Unai Emery must drop Diego Carlos after what Aston Villa star did in win v Fulham
Unai Emery must drop Diego Carlos from his Aston Villa line-up against Bologna after the defender struggled against Fulham.
The centre-back played the full 90 minutes as Villa came from behind to beat Fulham 3-1 at Craven Cottage in the Premier League on Saturday (19 October).
Carlos was one of the worst performers and must be grateful to goalscorers Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins after his lapse in judgement left Pau Torres exposed for Raul Jimenez’s opener.
Diego Carlos fails to impress for Aston Villa again
Carlos came into the line-up after sitting out each of Aston Villa’s first four league games but has been far from impressive.
The Brazilian struggled to keep Liam Delap at bay in the 2-2 draw against Ipswich Town at Portman Road on 29 September and failed to impress again at Fulham.
According to FotMob, the 31-year-old won only two of his eight duels (25 per cent), losing all but one of his five aerial duels.
Although he stayed away from making tackles for most of the game, he failed and ended up committing a foul on the only instance he attempted one.
Carlos’ contributions in defence were restricted to three clearances, two interceptions and one recovery.
While he completed 48 of his 51 passes with 94 per cent accuracy, 38 of them were played into the back pass zone, which was the most by any player in the game and hints at a lack of intent on his part.
This is why Emery must replace Carlos with Ezri Konsa in Villa’s upcoming UEFA Champions League clash with Bologna on Tuesday (22 October), if he is ready to take part.
Konsa made his last start in the 1-0 Champions League win against Bayern Munich on 2 October at right-back and won 50 per cent of his duels (FotMob).
In other Aston Villa news, this is how Gary Lineker reacted to what Watkins said on BBC MOTD after the win against Fulham.
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