Aston Villa have been battered from pillar to post this season when it comes to injuries, especially on the defensive front.
For significant periods Tyrone Mings, Boubacar Kamara, Diego Carlos, Alex Moreno, Pau Torres and Ezri Konsa have been out of action.
Some might not play again this season, but Stephen Warnock thinks it is resulting in issues for Aston Villa’s defending, especially on how they deal with set-pieces.
On Saturday, as Unai Emery watched his side record a 3-2 win over Luton Town, two more goals were conceded from dead-ball situations.
Stephen Warnock added that this is now a ‘big concern’ and there would have been ‘heated exchanges’ between the Aston Villa players after the match, as he told The Football Show on Sky Sports.
Up until December, this wouldn’t have been much of an issue, but starting away at Brentford, at home to Burnley, Chelsea, Newcastle United, Manchester United, Nottingham Forest and Luton, goals from either free-kicks or corners have been conceded.
This has to be dealt with as soon as possible or it will hurt the club’s ambitions to secure Champions League football at the end of the campaign.
Aston Villa’s set-piece issues
“Yes,” said Warnock on Emery being worried about the number of goals conceded by Villa.
“But you are taking out of that a lot of players in defensive positions. Kamara in midfield, who has been outstanding for them. He goes down with an ACL. They lost Diego Carlos. Yes, he had Konsa back in this game (against Luton), but he has been a little bit rusty as well.
“The big concern for Aston Villa in this game would have been set-pieces. Conceding from set pieces. The one thing Unai Emery and their staff pride themselves on is how meticulous they look at set pieces.
“There would have been a lot of heated exchanges after that game at what happened in these situations because that’s what drives the standards at Aston Villa. It’s what driven it this season, so I expect a big improvement from that point of view.”
Return of Ezri Konsa and Diego Carlos
The big positive is that Konsa returned against Luton, whilst Carlos is back in training after a hamstring issue.
Hopefully, we can get these two, alongside Pau Torres back on the pitch at the same time..
Whilst Konsa has been outstanding at centre-back, he has also done a very good job as a right-back and you assume he will be used in that role again before the season is out.
Given that the fixture list is going to pile up, then rotation and versatility from players are going to be needed.
