Aston Villa boss Unai Emery spoke to the press after the draw with Everton on Merseyside
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery(Image: Getty Images)
Unai Emery sat down with the media after Aston Villa played out a 0-0 stalemate with Everton at the Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday.
It’s the fifth league match in a row where Villa have failed to score, and they therefore remain winless so far this season. Here’s every word Emery said in his post-match press conference…
Unai, your overall thoughts on the draw?
"Good things. Not the best result, but it was a good point. We are building a team and overcoming circumstances that didn’t help us. Very good news today is that Emi Martinez is back and played fantastic. We need him. Bogarde played as a midfielder because we had three out. He played fantastic. Lindelof also played as a midfielder.
"The performance and the discipline and organisation was very good. Offensively, when we were dominating we needed to be more aggressive and man-to-man. We tried to connect better, but three, four passes didn't connect.
"We didn’t have huge chances to score, but got into their box. They did it more than us. This point is something important after we were not scoring or winning, but we are building our spirit. We are getting emotions together and balance. For me, today there were a lot of very good things. We need to win, but this point helps us."
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Are you worried about your lack of goals, but confident that it will soon change?
"It is something we have to arrange tactically. It is not just because of the striker, winger or defensive midfielder. We have to try to get something better to help the strikers to get into better positions to score.
"We can get confidence by drawing today and then winning in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday hopefully. I know the situation we are in and we are adapting to new players coming in. I accept the point. I am happy. I could be worried a little bit, but confident for the future."
Did Tielemans come off injured?
"Yes."
What is the injury and how long will he be out for?
“Hopefully we can recover Kamara and Onana – Barkley too. But today, Lamare Bogarde helped us a lot. He did a fantastic job and I’m happy for him. Lindelöf also played as a midfielder for 10 minutes. That’s the commitment we need.”
Was it difficult for Martinez to come back in and perform?
"I am so, so happy. We need him. We struggled, each one, for his situation, but we have to get feelings together and feel the collective objective and then the individual objective. Today his comeback has been fantastic. We have to protect him and feel him inside the group so he is comfortable and confident. Today he was fantastic.
"We are not scoring but we didn’t concede a goal. Everton are playing better and with confidence. They are excited with the new stadium. I enjoyed the match because we competed and suffered. I enjoyed it. This is the way I want."
Is Watkins lacking confidence?
"We have to protect him too and every player must feel comfortable. We have good and bad moments. The players have their problems with confidence or getting their performance, but we have to get the best balance. It is important to be consistent when winning or not.
"For Ollie Watkins. Calm. Keep working. We are not scoring and the striker is the first point we are watching. I am not worried for him especially. We will score again and he will score again."
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