Unai Emery says it was a ‘MISTAKE’ to play Ollie Watkins and Jhon Duran together against Monaco as he questions his side’s mental strength after 1-0 defeat

  • Emery replaced Duran and played alongside Watkins in the second half in Monaco
  • He also took aim at some of his players and seemed to question the mentality
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Unai Emery blamed himself for Aston Villa’s defeat in Monaco but reserved his harshest criticism for some of his players.

The Villa boss accused his side of lacking ruthlessness in front of goal and suggested that not all of his team have the mental strength required for top-flight football.

“We are very demanding with the players and some are not following the plan,” said Emery, who admitted the decision to pair Jhon Duran with Ollie Watkins after 55 minutes had backfired.

‘This is now my goal: to make the team as strong as possible with a mentality that we build gradually.

‘We were terrible at set pieces. And when we had two attackers on the pitch, we lost our positioning. I made a mistake when I decided to play with two attackers.

“Morgan Rogers was a little sick. Emiliano Buendia played a fantastic match. Boubacar Kamara, Youri Tielemans, Ezri Konsa, Matty Cash, Emiliano Martinez and Tyrone Mings played everything we planned.”

Unai Emery admitted it was a ‘mistake’ to play both Ollie Watkins and Jhan Duran against Monaco

Watkins started the match, with the forward seemingly having an advantage over Duran at the moment

Duran, meanwhile, was introduced as a substitute in the second half

Watkins (left) started the game, while Duran (right) was introduced in the second half of the game

Emery questioned the mentality of some of his players while defending others

Emery questioned the mentality of some of his players while defending others

The players Emery did not mention were Leon Bailey, Watkins, Lucas Digne, Ian Maatsen and Duran. Bailey played a bad game and was replaced by Duran ten minutes into the second half.

Watkins and Bailey missed chances in the first half and Emery added: “We created three or four chances and if we want to be at this level we have to take them.”