Unai Emery Q&A: Every word Aston Villa boss said about being ‘upset’, rhythm and Wolves draw
Latest Aston Villa news from BirminghamLive as Unai Emery reacts after his side’s draw with Wolves at Molineux
Unai Emery sat down with the media after Aston Villa’s 1-1 draw with Wolves at Molineux.
His side came back from a goal behind to draw the match as au TorresP responded just moments after Hwang Hee-chan opened the scoring in the 53rd minute. Here’s what Emery said to the media in his press conference after full-time…
Did you struggle to get rhythm throughout?
“It’s a derby and I think we felt it on the pitch. There are a lot of Aston Villa supporters with us. There was a great atmosphere. On the pitch, maybe in 90 minutes we felt this derby and we felt sometimes that the match was not going very clear. We tried to focus on the match, playing in our game plan and trying to win the match.
“Of course, we were very focused trying to not let them score first because scoring here first they were feeling very good. It is difficult to come back the result. We reacted very quickly and I think that was the key. In 90 minutes, we created more chances and go into the box more than them.
“We controlled maybe better the match but they had some good transitions and chances to score as well. Less than us, but I think more clear.
“When they had the red card and we had one more it was the moment we tried to get an advantage with the number of players. We tried to push them and we had chances. If we were winning in the end, it would be a fair reward.”
Why do you think Villa struggled to get momentum?
“Here, to win is very difficult. It was a tough match and we were respecting them. We tried to impose our game plan in the first and the second half.
“When you’re playing with one player more then maybe you can do better, but for us it was a very good opportunity. We knew before the match that it was going to be difficult to stop the transition.
“Pedro Neto did it before against other teams and he did it again today. I think we did everything to impose the game plan and win the match, but in the end we didn’t get it and we have to accept it.”
What happened at the full-time whistle?
“Nothing. I was waiting to tell him congratulations and give my hand. He was speaking with the assistant referee and I left. Simple.”
You seemed particularly unhappy in the first half. Why?
“We are ambitious and very demanding. Myself, I want to be with the players. We started very well but we lost a little bit of control and we lost a bit of our good positioning on the pitch.
“I was very demanding with them trying to get good positioning and to get the ball to some players and then get it in the box better than we were doing.
“We were giving them opportunities to get ball possession and to get in our box. We weren’t really controlling the game like we prepared before and like we tried to do on the pitch. That was the moment I was a little upset and frustrated.”
Your brought McGinn over when it was getting tense, what did you say to him?
“I don’t remember, but maybe was something telling him to occupy the areas attacking and defensively that we were preparing.”
