Nicolo Zaniolo lets Aston Villa down as ‘terrible’ footage emerges v Man City, Lee Hendrie furious
Nicolo Zaniolo has questions to answer after the Aston Villa loanee’s cowardice gifted Manchester City a goal in their 4-1 win over the Villans at the Etihad on Wednesday night.
After Rodri’s opener, Jhon Duran equalised for the Villans in the 20th minute and Unai Emery’s men went on to impress for the rest of the first half in Eastlands.
However, a foul by Douglas Luiz on the edge of the box allowed Phil Foden with an opportunity to get Man City back ahead just moments before the first half was concluded. The England international then went on to score a hat-trick.
It was always a hard position for Foden to score from as he was almost square to the goal, just slightly left of the D on the edge of the penalty area.
Robin Olsen organised the wall well and ultimately looked as though he was at fault for conceding the goal when it first beat him but upon further replays, it showed that Zaniolo had actually turned his back on the ball and allowed it to go through and into the net.
Sky Sports pundit and former Villa star Lee Hendrie was highly critical of Zaniolo’s role in the goal.
Speaking live on Sky Sports News on Wednesday night (3 April, 09:01pm), Hendrie said: “I can’t believe that, honestly.
“The only way I’m thinking he can score here is to actually bend it around the wall.
“I just wonder whether the keeper can be positioned a little bit better.”
However, after seeing a new angle of the goal, Hendrie realised Olsen wasn’t to blame. “It’s through the wall, it’s Zaniolo. It’s a poor wall and it’s gone straight through it so you can’t question the goalkeeper.
“Zaniolo just turns away from the ball. It’s terrible. It’s straight through the wall and there’s no chance for Olsen.
“It’s a bad wall. All Zaniolo needs to do is to stand big and it doesn’t go in. It’s a terrible goal to concede right at the last stages of the first half.”
Hendrie wasn’t the only one fuming at Zaniolo with former Liverpool and West Ham player Don Hutchison saying the Italian should be docked wages for his lack of bravery.
“I’d do Zaniolo a week’s wages there. Complete lack of bravery in the wall.”
Nicolo Zaniolo lets Unai Emery down in shocker v Man City
As you can see in the image via TNT Sports below, Foden is lining up to take the penalty just outside of the D of the penalty area and slightly to the left of it.
It doesn’t look like a great position for the free-kick and usually, a wall would do it’s job in that position unless a world-class free-kick taker is able to get it up and over without losing power or is able to whip it around the right-hand side of the wall.
But Foden doesn’t need to do that because Zaniolo breaks ranks and lets Foden simply shoot the ball through the wall.
Zaniolo’s season at Villa Park has hardly been the best but this is a new low for the Italian playmaker, who’s only managed to contribute directly to three goals in all competitions.
Emery has only started him eight times in the Premier League and it doesn’t look as though the on-loan Galatasaray man will get many more if he’s going to bottle moments like that.
All he had to do was stand strong and let the ball hit him but instead he turned his back and let down Emery, his teammates and Aston Villa’s fans.
In other Aston Villa news, a journalist has raged at “unfair” criticism of Ollie Watkins after what the striker did for England.
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