Unai Emery must bench Diego Carlos for Aston Villa v Chelsea, he’s not good enough
Unai Emery has a big decision to make with his Aston Villa defence as he prepares to welcome Chelsea to Villa Park on Saturday 27 April.
The Villans are in the hunt for a Champions League place but will take on an inconsistent Blues side, fresh off their thrashing at the hands of Arsenal in midweek.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side will surely be looking to bounce back after licking their wounds this week, but Emery must keep his side focused on the task at hand and know a win could go a long way to securing a fourth-place finish with Tottenham hosting Arsenal the following day.
That means the boss must get his team selection absolutely spot on, and while the attack somewhat picks itself currently with Ollie Watkins, Leon Bailey, Moussa Diaby and Morgan Rogers all in good form, the defence is not so obvious.
Diego Carlos must not start for Aston Villa v Chelsea
The last two games have seen Emery go with Matty Cash at right-back, Lucas Digne at left-back and Ezri Konsa partnering Pau Torres in the middle as they lost to Lille 2-1 on the night, before winning on penalties, and then beat Bournemouth 3-1 last time out.
But Emery has on occasion switched for a more defensive style against better teams, with Konsa moving over to right-back in place of Cash and Brazilian Diego Carlos slotting into the middle.
The last time Emery opted to do that saw a 2-0 win over Arsenal in a fine performance, but Carlos’ individual performance wasn’t the best.
According to Sofascore, he won just 50% of his ground duels, won 0% of his aerial duels, completed just 25% of his long pass attempts and lost possession five times.
Looking beyond that and across the whole season though, the stats further suggest that he has been the worst-performing central defender at the club.
According to WhoScored the former Sevilla man has committed the most fouls per 90 minutes, has completed the least amount of key passes per 90 minutes, completes the least amount of passes per 90 minutes, and is the only centre-back out of himself, Clement Lenglet, Torres and Konsa not to register a goal contribution.
In fact the only statistics where he comes out on top among his peers is catching players offside per 90 minutes.
With Aston Villa likely to dominate the ball and implement their style on Chelsea, Emery must go with his strongest defence when it comes to playing that way, and that means Carlos must start on the bench.
In other Aston Villa news, Ty Bracey has backed Douglas Luiz to return to the starting lineup against Chelsea.
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