Aston Villa manager Unai Emery believes the team talk was to target spaces left open by Manchester United
Manchester United’s unbeaten streak of nine games was put to a halt by a revamped Aston Villa side under new manager Unai Emery and were deserved winners in their 3-1 win over the Red Devils.
While speaking to the press conference (h/t Manchester Evening News) post the win, Emery praised his players for taking full accountability for the game and approaching it in the perfect manner.
“They played in their positions and I want them to feel good playing with their characteristics and skills. The shape for me is not so important, but we tried to use the spaces where Manchester United maybe let us do our job.”
Erik ten Hag got his selection wrong with Donny Van de Beek preferred over Fred (Photo by IAN HODGSON/AFP via Getty Images)
The way Villa were playing, it seemed like Emery made some tactical tweaks to take advantage of the spaces left behind United’s defence once the team was on the attack.
The player responded brilliantly to the new manager’s instructions and allowed Emery to become the first manager to be undefeated against Manchester United on four different occasions.
More than the formations and the game plan, it was the energy and willingness to run and win the second balls which were the main differentiator between the two teams and which ultimately resulted in our defeat.
The game against Villa had provided us with the perfect opportunity to close the gap on our top rivals with Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur both dropping points.
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However, we failed to capitalise and there is little chance that by the end of the next league game against Fulham after which the FIFA World Cup break will begin, that we could end up reducing the deficit.
It would all be dependent on our second half of the season and if Ten Hag is able to secure another signing which could help us in achieving the season’s objectives.
United were without key players in Bruno Fernandes, Antony (which led to Marcus Rashford playing on the right), Jadon Sancho and Anthony Martial were not fit to start the whole game and their absences definitely made our attack a lot weaker than usual.
With another game against Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup in the coming day, tonight’s performance has shown that it definitely would not be an easy game and we would have to be on our best to be able to secure a positive result.
