Aston Villa: ‘Aggressive’ issue emerges for Unai Emery to figure out at Villa Park
We’re delighted to welcome former Aston Villa full-back Alan Hutton as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at Villa Park…
Alan Hutton expects Aston Villa to concede a lot of goals due to the way Unai Emery sets his team up to play.
Villa’s defensive record after four games this season is joint-third worst in the Premier League with only Fulham (10) and Burnley (11) conceding more than the nine conceded by the Villans.
Over half of those goals were conceded away at Newcastle on the opening day of the season while an away trip to Liverpool before the current international break saw another three conceded.
Hutton can see why Villa’s defence has been so leaky and while he thinks Unai Emery would rather it was better, he’s happy to keep playing his team that way for a reason because it’s a high-risk, high-reward strategy.
“They play a very aggressive high-line defensively and that’s a problem, I think,” Hutton told Villa News.
“In four games they’ve conceded nine goals and that’s not ideal. But that’s the way they play – they take risks.
“When I was doing the Villa and Hibs game up in Edinburgh, they were passing it around the six-yard box and look, Hibs weren’t in the game at all, against a better team that closes you down and is aggressive, that can really push you into a mistake.
“But that’s the way they want to play so I think it’s going to be like that.
“They will concede goals but they’ll score a lot as well. I think that’s what we’ll see from this team with a high line and taking risks.”
After the international break is over, Villa will welcome Crystal Palace to the West Midlands on Saturday, 16 September.
After a midweek trip to Poland to play Legia Warsaw in the Europa Conference League, they’ll then play away at Chelsea on Sunday, 24 September.
In other Aston Villa news, the club has made a Manchester City-esque transfer shift after a deal of “pure profit” was completed.