Post-mortem: Manchester United 3 Aston Vila 1
After three consecutive Premier League defeats, the latest of which was the 3-1 defeat against Manchester United at Old Trafford, it has meant Villa now have just nine points from a possible 30 in their last ten games. The alarm bells are ringing for their season run-in. Currently, their Champions League qualifying place is held together by the inability of rivals to take advantage, rather than anything positive Villa are doing themselves.
Against United, there was a moment when the game was level at 1-1, that may have been a sliding doors moment to Villa’s season, in the same way Morgan Rogers’ disallowed goal was on the same pitch last season. After coming on as a substitute, Tammy Abraham, the man that many felt should have started above Ollie Watkins in the past few games, missed a great chance to give Villa the lead and completely switch the momentum of the game, and potentially Villa’s recent nosedive form.
In the latest My Old Man Said podcast post-mortem show, we look at this moment, plus the greater debate of how Unai Emery’s ‘structure’ is failing a gun-shy Villa team, who have only scored seven goals in their last ten games.
Villa had thirty-one touches in United’s box (more than United had in their’s), but only registered two shots on target. The system that produced eleven consecutive wins in the autumn is producing something very different now. The show may have come up with a term for it: paralysis by analysis.
There are eight league games left, beginning with West Ham at home, Emery must find a reset button quickly. First though, there’s a Europa League second leg against Lille to navigate. A slip-up against a Lille side that overturned a first-leg deficit against Crvena Zvezda last month in the play-off round would accelerate the unravelling considerably.
It’s very much do or die time now.
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Credits
David Michael – @myoldmansaid
Chris Budd – @BUDD_music
Phillip Shaw – @prsgame