Unai Emery claims the serious injury suffered by Tyrone Mings was no excuse to lose 5-1 to Newcastle at St. James’ Park last weekend, as the Aston Villa head coach wants to create a no excuses culture. Mings was stretchered off the pitch in the first half with Villa 2-1 down and the blow came just three days after Emi Buendia sustained a significant knee injury himself in training. Both players will now face a lengthy period of time on the sidelines in rehabilitation. The loss to Newcastle was the first time which Villa have conceded five or more goals in their opening league game for 71 years, and Emery is expecting a reaction from his side on Sunday against Everton at home. Despite losing Buendia and Mings, and having the likes of Jacob Ramsey and Alex Moreno currently out through injury, Emery refuses to accept that his side’s long injury list could be used an excuse at the start of this season.
Unai Emery said: “I don’t usually make excuses because football is about dealing with these circumstances. I’ve had injuries at every team I’ve coached, these things happen. Here it’s the same. The real problem is for them, for Tyrone and Emiliano they have the real problem. They could be injured for one season and not be able to play football. It is a problem for us too but it should not be an excuse. Because we also have Jhon Dhuran, Bertrand Traore, Jacob Ramsey, Alex Moreno who are injured too. But it’s normal and so we have to use other players. It’s the reason why you try to assemble a complete squad. You have to realise there will be problems during the season and you have to accept it and you have to overcome those problems. On Sunday we have to play with the players we have. Those who are 100 percent ready to play and give a performance without Tyrone, Emiliano or Jacob Ramsey. As a team we have to always be ready to play and deal with the circumstances we face. We have to do it with different players, in different competitions. This time it is the Premier League, next week it is the Conference League, then another. As a coach I must try to find solutions when we have bad circumstances – sometimes better, sometimes worse circumstances. I don’t make excuses about injuries with the players. Only emotionally it is hard. Emotionally it is hard to see Tyrone crying and being sad. But we had to get over it and it’s not an excuse. We didn’t lose because of injuries to Tyrone or Emiliano the week before. We lost because we played worse than Newcastle.”
