Unai Emery
Unai Emery sat down with the media at Bodymoor Heath ahead of Aston Villa’s Premier League match against Tottenham Hotspur. Villa hopes to bounce back after a recent draw with Bournemouth and an exit from the Carabao Cup. Here’s what Emery had to say in the press conference. Before the conference began, Emery expressed his sympathy for the victims of the tragedy in Valencia.
Unai Emery said, “I want to send my condolences. We had a tragedy in Valencia. I am very sad and all of my condolences to the people affected. To the families of victims and hopefully we can recover quickly what happened there.”
When asked about Manchester United’s appointment of Ruben Amorim, Emery provided his perspective.
Unai Emery said, “Firstly, when I arrived here my first message to the players was that I was sad, because when a coach gets sacked it’s not good. It is the same at United with Ten Hag. It is not good news but it is football. We have to accept as coaches when things happen like that. I know something about Ruben Amorim because we played sometimes. He has done great work in Portugal with Sporting and if United decided to appoint him, it is because he deserves it.”
Emery shared his thoughts on preparing for matches and the potential for squad rotation.
Unai Emery said, “With my experiences, when I am thinking for the next match … I am wrong. Now my focus with these experiences too, is to only prepare the next match, only thinking 100 per cent on it. But I wanted to learn with my experiences and thought is always to be focused for the next match. It is not about rotation, or which players are better to play for the match we are going to play against Tottenham. Even playing a match like we will play, we have one more training session left and an injury can happen or if a player is sick. For me, the focus has to be on Tottenham.”
Regarding their previous 4-0 loss to Tottenham, Emery reflected on the team’s growth and preparation.
Unai Emery said, “We are respecting the past we did, playing at home and away against Tottenham. Every match we play we try to identify and correct mistakes in our process. Now I am analysing how we are now and how are they with the players they have and in the new season we are doing. Tottenham is playing very well and they deserved more points than they have now. They beat Manchester City at home, playing with lots of players who will play on Sunday. Their style and idea is so, so strong. They have individually brilliant players. They signed Solanke and he is giving them a lot more ways to attack and be stronger than last year. They are the favourites in front of us for the season and for the match on Sunday. We even lost last year against them. We are trying to use a stronger structure to face them on Sunday. We are very excited and motivated, our fans, myself, the coaches, players and the club how we are increasing our level to be contenders with Tottenham, City, Chelsea and Newcastle. Competing with them to be in the top seven, top six or top five.”
On whether Tottenham are Villa’s main rivals for a Champions League spot, Emery shared his opinion.
Unai Emery said, “They are favourites. We have some advantage in the table, but that can be different after Sunday. Of course, we have to adapt to them. They are going to impose themselves on us in 90 minutes and we have to stop them and try to dominate them in our idea and set-pieces. They are favourites with Chelsea, Manchester United, with Newcastle, and of course, Arsenal are getting better, Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool. Hopefully we can keep it [top four] for a long time.”
Reflecting on his two-year tenure at the club, Emery spoke about how Villa has advanced.
Unai Emery said, “I am feeling us increase our standards like something being demanding and something we want. It is really fantastic to try and feel it in our demands, which are increasing. I never feel it negatively, like pressure, damaging us. We trained today with some players only, other players were resting. Today was good. Tomorrow morning we will train again and hopefully we will have available the players who were on Wednesday. We have only one injured player, Ross Barkley has a small injury and won’t be available for the next two weeks.”
