Anthony Onifade

Sat 16 September 2023 8:10, UK

Aston Villa defender Matty Cash endured a difficult international break with Poland following on from his performance in the 3-0 defeat to Liverpool but Emery will be hard-pressed to drop him with a crucial redemption opportunity on the cards this weekend.

The Villans will be looking to leapfrog Crystal Palace in the Premier League table when they welcome the Eagles to Villa Park on Saturday afternoon [16 September].

While the hosts have picked up six points from a possible 12 available so far this season, the visitors have accumulated seven points from their first four top-flight fixtures.

Aside from their emphatic 8-0 aggregate victory over Hibernian to qualify for the Europa Conference League group stage, Aston Villa have experienced a mixed start to the new season, winning two and losing two of their opening four Premier League fixtures.

Emery’s men were put to the sword against Jurgen Klopp’s Reds at Anfield before the international break with Cash’s own goal sandwiched between strikes from Dominik Szoboszlai and Mohamed Salah, leaving the Lions sitting 10th in the table.

After some brilliant displays most notably against Burnley, Everton and the second-leg Europa Conference League qualifying tie against Hibernian, the 26-year-old struggled to maintain it following a disastrous afternoon against Liverpool which was carried forward into the international break.

According to stats provided by SofaScore, He had a pass completion rate of only 74 per cent, while failing to attempt any crosses and not finishing with any key passes.

Moreover, he had just one shot – which was off target – and failed with his one dribble attempt, while he lost possession on nine separate occasions.

He did win four of his seven duels, an area where his right-back instincts perhaps helped. But the result and performance will not have helped his confidence one bit, and Emery would have expected him to regain his mojo again while on international duty with Poland.

However, the 26-year-old full-back was nowhere to be seen in the starting eleven for Poland in their 2-0 win over Faroe Islands [Polish Press, 24Kurier, 8 September] as he sat through the whole game on the bench. Whatever reasons for that maybe, will have certainly left Emery with plenty of questions.

Cash did return for their next encounter against Albania on Sunday 10 September but Poland were easily defeated 2-0 on the night with the Aston Villa right-back once again given the role of a right-winger and Polish newspaper Przeglad Sportowy (10 September) certainly didn’t hold back in their criticism, handing Cash a 4/10 rating.

In his 90 minutes on the pitch for Poland, Cash completed just 27 of his 37 passes, failed to complete any of his three crosses, successfully completed two of his five long balls, won just nine of his 17 total duels at a success rate of 52% and lost possession of the ball a whopping 22 times whilst being dribbled past twice [SofaScore] against a not-so-strong Albanian team.

After his difficulties over the international break and his last Premier League performance, Emery will certainly offer one of his key men the chance at redemption because Cash still remains a vital part of the Spaniard’s team both tactically and in defence.

It’s up to him whether he’ll immediately pick himself up again for their crucial Premier League encounter against Crystal Palace but knowing Cash, his struggles over the last couple of weeks will surely become a distant memory.

He’s that strong a character and personality, but most of all a decorated footballer.

In other Aston Villa news, one Villa Park wonder will now use his international exposure as a tool to develop fully into a Premier League star.