Unai Emery not fooling anyone with Jadon Sancho debut verdict at Aston Villa
Aston Villa’s miserable start to the new season continued as they crashed out of the Carabao Cup at Brentford on Tuesday evening.
Harvey Elliott’s opener was cancelled out by a superb strike from Aaron Hickey before Unai Emery’s men lost the tie on penalties at the Gtech Community Stadium.
Whilst Elliott impressed during his first start for Villa, the same cannot be said for Jadon Sancho.
Sancho was arguably Villa’s worst player, but judging by Emery’s comments after the game, the Spaniard saw things differently.
Jadon Sancho one of the new players who ‘performed well,’ claims Unai Emery
Stats also supported the fact that Sancho was poor, with the winger having a tough time before being substituted by Emery for Emi Buendia.
Speaking after the game, Emery claims over the new signings’ performances will certainly have raised some eyebrows from Villa supporters who listened.
“We use in the starting eleven some players who joined us in the last moment in the transfer window, they need to play minutes and get confident, and they played and they perform well,” Emery said.
Whilst there is no doubting that Elliott played well, Emery is not kidding anyone into thinking Sancho had the same type of impact.
Although Emery claimed Sancho hitting the post as well as the other chances they created were a sign of things “getting better”, there will no doubt be concerns that Monchi and Co. have signed a player who is evidently not up to speed after not partaking in a proper pre-season.
Unai Emery’s previous comments expose his true thoughts on Jadon Sancho
Whilst Emery was never going to throw Sancho under the bus for his performance on his debut, Villa supporters will have wanted a bit more transparency from their manager, especially after their underwhelming start to the campaign.
Before Villa’s game against Everton, Emery revealed that Sancho was “not training with the group”, claiming he needed more time physically.
This was extremely evident with Sancho’s off-the-ball work against Brentford, or lack of it.
- Sancho did not win any of his three duels
- The Manchester United loanee did not make a single tackle, interception or clearance during the game
- Even from an attacking standpoint, he was underwhelming, with the winger not completing a successful dribble either (Sofascore)
With Villa already playing catch-up in the Premier League and out of one of the cup competitions, Sancho cannot afford to take months to settle into his new environment.
He may have been let off because it was his debut, but if Sancho continues to perform like that, Emery is certain to be less forgiving in future interviews.
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