Diego Carlos fails to impress in 3-1 win v Burnley, Aston Villa squad depth saves him from axe
Aston Villa continued their impressive run of form with a hard-fought 3-1 win against Burnley on Sunday (27 August).
The newly-promoted Premier League club put up a fight in front of their own supporters, but it wasn’t enough as Unai Emery’s men once again proved their ruthlessness in the final third.
But the manager will be disappointed not to have kept a clean sheet against the Clarets, who were given hope thanks to Lyle Foster’s 47th-minute strike.
Emery may look at his defenders and ask the question why their opponents were given such an opportunity at goal, but one man that may be asked more than one question is centre-back Diego Carlos.
According to SofaScore, the defender won just two of his seven aerial duels throughout the 90 minutes, as well as losing possession a match-high 17 times.
Moreover, the centre-back registered a 77% passing accuracy, a figure that will not impress a manager who takes pride on keeping the ball and playing out from the back.
In stark contrast, Carlos’ fellow centre-backs Pau Torres and Ezri Konsa finished the match with passing accuracies of 94% and 89% respectively.
Furthermore, Carlos was accurate with just four of his 13 long balls, again outdone by both Torres (3/5) and Konsa (1/1).
His worrying display, however, is perhaps not enough to convince Emery to drop him for upcoming matches, primarily because Calum Chambers is the only realistic option to come in, with Tryone Mings currently out with a long-term injury.
In other Aston Villa news, a headache for Emery has emerged after one cameo performance in the recent win against Hibernian.