Aston Villa's weak point highlighted with Bayern Munich ready to capitalise

Unai Emery
-Credit: (Image: Photo by James Gill - Danehouse/Getty Images)


Danny Murphy was left 'surprised' as he felt Unai Emery and his Aston Villa players uncharacteristically failed to react to one particular problem in their draw with Ipswich Town.

Villa slipped outside of the Premier League's top four this weekend, succumbing to newly-promoted Ipswich Town in a fierce 2-2 stalemate. One point that was immediately spotted from the match was the weakness of the team's right side in defence, with Diego Carlos taking his fair share of flack for his individual performance.

However, Match of the Day 2 pundit Danny Murphy actually felt the key problem Villa suffered actually lay in front of the Brazilian. From Liam Delap's eighth-minute opener right through to the final whistle, the former midfielder felt they failed to deal with the dangers their opponents posed.

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"For Ipswich, down that left side [Villa’s right] Leif Davis was a lovely footballer, and Jack Clarke linked up nicely and caused [Ezri] Konsa real, real problems," he analysed. Picking up from the hosts' next big chance after the opener, he explained: "There’s a two v one and Konsa, who likes to be central because he’s a centre back anyway, he follows Clarke on that left-hand side, which gives Leif Davis all the time in the world. Brilliant delivery and should [Clarke] have scored.

"That was a little warning because this theme continued. There’s Jack Clarke, Konsa’s gone in, gives Leif Davis time on the ball - he’s caught in between again. Now it didn’t come to anything, but they kept getting caught out on that side."

When playing centrally for Villa Konsa has been named as one of the best in his role in the Premier League, though clearly was seen to have been caught out on Sunday filling in for the injured Matty Cash. One player who had returned from injury and was perhaps able to help Konsa was the winger in front of him, Leon Bailey, though Murphy felt they collectively failed in this regard.

"Leon Bailey isn’t helping really, he’s got to track back better. Second half more of the same, Konsa and Bailey not communicating and Clarke runs off the back of both of them," he said.

Asked whether this was a fault of the players or if the manager was the one to fix things, Murphy responded: "I was surprised because Unai Emery is tactically very good as we know, but he didn’t spot that. It’s a bit of both [an issue for the players and manager]. When a system causes you problems on the pitch it is your job initially to communicate with someone to help you.

"Konsa was getting overrun so he should have said to Bailey: ‘Look, get in here and help me for five or 10 minutes, help me stem the flow.’ But he is a good player, the left-wing back."

With Cash only set to resume training during the week it is unclear if he will be available for Bayern Munich's visit in the Champions League and therefore if this is an issue Villa must have sorted by then.

A clash with the three-time European champions will undoubtedly be a step up in class from Ipswich, and the likes of Serge Gnabry, Alphonso Davies and midfielder Aleksandar Pavlovic - who scored a long range half-volley against Bayer Leverkusen over the weekend - operating down Bayern's left side may not be so forgiving.

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