Despite suffering major injury setbacks throughout the season, Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has been unflappable in his response.
From losing both Tyrone Mings and Emiliano Buendia at the start of the campaign, to Boubacar Kamara and Jacob Ramsey missing a significant part of the year, as well as various other key individuals missing time along the way.
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It’s been a real test for this Villa squad to continue our progress and consistency despite losing fundamental players, but Emery and his group have stood up to the challenge and impressed.
Naturally, as we dive deeper into the final month of the season with so much still to play for, the hope was that we’d able to keep our squad fully fit and avoid any further setbacks. Unfortunately, that didn’t prove to be the case on Saturday night as both Youri Tielemans and Emiliano Martinez were forced off with issues.
While we await confirmation from the club about the severity of their respective injuries, Emery delivered an important message after the draw with Chelsea, as his ethos and principle of ‘next man up’ for want of a better phrase, continues to motivate and inspire our ability to maintain our high level of performance.
“We have to accept the players being injured for a long time, like Tyrone Mings, Buendia, Kamara and even Jacob Ramsey. And for a short time like Nicolo Zaniolo, Alex Moreno,” he said in his post-match press conference.
“If Tielemans and Martinez are unavailable for one week, two weeks, three weeks we have to accept it and every situation we are passing for the season we are reacting. We are giving chances to other players to help us. It’s the moment for other players.
“We signed Morgan and it’s really fantastic how he’s progressing quick, being successful in the adaptation of us in our style and structure. There are other players like Tim, sometimes as well we have centre backs like Lenglet and Diego Carlos ready on the bench. We have to use our power, analysing, trying to focus each match. Always we are being successful when we have problems like now.”
Emery has never moaned or complained about our injury troubles, nor has he ever used it as an excuse to explain setbacks or poor performances and results.
Even when asked if Martinez’s withdrawal at half-time on Saturday impacted us, he admitted that it probably did have a negative influence on our display, but he didn’t use that as an excuse for our inability to hold onto our lead and secure all three points, as he analysed other important aspects that contributed to it.
That’s the mentality that he’s building within this group, and with Robin Olsen set to start against Olympiacos on Thursday in the first leg of our Europa Conference League semi-final tie, and perhaps with Tim Iroegbunam lined up for a bigger role if Tielemans is set for a spell in the treatment room, it will be on others to see us over the line if necessary as we continue to deal with important absences.
Not only is that no-excuse culture important to the collective as we build a winning mentality and resiliency, but it prepares individuals to come in and do their job as best as possible too, giving them the confidence and belief from the Villa boss that they are capable of being a positive presence when called upon.