Ian Wright ‘very, very concerned’ by Aston Villa defending in defeat v Bournemouth
Ian Wright has blasted the Aston Villa defence for their performance in the 2-0 defeat to Bournemouth on the opening day of the Premier League season.
The Villans were well beaten by the newly promoted side as two poor defensive lapses allowed Jefferson Lerma and Kieffer Moore to score in either half.
It was a return to last season’s problems at set pieces for the first goal, and Wright admitted while appearing on BBC Match of the Day [August 6] that he would be “very, very concerned” while picking out Leon Bailey in particular.
“It [set-pieces] was their frailty but like Steven Gerrard said they didn’t create enough,” he said.
“When you look at the way these goals are conceded, I would be very, very concerned because they look to be man marking but nobody seems to know what they’re doing.
“Bailey is the one who should be marking him, marking Kelly there, and he misses him.. nobody is picking up Lerma and then it’s an easy goal.”
Poor
Villa came into this game with so much good feeling and expectation that many were just expecting them to turn up and walk all over Bournemouth to start their season.
But they never really got going throughout the game and struggled to create anything of note, while Bournemouth found their kryptonite early and continued to go back to the well for more.
Crossing the ball into the box seemed to cause chaos for Villa defensively and it’s something that will need to be addressed immediately if they want to get on the right track before it gets too difficult.
Obviously it’s very early days and far too soon to be worried about this season, however seeing the same issues as last season in the first game is never a good sign.
Aston Villa will need to improve on that ahead of next weekend’s fixture, where they will host Everton in the lunchtime kickoff.
In other Aston Villa news, as many as 6 first-team players could leave on loan this summer according to a report