Unai Emery expressed his thoughts on the ambitions of Aston Villa.
The Villans are fighting for a position in the top five of the Premier League, but form has faltered in the new year. The head coach is determined to keep things together, and after a 4-1 defeat at Villa Park against fellow Champions League aspirants Chelsea, he wants a reaction from his players.
“We built the structure in the process we are here, with the experiences we had playing in different competitions. For example, in Europe playing in Conference League here two years ago, playing in Champions League and playing in Europa League. And how demanding we are to exploit our qualities collectively and feel comfortable individually with the players.
“The idea and the style, more or less as well, always trying to compete adapting of the opponent, and trying to compete imposing our capacity collectively and individually, to create this structure.
“Normally, we are being so, so disciplined to keep our structure in each game. But sometimes as well, because the opponent, they are breaking us with different tactical ways or individual qualities, we are not keeping strong.
“Especially against Chelsea, I missed more things in our structure than normally we are doing. And this week, of course, we were working with the days we had to train, to try to create and recover and remind ourselves everything we will need for the next matches and starting for the match tomorrow.”
“In our structure, we are speaking about the emotions inside as well. We must control our collective emotions, our individual emotions, but tomorrow we are going to play a match. Two years ago, playing here against Lille, of course, the French crowd here, the supporters of Lille, they (were) trying to support their team.
“They (were) trying to support their players and they (were) trying as well to push our players in different ways. But tomorrow, we want to play a game, we want to be focused on the game. We are going to try to get stronger, our focus, collectively and individually each player, and try to protect our emotions together.”
