Unai Emery
Aston Villa have to learn and improve from being pressed so efficiently by Leicester City, Unai Emery has said. Leicester beat Villa 4-2 in Premier League action on Saturday afternoon, with goals from James Maddison, Kelechi Iheanacho, Tete and Dennis Praet ensuring City took all three points back down the M6 and M69. Speaking after the match, Emery said Leicester’s pressing must teach his team to improve tactically and eradicate mistakes if they are to continue making progress at Villa Park.
Unai Emery said: “Really frustrated and disappointed. The reality is that we were thinking before the match that it was a very important game with our supporters here at home after two wins. We were thinking that if we get three points that we would be in the top 10. But I have to be balanced with myself and the players because we are trying at the beginning and have recovered from a position in the table. We have been doing it and, tactically, we have been improving with our discipline. The next step is to play better at home and to try and control tactical circumstances. We didn’t do that today. We created chances as well but we conceded more than we had to do. In some moments we were playing very well and we made some big mistakes and conceded chances to score. We lost a little bit of our confidence and we have to rebuild that again in the training sessions and in the next matches.”
When asked if his team will continue playing out from the back after being pressed so efficiently by Leicester,
Unai Emery said: “Yes, of course! The opposition have very good players. They were pressing. We have to learn to try to break the pressing. They came here to push us and press us high. We can play long ball, long ball, long ball but I don’t want to do it. We can do it sometimes but I want to control better the second action. We work on both but, after the first goal, we were confident. We started the match winning and I want to keep doing it and to continue building up and to play with our goalkeeper. Maybe sometimes we have to mix and to create our style with one process. Of course, I want players with personality to try and play and to improve and be one step ahead.”
