Aston Villa are having a poor start to the season and manager Unai Emery has pointed the finger at lazy players who are not playing as he wants them to.
The Villains remain winless after five top flight games thanks to their 1-1 draw at Sunderland on Sunday afternoon.
Matty Cash’s goal at the Stadium of Light was the first Emery’s side has scored in the Premier League this campaign, but Wilson Isidor equalised for the 10-man home team.
It has been extremely underwhelming from Villa so far this season, with goalless draws against Newcastle and Everton and defeats to Brentford and Crystal Palace.
It is very early in the season still, but Villa sit 18th in the Premier League table, while they have also been knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Brentford.
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Emery is certainly not happy and has not been afraid to criticise his players after the draw with the Black Cats.
He has offered his summer signings the excuse of getting used to their new surroundings, but said laziness was an issues against Sunderland.
‘We are not playing like I want,’ said Emery. ‘We have to adapt some new players in the structure, and we will need time with them. Others know we want to control the game with the ball.
‘Their chances started with their goalkeeper. Long balls and second actions in our box. Like that, we are conceding chances. We had one player more. We didn’t control the game doing passes, and passes, and passes. We did not take the right moment to attack them.
‘We have to recover our identity. I am not frustrated with the result, but disappointed and frustrated about how we are playing. We are not feeling comfortable with our style. We have to try to recover our personality and confidence to play like we are training.
‘Some players need to adapt, for example, Harvey Elliott was getting the ball and passing behind the defence without options. He needs to understand that he has the skills to play more passes and then do the pass behind or outside with better options.’
He added: ‘We were lazy sometimes defensively. Lazy. For example, the goal we conceded, we were lazy. Maybe it’s because we didn’t play in our style.
‘We have experiences in three years, and how we felt confidence through it. Then, we can get better chances to dribble and be close to scoring.
‘[Ollie] Watkins is not having chances to score, but he had the last one. Maybe if he scored, it would have been the click to change everything, but we have to continue work to try to look for it.
‘Some attitude in some moments, usually the players have attitude. But sometimes because maybe they are a bit upset or not feeling good, they are not fighting. It is not something I can tell them like a punishment.
‘Collectively we have to try and understand and feel better. Sunderland at home in this stadium are playing so motivated. Even playing with one less player, they were feeling strong.’
Villa have a busy schedule ahead as they start their Europa League campaign at home to Bologna on Thursday and will look for their first Premier League win of the season on Sunday at home to Fulham.
