Aston Villa battled to a hard-earned point against West Ham United on Sunday afternoon.
Nicolo Zaniolo’s vital second-half goal was enough to salvage a point for Unai Emery’s side on a drama-filled afternoon at the London Stadium.
The home side saw two goals ruled out for handball, the second coming in additional time after Tomas Soucek thought he gave the Hammers all three points.
However, after a lengthy VAR check, the goal was chalked off, a decision with which former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg agreed.
It was clear that Emery’s men are struggling to deal with balls into their box, particularly from set pieces, and Birmingham Live’s John Townley has highlighted this.
Aston Villa warned over ‘vulnerable’ issue under Unai Emery
Talking on the Claret and Blue Podcast, Townley highlighted Villa’s ‘obvious’ weakness.
“It is obviously an issue, and we are vulnerable; when West Ham scored yesterday, I was obviously furious and very sad, but I wasn’t shocked,” he said. “
“When the ball went in and bounced over the line, I kind of expected that. West Ham are very good from set-pieces, so we can expect that, but it seems to be every other week we are coming up against players who are over six feet. We’ve only got a couple.”
He also claimed that other teams will be working harder on exploiting Villa’s weakness: “I know that is very basic, but that’s a starting point. The other week, when we conceded two set pieces to Luton, we conceded another one, but it was offside.
“You just think it’s a clear avenue for them to score goals. I don’t know exactly why we look so vulnerable. Mings would definitely help, but ultimately it’s how we are set up.
“We don’t know how much Austin MacPhee does from a defensive point of view, we know he does a lot from an attacking aspect, which works well. Defending them isn’t a great aspect of our game at the moment, and that never helps, as everyone’s a bit anxious.”
How do Aston Villa stop set-piece issue?
In recent weeks, the Villans have faced Luton Town and West Ham, two teams that are among the best in dead-ball situations.
One way to alleviate the issue is to stop it at its source: stop giving away free kicks and cheap corners. Villa gave away 12 fouls and seven corners on Sunday (per FotMob).
This led David Moyes’ side to amass a set-play xG of 0.5. Villa are giving their opposition the chance to create good goal-scoring opportunities.
Looking to prevent balls from being delivered in the first place will see that number decrease.
