Emery reflects on RB Leipzig challenge

Unai Emery says the challenge presented by RB Leipzig in Wednesday’s preseason friendly will stand Aston Villa in good stead for the season ahead.

At Red Bull Arena in New Jersey, Villa came up against a team who have competed in the Champions League for the past five seasons.

And despite competing well, the German side took the honours 2-0 thanks to goals from Andre Silva and Lois Openda.

“We are in preseason and practicing with the team and progressively getting better,” Emery said.

“Today was a match against an opponent of the level we will face in the season. It was a test.

“In the first half I think we were good, even losing 2-0 due to two mistakes. One goal was a clear offside.

“We are trying to contest with ourselves some tactical work and after the red card it was a completely different match.

“The idea after it was to get the work we did with players like Jacob Ramsey and Emi Buendia taking minutes.”

In addition to first preseason outings for Ramsey and John McGinn, more minutes for summer signing Amadou Onana provided another positive.

The Belgian also showed his versatility by slotting in at centre back when needed to vacate his usual role in midfield.

Emery said: “Onana is progressively getting better.

“He’s playing trying to quickly understand our tactical idea and he played some minutes at centre-back.

“Of course he is a player for us to play as a midfielder, but he’s competitive and his adaptation is going really well.”