'My mistake' - Unai Emery admits humiliation for rare blunder during Monaco defeat

The decision to play Jhon Duran and Ollie Watkins as a striker pairing backfired in the loss at Stade Louis-II and Emery was the first person to admit it.

Villa, despite failing to take their chances, were in control for most of the match until Emery brought on Duran for Leon Bailey and directed the Colombian to join Watkins in attack. The opportunities dried up and Monaco were able to exploit spaces in the centre of the pitch, nearly doubling their advantage with several openings of their own.

It’s a costly defeat as the Villans may now miss out on a top eight finish even with a victory against Celtic next week. Qualifying for the play-off stage is an achievement during a first Champions League campaign but it wasn’t the aim, especially with how Villa started with wins over Young Boys, Bayern Munich and Bologna.

“We lost with one mistake. I made a mistake when I decided to play with two strikers,” a seething Emery admitted during the Monaco post-match press conference.

“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. I took this decision trying to get better but I was watching and it was not working well.

“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. It is my challenge because both are very good players but today it didn't work well.”

Aston Villa let down by set pieces in Monaco defeat

Emery’s rare tactical blunder wasn’t the only factor in Villa losing in the principality as set pieces were a huge issue.

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.

“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,” Emery said.

“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.”