Fixtures
- Newcastle United Vs. Aston Villa – Thu, Dec 26th 2024, 15:00
Unai Emery met with the media at Bodymoor Heath on Monday afternoon, to look ahead to Aston Villa’s Boxing Day trip to Newcastle United.
The Villans visit St. James’ Park on Thursday looking for a fifth win in six games, against Eddie Howe’s in-form Magpies.
The Villa boss discussed the form of Morgan Rogers and the wider midfield structure, as well as assessing home and away form, and the threat of Newcastle.
Read the key lines from his pre-match press conference below…
On focus…
“We are trying to separate each moment, each competition, and now we are, after we won against Manchester City, more or less in good balance.
“Good balance in the table, but still being a long way with what we have to do in the next matches.
“Of course, now we are only going to focus on one match: Newcastle. They are behind us by two points, but we are not now in the top four, we are sixth.
“They are our opponent now, and they are another team like Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest doing a fantastic job.
“We have to try to get each moment, each team, trying to face them with the circumstances we are going to have.”
On Morgan Rogers…
“We need his number [goals and assists], and more or less he is getting it.
“I am very demanding with him, with the team, with myself, but with Morgan, because he is very important for us.
“I need his performance every match we are playing, with different objectives as well – sometimes playing a number 10, sometimes left side, defensively and offensively, assists, score goals, get in the box, try to make the link with our midfielders and defence when we are progressing with the ball.
“He has a lot of responsibility in my idea, style, and of course I am trying to push him a lot. I am very happy with him, but I want more from him.”
On competitive division…
“It is not changing. When I arrived here, my thoughts were that it is the most difficult league.
“A lot of teams have capacity, with good players, good coaches and good history. Different moments for different teams.
“Now is the moment for Nottingham Forest, but their history is a huge history in the Premier League and even in Champions League, with two wins.
“Bournemouth now as well, are performing very well. There are a lot of teams now getting more points than normal.
“Those points they are getting is because the quality of the teams and players is very high.
“The league is a very interesting league, very motivating for us, each match how we can get points and be better. Now we are sixth, we are trying to focus each match, be consistent.
“We are feeling better at home, but away, it is completely different. It’s our challenge. Our next challenge is Newcastle away.”
On Newcastle and Eddie Howe…
“Very difficult, because I think now they are in good form, and of course they played two years ago in Champions League. Their objective is clearly to be in Europe.
“Fantastic. He [Howe] was doing a fantastic job with Bournemouth.
“Always, his teams are more or less dynamic teams, intensity, they like to play with the ball possession and being aggressive in attack, attacking with a lot of players.
“They like as well to do a lot of duels on the field, man to man. They beat us last year two times, and of course I respect them a lot.
“It is going to be very difficult because we know in Newcastle with their supporters, it is a very strong stadium for them, difficult for the opponent.
“More or less, they are being successful at home. They have lost some matches, but they are performing very well and winning a lot of matches.
“It is going to be very difficult. I respect the coach, I respect the players, I respect the club.
“It’s our big motivation on Thursday to play there.”
On midfield dynamic…
“We are building the team.
“After the adaptation of Amadou Onana, he is getting better, but there is still work to do for everything we want to get from him.
“[Boubacar] Kamara, last year he was playing fantastic. He was getting injured and now he is coming back really strong, feeling comfortable and feeling in good form.
“We have to try to use our players with their qualities, skill, capacity and combinations we can have.
“Youri Tielemans can play as a midfielder, 6, 8 and 10 like he played [against Man City], and last year.
“With Ross Barkley, we are feeling the same. He is really working very well. His adaptation has been fantastic with us. As always, I am pushing to get more from him.
“Now we are more or less trying to get our structure as strong as possible, and thinking as well with the players we have in different matches.
“The last match we played with Amadou and Kamara, was a very good practice we did, performing very well, both players, and keeping the same structure right that we have. This is the way.
“I want from them, the same mentality to play in different combinations. Last Saturday was a fantastic job they did, Kamara and Onana.
“I am firstly looking to impose and dominate with our structure.
“The matches being different, we can adapt more or less with our opponent. My choice is the feeling that day as well, with the opponent and characteristics.”
