Are Aston Villa’s Post-Victory Performances a Cause for Concern?
Is apparent tactical conservatism holding back the team’s momentum, or part of a bigger plan?
By Adam Szreter
Far be it from me to criticize Unai Emery, but it’s always easier after a poor game, so I’m going to give it a go—especially after the discussion on the most recent MOMS podcast about our ‘strange’ performance against Manchester United. It’s something that’s been bugging me for a while now.
I think the United game was part of a pattern that started the season before last, away at Brentford. That game came right after a tremendous 3-0 home win against Newcastle, where Ollie Watkins announced himself to a wider audience with a peerless centre-forward display. That victory was the high point of a ten-match unbeaten run, which ultimately secured our qualification for Europe. But a week later, at Brentford, with the same starting XI, we were lucky to keep that run going.
At the time, Brentford had been struggling, especially at home, so Villa were heavy favourites. They should have been buoyed by the Newcastle result. But, as we saw against Manchester United recently, instead of building on a great performance and riding a wave of confidence, Villa retreated into their shell and allowed Brentford into a game they should never have been in.
In the end, a late goal from Douglas Luiz rescued a point for a hapless Villa, but we went on to lose our next two away games—at Old Trafford and Molineux—after similarly poor performances. Any talk of Europa League qualification quickly evaporated before we rallied enough to scrape a Conference League spot. We celebrated wildly (though maybe not Jacob “It’s only the Conference” Ramsey!), and at that moment, it wasn’t the time to point fingers at anyone.
Last season presented a slightly different version of the same problem. Our performance against Manchester City at Villa Park blew everyone away, and our display against Arsenal at the Emirates wasn’t far behind. But we failed to replicate that level of play on any other occasion, which I found puzzling. Now, this season, we’ve had arguably the fourth great masterpiece of Emery’s claret-and-blue era—against Bayern—followed by a muted display against United.
I understand that it’s not possible to play to the highest level all the time, especially after a great performance. But what I find odd is how we never seem to play like a team whose last game was brilliant, “with their chests puffed out and a certain amount of arrogance”. As Chris [Budd] mentioned on the podcast, “with their chests puffed out and a certain amount of arrogance.” Instead, it’s as though Emery wipes the players’ minds clean of the previous game and convinces them that going to Brentford, who hadn’t won at home in ages, or hosting United, who were 14th in the table, would be an uphill battle requiring extreme caution.
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Maybe this is all part of a long-term master plan from Emery, and you certainly can’t underestimate him. Perhaps he believes the team is still on the learning curve and we aren’t yet capable of consistently delivering brilliant performances and that we need to play conservatively more often than not. If that’s the case, we shouldn’t expect to challenge the top three any time soon. But he is definitely targeting fourth place again, whatever happens in the Cup competitions, and so we will need to build some sort of momentum in the league.
Hopefully, the international break has come at the right time, with some key players returning to full fitness. But soon, performances like the one against United won’t be good enough if we aspire to be Champions League regulars—not to mention keeping the paying customers, or “fans” as we used to be called, entertained. I’d like to see Villa building on the confidence gained from big wins, even if it means taking a few risks. Maybe we didn’t have the right personnel against United, or perhaps that’s a consideration for the future. Either way, excuses won’t hold off fan frustration for long, now that we’ve tasted success.
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