BirminghamLive’s Dan Rolinson has raised concerns surrounding how Aston Villa deal with falling behind in games.
The West Midlanders were brought back down to earth with a bump as they fell to a 4-0 defeat at the weekend.
After an impressive performance in Aaron Danks’ first game in caretaker charge, which saw the Villans batter Brentford by the same scoreline, they were convincingly beaten at St James’ Park by Newcastle United.
Having scored a penalty in first-half stoppage time, Callum Wilson made it 2-0 after the interval before Joelinton quickly added a third.
Miguel Almiron rounded off the scoring shortly thereafter, and with the Villans shipping three goals in 11 second-half minutes, the nature of their collapse has sparked concern from Rolinson.
Speaking on the Claret and Blue podcast, he said: “I think we’ve scored three goals on the road this season.
“So once Newcastle go to 1-0 and 2-0, you think, ‘well, we’ve scored three goals on the road all season, it’s very unlikely we’re going to get even a draw from today’s game.
“I go back to what I’ve said before – we’ve spent a lot of money. Why are we still in this position where we can just fall apart like that? That shouldn’t be happening to a side like us anymore.
“People might stumble upon this as non-Villa fans and go, ‘you’re acting entitled’ or saying that Villa should be in the top eight like this is some kind of god-given right. That’s not the case, but the money we’ve spent and the wages we pay should not be crumbling just because we concede a goal.
“We should have more resilience about us than that, and that is a concern. That is a worry for me.”
TIF Thoughts on Rolinson’s comments…
Will Emery be a success at Villa?
Yes!
No!
With Unai Emery taking charge from Tuesday, he surely will share these concerns over the way Villa crumbled to defeat.
Villa are now 16th in the table after their seventh loss of the campaign and will take on Manchester United in the Spaniard’s first game at the helm.
Despite having a winning pedigree, Emery will first have to make his new side hard to beat and eradicate that soft underbelly that was evident once again on Tyneside.
It’s easier said than done, especially with one of the in-form clubs in the league to deal with next week, but the 50-year-old will be hoping for something before the mid-season break to properly put his stamp on the team.