Stan Collymore was left criticising Aston Villa’s huge problem after they were held to a 2-2 draw by Crystal Palace.
Aston Villa extended their winless run in all competitions to six matches after Ross Barkley rescued a late point for Unai Emery’s men.
The Villans continued a key theme of going behind in games when Ismaila Sarr put the visitors ahead after just three minutes, handing Emery another deficit to come back from.
In some previous home matches, most notably Everton and Wolves, Aston Villa managed to recover from going behind but on this occasion, they didn’t find enough quality in the final third.
For Villa to qualify for the Champions League this term, they can ill-afford to keep conceding sloppy goals in the first half and now Stan Collymore has offered his verdict.
Stan Collymore urges Unai Emery to go back to basics
A common theme has emerged throughout this campaign and that is teams exploiting Villa’s high line.
It happened for the first goal, as Sarr raced away to score and then for the second, with Palace producing a ruthless counter-attack after Youri Tielemans missed a penalty.
With Ezri Konsa currently out injured, Emery continued trying to deploy a high line with Pau Torres and Diego Carlos at the back but it just didn’t work – to no fault of their own.
Neither Torres nor Carlos possesses the recovery pace of Konsa, who slots perfectly into the Spaniard’s system.
That said, even with Konsa in defence, Villa were still leaking goals for fun and former striker Collymore has urged Emery to go back to basics in his post-match rant.
Collymore pointed out that if they continue playing this way, Villa’s forwards will have to score three or more goals a game to get anything, and that is a massive problem.
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Boubacar Kamara’s return will help Emery
Emery hasn’t been the most fortunate with injuries, seeing Konsa and Amadou Onana injured on national duty, joining Jacob Ramsey and Boubacar Kamara on the physio bench.
On Saturday, it became evident that Villa lacked some bite in midfield with Tielemans or Barkley unable to offer the same levels of ball recovery as Kamara, for instance.
The Frenchman is arguably the only defensive-minded midfielder Emery has and as we saw last term, having him in the starting XI makes a huge difference.
Kamara’s recovery pace, tenacity and tough tackling would have helped keep Villa ticking over, especially when they gifted possession away.
Of course, the 25-year-old’s return to action after his latest injury won’t resolve all their defensive problems but he would have been able to offer more protection, and that is what the back four needs.
