‘Really surprised’… Gary Neville left shocked by what Unai Emery did vs Man United yesterday

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Gary Neville has now admitted his surprise at a decision Aston Villa manager Unai Emery made against Manchester United yesterday.

Unfortunately for Villa fans, the absence of both Pau Torres and Ezri Konsa seemed to be very costly for Emery yesterday.

Yes, United’s front line is starting to finally click under Erik ten Hag, but a centre-back duo of Clement Lenget and Diego Carlos isn’t inspiring a lot of confidence at Villa Park right now.

Both are stellar defenders, however, they are better paired with one of Villa’s reliable stalwarts.

In truth, Konsa has just become such an important figure in Emery’s team, that he’s hard to cope without.

However, it wasn’t the starting personnel that Emery chose for Villa yesterday that concerned Gay Neville, rather his substitutions.

The pundit was speaking on his self-titled podcast following the conclusion of yesterday’s action, and couldn’t quite understand why the Spaniard chose to withdraw Leon Bailey.

Neville underlined his respect for Emery and all he’s achieved, but couldn’t quite align with his decision making on this one.

Gary Neville baffled by Unai Emery’s decision to substitute Villa winger Leon Bailey

The pundit thought that Bailey was causing Victor Lindelof real issues at full-back, and didn’t like the decision to move to a more defensively solid look.

Neville explained: “Unai Emery I have so much respect for as a manager, I think he is one of the great European managers, but I was really surprised at the time when Leon Bailey came off.

“He was over there against Lindelof and I wouldn’t say he was ripping Lindelof to shreds but he was causing real problems and Diaby was a Butterfly in that number 10 role.

“He was a bit more agile than McGinn was and a bit more unpredictable, he scored the goal and I thought why change it and he went more solid. 

“I just thought from that point Villa just lost the impetus and let Manchester United off the hook a little bit.”

Of course, there is merit to Neville’s words, it’s possible Emery did get it wrong at Villa for once.

That being said, the manager was seen going crazy towards Alex Moreno at left-back during the game, desperate for his full-back to overlap more.

So it doesn’t necessarily seem as if Emery was lacking attacking ambition, rather he just perhaps made the wrong call, at the wrong time.

That being said, Villa will be determined to return to winning ways away to Fulham next Saturday.