Unai Emery ‘must drag Marco Asensio off’ at HT in Crystal Palave v Aston Villa
Unai Emery must take off Marco Asensio as soon as possible if he wants to ensure Aston Villa do not lose against Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Many consider Aston Villa the favourites to win the FA Cup this season, but things are not going according to plan for them, as things stand.
The Villans trail 1-0 at the end of the first half of their FA Cup semi-final clash with Crystal Palace at Wembley on 26 April, courtesy of a sublime goal from Eberechi Eze.
Emery’s side are lucky to be only one goal behind, as Jean-Philippe Mateta feels his goal minutes before Eze’s opener should have not have been disallowed for a soft foul on Ezri Konsa.
Asensio is hurting Morgan Rogers
Emery must not hesitate to make big calls against Crystal Palace, as the FA Cup offers Aston Villa an opportunity to end their 29-year wait for a trophy.
That is why he must drag Asensio off at half-time at Wembley. This is not particularly because the PSG loanee has been bad, but because he is limiting his teammates, especially Morgan Rogers.
To Asensio’s credit, he created two chances for the Villa Park outfit in the first half, according to FotMob.
However, he is occupying the central areas in attack for the Birmingham-based club, which has kept Rogers on the periphery of the game.
| Crystal Palace | Stat | Aston Villa |
| 3 | Shots | 5 |
| 1 | Shots on target | 1 |
| 34% | Possession | 66% |
| 145 | Passes | 279 |
| 83% | Pass accuracy | 89% |
With 14 goals and 13 assists to his name, Rogers has been one of Aston Villa‘s best players this season, and he must absolutely be more involved in a game of this stature.
At times, Emery has been instructing the Englishman to stay wide to prevent Tyrell Mitchell from pressing Matty Cash on the right-hand side of Villa’s defence.
This, in turn, affected the attacker’s influence in the opening 45 minutes of the game.
Rogers only registered 21 touches in the first half, while Asensio had 28.
Furthermore, the fact that Asensio, who only has a 40 per cent success rate in crosses, has only won one of his duels does not help his cause. You expect more from an attacking midfielder for Villa.
Emery must bring Donyell Malen for Aston Villa
Emery could bring Donyell Malen at half-time and put him wide, allowing Rogers to occupy the dangerous areas in the middle.
The Englishman is certain to be more influential in such areas instead of having to compete for finding good pockets of space with Asensio.
It remains to be seen what sort of changes Emery will eventually make as the game progresses.