Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has explained why he opted to leave Pau Torres on the bench for our defeat to Olympiacos on Thursday night.
Villa will travel to Greece next week for the second leg of our Europa Conference League semi-final tie with a 4-2 deficit to overturn, after a thrilling, yet frustrating, night at Villa Park.
READ MORE: Five key talking points as Villa face huge challenge to overturn Olympiacos deficit
While we showed an attacking threat and have the quality to get goals next week to turn the tie around, there were far too many mistakes, defensive lapses and sloppy passages of play that were ultimately punished in the first leg.
As he has had to do all season, Emery was working with a depleted squad given our injuries and suspension issues, and so a number of pivotal players were already ruled out.
In a surprise decision in defence though, Clement Lenglet got the nod alongside Ezri Konsa, with Torres on the bench.
Initially, it was feared that the Spaniard had perhaps suffered a fitness setback having battled an issue or two of his own over the course of the campaign, and while that was fortunately dismissed, Emery revealed the reason behind his decision.
“We are playing a lot of matches,” he told the media, as per BirminghamLive’s John Townley. “We didn’t lose tonight because he was not playing or Diego Carlos, Kaine Kesler or Emiliano. We are playing well with some players and sometimes bad.”
With another huge game on Sunday against Brighton, Emery has to rotate and give players rest, while utilising his squad and giving others an opportunity to show their worth and to show that they fit the style and structure of what he’s building.
Nevertheless, we struggled all night with the high press from Olympiacos as they put pressure on our defenders while cutting off passing lanes into midfield, and that was a key factor in our inability to maintain control and possession for long periods.
That is where Pau has been fundamental for us all year given his class on the ball and ability to play out under pressure, and so it certainly was a critical decision.
Further, with Robin Olsen in goal, perhaps the Swede would have benefited from a settled backline in front of him, be it just Pau or both he and Diego Carlos with Ezri Konsa pushed across to right-back.
That said, Emery has faith in his players to come in and produce when needed, and unfortunately on this occasion, we shipped four goals and now have a huge task ahead to make it to the final.
