Unai Emery questioned the mentality of his Aston Villa players after a night to forget in Monaco.
The Villa boss was unhappy with several members of his squad, saying they 'didn't follow the plan' after an eighth-minute goal from Wilfried Singo gave the hosts a 1-0 win. Emery's side produced a flat display, and when asked what his side was missing at the Stade Louis II, he pointed to his head twice.
Asked why Villa lost, he said: “I could be here for two days to explain it. It's hard in one minute. My first opinion is that we played seventy minutes the way I want.
“I'm trying to build a team with a strong mentality, as I want. We want it. And we need it. We are going in a certain direction with the players we have, but some are not following the plan.
“We have to get the team as strong as possible. I am very happy with Emi Buendia. We needed him. He played fantastic.
“Morgan Rogers was a little sick. There are many players who play matches in a few days. Boubacar Kamara, Youri Tielemans, Tyrone Mings. They played everything we planned.
“Some players are injured. We lost the chance to be in the top eight, and this was the key to getting it.”
Emery also highlighted the problem he has playing strikers Ollie Watkins and Jhon Duran as two spearheads. He called it 'his challenge' in the build-up to the match, after West Ham made a £57m package for young Colombian striker Duran.
What he saw last night didn't impress him – although he was happy to take responsibility for it. He said: “It was my fault.
“The last 20-25 minutes we played with two attackers. We lost it and we were out of position. We didn't threaten them like we did in the first seventy minutes.
“We have two good attackers. When we play together, we have to have the same structure. My challenge is to get those players on the field both offensively and defensively. Both are very good players. But it didn't work well.”
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