Unai Emery seething with what his Aston Villa players did during Monaco defeat

Emery was distraught with how his Villa players performed on set pieces during the narrow loss at Stade Louis-II on Tuesday night.

Villa were uninspiring for much of the encounter and were unable to strike back after Wilfried Singo nodded in what turned out to be the winner in just the eighth minute. Tyrone Mings’ cheap giveaway led to Monaco’s first corner and the hosts took advantage as Thilo Kehrer first had a header saved by Emi Martinez before Singo converted on the rebound.

Offensive set pieces didn’t go any better, either, as Villa failed to create a single chance from any of their seven corners and Lucas Digne’s 25-yard free-kick was uncharacteristically tame. Emery’s side are so often praised for their work on set pieces with specialist coach Austin MacPhee a key cog in that machine, but the non-existent success rate in Monaco was unacceptable.

“What is the reason? I could be here two days explaining it, in one minute it’s difficult,” Emery admitted in the press conference, visibly angry. “My point of view has two directions. The problem was set pieces, they scored one goal. We were horrible in set-pieces, we were horrible. We had seven corners and not one close to scoring.

“We are being demanding with the players we have and some are not following the plan we are doing. This is the objective I have now, trying to build the team as strong as possible with a mentality we are building progressively.”

Not only was Emery unimpressed by what he saw from his players, but he was also upset with his own decision-making. Jhon Duran coming off the bench normally ends in far more good than bad but the call to put the Colombian up top with Ollie Watkins certainly didn’t pay off as it disrupted the team’s balance.

“We lost with one mistake. I made a mistake when I decided to play with two strikers,” Emery admitted. “Until that moment we were more or less controlling the game. We were very weak in the middle and they were getting transition and went close to scoring the second ball.

“The last 20 or 25 minutes, when we played with two strikers, we lost our positioning. It is my challenge because both are very good players but today it didn't work well.”

Unai Emery admits Villa have given up spot in Champions League eight

Villa realistically needed at least four points from their final two matches to confirm a spot in the top eight of the league phase standings and crucially avoid adding two extra fixtures to an already hectic schedule. It’s still possible with a win at Celtic next Wednesday but Villa will have to rely on results elsewhere.

“When we are playing games like today, it’s important to get three points because I think we lost the opportunity to get in the top eight. Today was the key,” Emery added, thrashing the air with his hands.

“The last 20 or 25 minutes, when we played with two strikers, we lost our positioning. This is the first part of my summary. Then it is about building a team in the mentality I want. If we want to be at this level, we have to try and score those chances we had.”