Aston Villa recorded their first win since their first fixture of preseason with a 2-1 triumph over St. Louis City. They are now two-thirds of the way through their tour of the USA, and Unai Emery has felt happy with the signs from the squad, saying, "our experiences playing here are always positive."
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‘We needed our buildup to be better’
The Villans have one more outing in the USA, as they end their tour back near their training base in Tennessee with a clash against Nashville SC. Their first taste of a test against an MLS outfit came in the form of St. Louis City, and Emery embraced the challenge on the journey towards full fitness.
Morgan Rogers opened the scoring, connecting with Donyell Malen before registering his second strike of the preseason tour. The other scorer from their first fixture, a 2-2 draw against Eintracht Frankfurt, was Ollie Watkins, who hit the back of the net in the second half with a headed effort.
“We’re happy to be here and we’re happy to do our pre-season here in the United States, playing against St. Louis City. Our experiences playing here, against MLS teams, are always positive and, here as well, the opponent played well.”
Many members of the first team would receive their first minutes in this preparatory phase against the German side. John McGinn and Emiliano Martinez joined that list of returners in this match. Emery was happy with what he saw from the group, young and old, as they get to grips with his demands.
“Of course, we tried to share minutes with our players, playing everybody. The result is not the most important now. I think the environment was good, the fans enjoyed the match. Everything is positive.”
The Spaniard saw 22 players on the pitch throughout the ninety minutes. He swapped everyone except Emi Buendia at the start of the second half, and this rotation was part of a clear plan for conditioning.
“Our idea was to play 45 minutes with each player, get fit, try to continue working with our tactical idea, try to adapt to our opponent as well, and they played differently in the first half to the second.”
The manager made clear there was one area for improvement. Again, a fatal ball loss came from their buildup, as Boubacar Kamara coughed up the possession, and Cedric Teuchert tucked a shot into the back of the net to half the deficit. He does not want to see similar errors for a third game in a row.
“In the second half they were pushing more, higher, and we needed our build-up to be better than we did, even, because we lost the ball and it was a goal we conceded. But, of course, everything we are practising and playing, and everything that’s happened is positive to analyse and to try to get better.”
