Aston Villa: Unai Emery must drag off Jacob Ramsey at half-time v Manchester United, he’s been anonymous
Unai Emery may well be tempted to drag off Aston Villa midfielder Jacob Ramsey at half-time after an anonymous 45 minutes against Manchester United.
Aston Villa were looking to go level on points with Liverpool at the Premier League summit with a win at Old Trafford and raced into a two-goal lead before half-time.
The game started in tepid fashion as both sides looked to grab the initiative and try and find each other’s weaknesses and United had the first shot on goal when Christian Eriksen’s strike proved an easy one for Emi Martinez to gather.
The home side then had a threatening counterattack when Alejandro Garnacho raced clear before picking out Eriksen who looked geared up for a shot but tried to find Marcus Rashford, instead who failed to read the Dane’s intentions.
The Villans took the lead inside 21 minutes when John McGinn’s free-kick caused plenty of confusion inside the United defence before going all the way into Andre Onana’s net.
It was then 2-0 just a few minutes later when Villa exploited some dreadful marking in the Manchester United defence from a corner before Clement Lenglet raced into space to assist Leander Dendoncker to head in his first Aston Villa goal.
Aston Villa carved out more openings before those two goals, especially through Ramsey’s well-timed runs but the English youngster simply failed to pick out any of his teammates or make the most of the opportunities.
The Villa Park academy product hasn’t looked his usual self since his return from injury and has certainly counted himself very fortunate to be starting this game after some pretty underwhelming displays in recent weeks.
Against Zrinjski on 14 December, with Ramsey registered just one key pass completed just 33% of his dribbles, failed to register a single shot, and failed with his defensive work with zero interceptions and tackles whilst also failing with his long balls attempt [SofaScore].
It was a similar story for Ramsey unfortunately in the first half against United as he failed to get involved in any attack for Villa, registering zero key passes, long balls, or dribbles and completing just 64% of his passes [SofaScore].
In defence, he proved anonymous too, failing with all of his ground duels and aerial duels attempts before receiving a needless yellow card before half-time in a pretty woeful display from the Villa Park academy graduate.
He may be dragged off by Emery at the interval.
In other Aston Villa news, a broadcaster has shared something the Villa players must stop after an FA development has emerged.