Aston Villa made it three Premier League defeats in a row thanks to a poor performance against local rivals Wolves at the Molineux.
Villa went into the game without Tom Heaton, Bjorn Engels, and Jack Grealish, three of their regular starting XI. If this wasn’t bad enough, they had to replace Jed Steer with Orjan Nyland in just the sixth minute and then watched as Matt Target had to be replaced by Neil Taylor with 42 minutes on the clock.
While any team will struggle without some of their best players, this shouldn’t be used as an excuse as to why they lost. The midfielders were dire today and fans had to watch in anger as pass after pass went astray.
Wolves were good value for their win and Villa couldn’t really complain if they lost by more than just one goal.
At least there is now a two week break for international football, which gives the Villa medical team some time to get the important players fit and ready to play.
Here are our Villa player ratings for today’s poor showing against Wolves:
GK: Jed Steer - N/A
Went off injured after just 6 minutes on the clock.
RB: Frederic Guilbert - 4
Whenever he got the ball he tried to do far too much with it and often ended up losing it. Was caught out of position too often too.
CB: Tyrone Mings - 6
Put his body on the line whenever he needed, but gave away a stupid free-kick in the first-half that led to the goal.
CB: Ezri Konsa - 7
Made his Premier League debut and was one of Villa’s best players. He was calm throughout and did the job that was asked of him.
LB: Matt Targett - 4
Was given a torrid time by Adama Traore and couldn’t wait to get off the pitch after he took a slight knock to the head.
RM: Trezeguet - 5
Didn’t do his defensive duties and lost the ball in a good attacking position on a number of occasions. Did score another Premier League goal though.
CM: Marvelous Nakamba - 4
Made a couple of important interceptions and tackles, but his passing let him down far too often.
CM: Douglas Luiz - 3
His passing was poor, his tackling was poor, he disappeared at times, and he ducked out of the way for the first goal. He was also at fault for the second goal as he decided to put in half a tackle. An embarrassing performance from the Brazilian.
CM: John McGinn - 4
That is the worst that McGinn has played in a Villa shirt for a while. He kept getting caught in possession and disappeared for large periods of the match. His last cross of the match summed up his performance.
LM: Anwar El Ghazi - 4
His touch was poor, his passing was poor, his crossing was poor. His overall performance was just shambolic to tell the truth.
ST: Wesley Moraes - 5
To be fair to him, he didn’t get much service from the midfield throughout the game. However, he had a glorious chance to score in the second half and blazed over.
SUB: Orjan Nyland - 6
Came on with just 6 minutes on the clock and put in a decent performance. He made a few decent saves and could do nothing for the goals.
SUB: Neil Taylor - 5
Came on for Targett just before half time and did okay against the pace of Traore.
SUB: Henri Lansbury - 4
Came on for Nakamaba with just over 20 minutes to go but barely got a touch of the ball.