Aston Villa suffered defeat against RB Leipzig in pre-season, making Unai Emery even more aware of one key issue.
Aston Villa supporters in the United States will have to wait to see their team secure a win as Villa lost 2-0 to RB Leipzig in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Unai Emery watched his side suffer the second defeat of their US pre-season tour, following on from the 4-1 dismantling against Columbus Crew.
Arguably, there were more positives to take from the heavy defeat to Columbus, with one concerning issue coming to light against Leipzig.
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Diego Carlos exposed Aston Villa’s lack of centre-back depth against RB Leipzig
Emery has been reminded of Villa’s lack of options in defence, as Leipzig exposed the frailty in ways other than creating chances to score.
Diego Carlos was dismissed during the friendly after picking up two yellow cards as he clashed twice with Lois Openda.
The first yellow came after a strong challenge on the striker followed by a brief altercation, with the second also coming in the first half.
The Brazilian was then spotted in a physical altercation with Openda after he scored, seeing the Belgian fall to the floor.
Carlos was then dismissed, seeing Emery have to play Amadou Onana at centre-back alongside Pau Torres, exposing the problem the Spaniard now has to solve.
While Carlos is capable of performing on his day in central-defence, his antics in pre-season reinforced that he’s not a reliable figure for Villa to lean on.
The 31-year-old was called “silly” by journalist John Townley, seeing him collect a 3/10 match rating against Leipzig, as per BirminghamLive’s player ratings.
Villa have a big problem to solve in defence
To put Villa’s defensive problems into perspective, without Carlos on the pitch, Emery had just one senior centre-back available to him against Leipzig.
The concern grows when you consider that Villa are poised to start the Premier League season with Ezri Konsa, Torres and Carlos as the only fit centre-backs in the squad.
Added to that, the boss has a decision to make at right-back, as Konsa is currently Villa’s favoured choice on that side, leaving Emery with just two options centrally.
The defeat to Leipzig only reinforced just how short the Villans are at the back, with out of the seven signings that Monchi and Emery have welcomed, only Ian Maatsen represents a defensive arrival.
Fortunately, the events against the Bundesliga outfit might give the manager added motivation to fix Villa’s issues at the back ahead of the Premier League kick off.
