Aston Villa’s hopes of securing a place in the Champions League next season were dealt a blow when they lost 2-1 to Manchester City at The Etihad on Tuesday night.
The Villans, sat in seventh, remain two points behind Newcastle United in fifth place, but have now played a game more than Chelsea, Newcastle, and Forest above them.
A last-gasp goal from Matheus Nunes secured all three points for the home side, after Bernardo Silva and Marcus Rashford’s first-half goals had the game level, and Axel Disasi will not want to see his involvement in the goal replayed.
Axel Disasi's game-changing mistake
The French defender was brought on to replace Matty Cash at right-back in the second half and was skipped past with ease by Jeremy Doku in the build-up to the winning goal.
Disasi, as shown in the clip below, tried to tackle the Belgium international and completely missed the ball, which allowed the winger to spring past him before delivering a perfect cross for Nunes to score.
The centre-back, playing outside of his natural position, could have tried to show Doku down the line and attempted to block the cross, but tried to cut the attack out at source and got it all wrong, which was a costly mistake in the end.
Disasi did, however, win three of his four duels – making three tackles – prior to that lost duel with the winger, which shows that he was having a good cameo until that moment in stoppage time.
The Chelsea loanee was not the worst performer on the pitch for Unai Emery, however, as Boubacar Kamara put in a disappointing display in the middle of the park.
Why Unai Emery must drop Boubacar Kamara
The Villa head coach must ruthlessly drop the French enforcer from the starting XI because it was a tired performance by the former Marseille star.
He seemed to be laboured in his approach to duels in midfield and that led to Manchester City’s players winning the vast majority of their battles against him. Kamara ended the game with a duel success rate of 23%, losing seven of his nine duels, which shows how easy it was for the opposition.
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Maybe it was a game too far for Kamara, who has played 37 times in all competitions this season, and Emery may need to drop him from the team to provide him with the rest that his display on Tuesday night suggests that he needs.
Pass accuracy
87%
89%
Duels won
2
4.4
Duel success rate
23%
54%
Tackles
0
2.1
Interceptions
0
0.7
Dribbled past per game
2x
1.1x
As you can see in the table above, he was below his usual standards in the Premier League this season. Instead of being his usual combative, assured, strong self, the midfield flop made it too easy for Manchester City to control the middle of the park.
He also played the full 90 minutes, and that is why he was even worse than Disasi, who only had one poor moment off the bench, because the midfielder was consistently underwhelming throughout the game.
To end the match with zero tackles and zero interceptions, as a defensive midfield, whilst playing the full game, is disappointing and not the standard that he has set this season, which is why now could be the time for Emery to take him out of the side.
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