Unai Emery plays down Aston Villa confrontation
Villa boss Unai Emery said he has no problem with players shouting back at him after a furious exchange with Ezri Konsa in Saturday’s win over Fulham.
Konsa fired back after the manager took aim at his defence during the second half after they appeared to fall asleep, allowing Harry Wilson to fire a shot at Emi Martinez.
The moment summed up the tension on what was a crucial afternoon for Villa, who needed victory to remain in the race for Champions League football.
Asked about Konsa’s response to his own outburst, Emery replied: “No problem. It’s no problem.”
Emery, who watched his team squeeze home thanks to Youri Tielemans’ 12th minute header, explained how he had been frustrated at how easily they were losing possession.
He said: “I was in the same way when we finished the first half because we started very well, we dominated and scored a goal, but we stopped a little bit.
“We started to play a bit more backpasses. Doing backpasses for one objective, to try to stop them and then progress (is fine) but we weren’t progressing like we needed and how we planned before.
“Even not doing it, we were losing some easy balls. We spoke yesterday and this week how important it is to try to play and focus seriously in 90 minutes in our game plan, each one to feel comfortable. But if someone is relaxing a little bit, we are closer to losing.
We should be very demanding every day and in our focus with the game plan to be consistent, expecting them and playing, always being so, so demanding in our process in 90 minutes.
“When we lost some balls in the first half, in the dressing room I told them: ‘I can’t accept!’ I can’t accept sometimes how we were managing the match.”
