Unai Emery says it was a 'MISTAKE' to play Ollie Watkins and Jhon Duran together against Monaco as he questions his side's mental strength after 1-0 defeat
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Unai Emery blamed himself for Aston Villa's defeat at Monaco but reserved his harshest criticism for some of his players. The Villa boss accused his side of lacking ruthlessness in front of goal and suggested not all his team had the mental strength required for elite football.
![[Watkins (left) started the game, with Duran (right) introduced in the second half of the match]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/21/21/94366333-0-image-a-13_1737495166986.jpg)
'We are being very demanding with the players and some of them are not following the plan,' said Emery, who admitted the decision to pair Jhon Duran with Ollie Watkins after 55 minutes had backfired. 'This is my objective now, to build the team to be as strong as possible with a mentality we are building progressively.
![[Emery called the mentality of a number of his players into question while defending others]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/21/21/94366349-0-image-a-5_1737495131512.jpg)
'We were horrible at set pieces. And when we had two strikers on the pitch, we lost our positioning. I made a mistake in deciding to play with two strikers. 'Morgan Rogers was a little bit sick. Emiliano Buendia played a fantastic game. Boubacar Kamara, Youri Tielemans, Ezri Konsa, Matty Cash, Emiliano Martinez and Tyrone Mings played doing everything we were planning.'.
Unai Emery admitted it was a 'mistake' to play both Ollie Watkins and Jhan Duran vs Monaco. Watkins (left) started the game, with Duran (right) introduced in the second half of the match. Emery called the mentality of a number of his players into question while defending others.
The players Emery did not mention were Leon Bailey, Watkins, Lucas Digne, Ian Maatsen and Duran. Bailey had a poor game and was replaced by Duran 10 minutes into the second half. Watkins and Bailey missed first-half chances and Emery added: 'We created three or four chances and if we want to be at this level we have to take them.'.
