Every word Unai Emery said about transfers, Tyrone Mings injury, Juan Foyth and West Ham draw
Unai Emery sat down with the media after Aston Villa's 1-1 draw with West Ham at Villa Park.
Jacob Ramsey opened the scoring early on before the game changed when Tyrone Mings came off with a knee injury. Emerson equalised in the second half to deny Villa what would have been their third successive home win in a row in all competitions. Here is every word Emery said in his post-match press conference...
Unai, was Mings' injury a turning point in the game?
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After Tyrone Mings' injury we did struggle a little bit in our process. How we started the game was fantastic. We created chances and scored a goal. After the injury of Tyrone, it was more difficult to win. The second half, we tried to recover what we had in the first half but we didn't feel comfortable like we did in the first half.
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"When they scored we tried to get on fresh legs, but it was not enough. Of course, at the end of the match we had to accept the result and keep going. The last action, we were so close to losing."
Is it important to add new options in the final week of the transfer window?
"We are trying to be intelligent and make the better decisions transfer window. It’s not easy to change some players in this window. We did with Jaden and Malen and with Kosta - he is close to leaving - and a centre-back we didn’t do because we are now involved in it.
"If we can then add some players to improve the squad we have to do it, but how we are performing, we’re in the right way. We are missing four, five, six points but those points aren’t coming. We have to recover in the matches we are going to play and to be positive. Today was not enough but we have to accept it and be positive, try to work more because we are playing a lot of matches in a row. Now we need to recover tomorrow and be ready for Wednesday."
How is Tyrone Mings?
"The first test we did, I think it’s not really bad injury for a long time. Tomorrow we will test again and we will know how bad his injury is, hopefully not a lot. We are positive."
Did he think it was serious at the time?
"You have to accept the injured moments from different players but when they’re out for a long time it’s the worst. I was upset because we are without Pau injured and we didn’t yet replace Carlos and we’re playing the last month with two centre-backs. Lamare Bogarde can play midfield, right-back and centre-back on the right. I wanted a player to build up with the left so I decided with Lucas because he experience and he can play as well trying to keep the same structure we want."
Were you frustrated to lose Carlos before replacing him?
"We are doing everything we can and we have to control everything that is in our hands. This transfer window is not easy and we didn’t want him to leave. But he decided to leave because he was accepting an offer from Turkey. We are trying to take these consequences, analysing and bringing in one centre-back to replace him. Still, there are days to decide how we can do it."
Are you confident of getting a new centre-back in before the window shuts and would you like to sign Juan Foyth?
"We are with Monchi and the club analysing different players and their profiles. I know Juan Foyth because I have worked with him. He is one player with his quality, he can play with the performance we want to add into the squad."
