Aston Villa are still searching for their first Premier League goal. They patched up some problems from their final fixture in August, but the boss believes they are “not clinical enough” at the moment.
‘We are not scoring goals’
The Villans lost their year-long unbeaten record at Villa Park in their last league outing. **Boubacar Kamara**and Amadou Onana were not in the midfield, and the lack of stability was clear to the boss.
“After we lost at home 3-0, we had chances, but we conceded, and we were so, so fragile defensively. We conceded three goals against Crystal Palace, and it was the first work we did to try to set today.”
The manager pulled off Youri Tielemans and threw on Evann Guessand to tip the scales offensively after the break. He then sent on Harvey Elliott to earn his first minutes in the claret and blue with Donyell Malen at the end of the match, but the substitutes did not shift the momentum decisively.
“So, defensively, we are working and then offensively as well, we tried. I was confident, even in the second half when we were doing some changes, I was waiting for one attack to score one goal. We didn’t do it, but we feel better. Not enough, of course, but positive, confident for the next matches.”
The Villans are still scoreless in the Premier League, and it is the second away fixture in which they have been particularly pale offensively after failing to threaten for much of the match at Brentford.
“We are not scoring goals. It’s something we can feel worried about, and maybe even not confident.”
Emery identified what he thinks is missing in the final third of his group at the moment. There is still time to turn around the campaign, and he will continue to work with the team on the training ground.
“Of course, when we were sometimes dominating, we were creating in the attacking third, we were getting the ball, but not being clinical enough in the last two or three passes, to get the ball clearly. This is the next step we have to do: keep going, working, keep going, improving, building the team.”