Headaches for Emery as woeful Villa need more steel
UNAI Emery and his soon-tobe-announced backroom team have their work cut out. The new manager would have grimaced as the goals kept flying in at St James’ Park with Aston Villa simply hopeless against Newcastle.
Villa were just four minutes from going in at half-time goalless, but Ashley Young’s handball after a slip from Douglas Luiz in the build-up meant Eddie Howe’s Toon had their tails up.
Just 10 minutes after the restart and Matty Cash casually allowed Miguel Almiron to play a one-two with Kieran Trippier before he crossed to Callum Wilson for his second goal as Ezri Konsa raged at those around him given the manner in which Newcastle put the game out of reach. It was a comedy of errors for the third with Cash once again involved while, for the fourth, Almiron was allowed to bend it in from range.
Wilson and Jacob Murphy struck the woodwork after that with Emery and his coaches no doubt watching that second half through their fingers.
Here are the talking points from a horror show on Halloween weekend on Tyneside, a place where Villa haven’t won now in almost two decades dating back to 2005.
Martinez concussion protocol explained
Let’s park the shocking performance for a moment and address Emi Martinez’s concussion injury. The stopper took a whack to his head via Tyrone Mings’ knee after 18 minutes.
Martinez had treatment for four minutes before continuing as Villa’s medical staff, headed up by Ricky Shamji, completed four checks, the latter a detailed look via their monitor if indeed Martinez had been knocked out for a moment.
“Nobody flagged any concerns at the time from the video evidence,” was the Villa explaination. “Martinez was given a substantial test and he continued to repeat that he was fine. The next stage was to monitor Martinez and, at the first point he started to feel uncomfortable, he was taken off.”
The Argentinian will now be assessed across the next 24 to 72 hours and, all being well, will be able to return to training at the end of next week ahead of Emery’s first match in charge, against Manchester United next Sunday.
Villa woeful in attack
To the game itself and, in fairness, Danks’ side really frustrated Newcastle and their supporters. Villa nullified threats throughout the opening 45 minutes with a Wilson header and a tame strike from Joelinton the only troubling efforts for Martinez and then Robin Olsen.
Afterwards, Danks explained that the game plan was to get to half-time level and to come out and win the second half. Danks was in conversation with Cash as Newcastle kept opting for crossfield passes into Joelinton while, as the half went on, Neil Cutler ordered Olsen to keep his kicks straight and down the throat of Newcastle’s back line and to opt
against dinked passes out to Villa’s wide men to help alleviate pressure.
The handball was unfortunate given Douglas’s slip, which led to Almiron firing at Young’s hand.
Villa, though, were so poor in attack.
Ollie Watkins never looked confident against the strong and imposing Dan Burn. Danny Ings touched the ball 16 times in well over 100 minutes while Emi Buendia and Leon Bailey were wasteful whenever they had it.
Given Villa’s woeful attacking play, you can only contain an in-form Newcastle side for so long.
Are Villa good enough?
There was a lot of frustration and finger-pointing from those in claret and blue on Tyneside.
“Leon! Leon!” Buendia screamed as Bailey conceded a stupid foul.
Konsa was again raging, this time at Douglas Luiz with the likes of Bruno Guimaraes and Joelinton steaming through the middle of the
pitch with Villa’s distances between each player far too wide and open.
It was just chalk and cheese compared to last week against Brentford which shows just why Villa are miles off where they want to get to. Plenty had off-days, from Cash to Watkins, Bailey and Buendia.
“Listen, there’s some really experienced players in that dressing room and we look to them in those moments and to keep us on track,” was Danks’ response, when asked if this current crop really struggle when the chips are down, with Dean Smith and Steven Gerrard both losing their jobs having failed to get a tune out of the same set of players.
Villa’s away form is wretched as well, having won just one from their previous 12.
What’s clear is that Emery needs to instil more steel and develop mental toughness within his group of players – and quickly.
It could have quite easily been six or seven on Saturday, make no mistake about that.