Unai Emery has a decision to make when selecting his team ahead of Aston Villa’s crucial Europa Conference League clash with Olympiacos, it could be bad news for Clement Lenglet.
Aston Villa must travel to Piraeus with the belief that they can overturn a two-goal deficit against Olympiacos, after the first leg of the Europa Conference League semi-final failed to go to plan.
The last thing Unai Emery would have wanted was to see his side lose 4-2 at Villa Park in the opening leg of the tie, with 90 minutes in Greece standing between Villa and a spot in their first European final since 1982.
In 1982, Villa won the European Cup, something that Emery’s side can only achieve if they are to pull off the ultimate comeback on Thursday.
There will be an extensive list of improvements that the Spaniard will want to see from his squad after the first leg, with one player’s chances of starting surely limited after his display at Villa Park.
Unai Emery has a decision to make about Clement Lenglet v Olympiacos
The majority of Villa’s side struggled in the first leg, primarily the defence as Jose Luis Mendilibar’s front line exploited any weakness noticed in the hosts.
One overwhelming weak spot proved to be Clement Lenglet, who has played the majority of Villa’s games in Europe this season ahead of Pau Torres, who was on the bench last week.
In his post-match player ratings for the Daily Mail, journalist Lewis Steele described the manager’s decision to play Lenglet over Torres as ‘bizarre’ describing the Frenchman as looking ‘off the pace all evening’.
It’s not an unfair analysis of the Barcelona loanee, who was dragged around by Olympiacos striker Ayoub El Kaabi, who netted a hattrick in the first leg of the tie.
Taking to Twitter during the fixture at Villa Park, journalist Jacob Tanswell noticed that the Greek side was ‘constantly trying to put El Kaabi in a race with Lenglet’, who was losing most times against the incredibly clinical Moroccan.
Clement Lenglet could not handle Ayoub El Kaabi
Considering that El Kaabi walked away with the match ball, it would be fair to say that the 30-year-old won his battle with the Villa centre-back, who looked frail alongside the striker as he scored three goals from his three shots on target.
Based on the clinical streak of Olympiacos’ front line, Emery can not afford a repeat of the first-leg battle between Lenglet and El Kaabi, with Torres surely the safer option for the manager to rely on at this time.
As highlighted above, the £150k-a-week defender was far below the level required in a European semi-final, giving the Villa boss something to think about ahead of the must-win second leg.
While scoring early is critical for the Villans in Greece, keeping a clean sheet is imperative, something that after last week, Lenglet cannot be relied on to do against the Olympiacos attack.
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