Aston Villa boss Unai Emery was pleased with his side’s performance in our 3-3 draw with Brentford in Washington on Sunday.
After falling 2-0 behind to our Premier League rivals, quick-fire goals from Ezri Konsa, Moussa Diaby and Matty Cash turned the game on its head as we led heading into the half-time interval.
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However, Thomas Frank’s side found an equaliser after the break and as both teams began to make multiple changes which in turn impacted the rhythm of the game, the spoils were ultimately shared.
Emery was happy with what he saw from his players, as there were clear instructions and a desire to play our way throughout the encounter, and so the Spanish tactician will certainly be able to take away plenty of positives as we now head back to the UK for the final stretch of our pre-season schedule.
“It was a good match, good match,” he told VillaTV. “We played very well in the first half, we started losing but we were playing in the idea we planned. And we kept going in the same idea, we didn’t stop.
“We came back and our control of the game was good. Offensively we were holding the line high and then trying to keep ball possession like we were practicing.
“And progressively, hot day, in the second half we made some changes and lost a little bit of the power we had in the first half.
“But, really, I am happy because the practice we are doing, and what we wanted before coming here, I think we are doing.”
Villa’s attacking play was a delight to watch for the most part, as we continued to adopt a patient, composed and accurate approach to our build-up before showing real quality in the final third to create openings and score goals.
While aspects of the defensive display will need to be tidied up and worked on ahead of our Premier League season opener, there is always going to be room for improvement and pre-season also helps identify those areas.
Further, with Emery continuing to test out different tactical solutions – most notably flipping things over in this one as Matty Cash pushed forward with Pau Torres tucking inside on the left to form a back-three in possession – it has been a productive tour in the USA that will hopefully have provided plenty of answers on what works and doesn’t work for us.
“We are here, trying to build, trying to create a strong structure with the squad, with the players; strong tactically defensively and offensively,” he added. “And trying to get some young players as well, the performance if they will help us in the season because we are going to play the Premier League, the first competition in our target.
“But then there’s Europa Conference League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup; they’re another three competitions I want to be competitive in.
“And we will need a lot of players.”
Time will tell if Villa add any further reinforcements this summer, with Emery certainly leaving the door open to that as we are expected to act if an opportunity to land a priority target presents itself.
We’ve shown our strong competition and depth on this tour given the options we’ve been able to bring off the bench, and we’ll likely continue to see that rotation against Lazio and Valencia in the upcoming week as we wrap up our pre-season fixtures.
It’s been a great fortnight for the squad though both on and off the pitch in the USA, and it’s hopefully been ideal preparation for the season ahead.