‘Unai Emery must hook Ian Maatsen’ v Southampton, too wasteful for Aston Villa
Unai Emery has to take Ian Maatsen off at half-time for Aston Villa after a hugely wasteful display against Southampton.
The Villans go in at the break level against the side bottom of the Premier League on 12 April despite spending nearly a full 45 minutes in the home side’s half.
It has been a dominant first showing from Villa, who haven’t made their possession count and have been generally poor in front of goal.
Emery must look to change the wasteful nature of his side in the second half, and that could change by taking off Maatsen.
Maatsen too wasteful for Aston Villa v Southampton
There haven’t been many worse teams in the Premier League than Southampton ever, but Villa are making hard work of things so far.
This hasn’t been through a want of trying but has been summed up by a lack of true quality from the away side’s better players.
| Stat | Southampton | Aston Villa |
| Possession (%) | 36 | 64 |
| Shots | 3 | 12 |
| Big chances | 1 | 0 |
| Accurate passes | 140 | 276 |
One man who has seen a lot of the ball is Maatsen, but he has truly failed to make his space and time down the left count throughout the half.
This has seen the Netherlands international register 38 touches but has failed to find his target with a single one of his five crosses in a zero per cent success rate at St Mary’s [FotMob].
It is a similar story for his long ball attempts as the 23-year-old has once again maintained a zero per cent success rate, which is far from good enough.
Moving into the second half, introducing Lucas Digne could be a smart move from Emery, especially after the Frenchman kept a 100 per cent success rate of his own against PSG.
Maatsen has to be better for Aston Villa
The former Borussia Dortmund loanee has shown some flashes of what he can do against the Saints but has once again frustrated for the most part.
Emery has extremely high standards and is yet to truly see what made the Dutchman such an exciting addition when he signed in the summer.
Digne is proof that players can improve and become a regular from the fringes, but Maatsen isn’t showing signs of that at the moment.
If he is to continue in the second half at St Mary’s, he needs to find his target with all of his attempted crosses and make a difference going forward.
The likes of Marcus Rashford and Morgan Rogers will be hoping for better service to gain all three points on the road on the south coast.