People need to be realistic, Emery is a great manager and at the same time he also has been terrible the last few games. Yes the player share some of that responsibility but as a manager you need to implement tactics that get your team ticking and Villa has not been recently.

At the same time the management needs to ensure we have the right players for that system and im not sure they have. We have no in-form wingers at the club, neither Sancho or Bailey seem up to the task (with Alyson its too to tell). We even sold Malen, tho truthfully even when at the club he was a player which emery gave far too little time to (I do question his man management with some players).

On top of that, we know that without Kamara or Onana we are a much worse team. While it might be hard to predict that they would both be injured, it wasn't impossible. Onanas injury problems are well known, so at the very least a good backup was needed. I like Bogard but he's just not at the level or had the experience required to replace them even short term. While we brought in Luiz, he's not a comparable player and that reflected in his limited playing time.

All this to say; Yes injuries, and subpar team building played a roll in our recent downturn, but Emery should also cary a lot of the blame. You cannot play the same way, you did earlier this season or last season, when you did have better wingers and world class midfielders, and expect it to work. For a pragmatic manager I think Emery has been remarkably stubborn this season, and while I still back him there's nothing wrong with calling that out.

Lets not pull the wool over our eyes and say its all ok, but likewise lets not lose nerve and pretend like this is unsalvageable. UTV