tactical work, mixing players, we are doing it.
“Of course, the result is not good but, for us, now the result is not the most important. Most important is to build a team, get information about the players and this was the first match for some players, and they played well. Even losing, they played well.
“Onana and Maatsen, Dobbin, the goal scored by Archer was important as well.
“I am happy with the work we are doing. Of course, we want to be competitive, even in pre-season and not concede a result like this.”