Monaco boss Adi Hutter aims dig as he says Aston Villa plan 'makes no sense'
AS Monaco could confirm their place in the Champions League knockouts by drawing with Aston Villa on Tuesday night, but manager Adi Hutter joked "we are not an Italian team" and insisted that he will set his side up to win.
Monaco host Villa in a poor vein of form after winning only one of their last eight games in all competitions, and that came against lower league side Union Saint-Jean in December. They haven't recovered from shipping two late goals in a 3-2 home defeat to Benfica in the Champions League matchweek five, before they then lost to Arsenal 3-0 last month.
"We have an opportunity against a big, big opponent and tomorrow we will face a team in the Premier League who is stable in their results," Hutter said. "Arsenal were the better team [on Saturday], but Villa came back and played out a draw. Unai Emery has won four titles in Europe and he has very good players.
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"Martinez is an unbelievable goalkeeper. Rogers is a fantastic number 10, Duran and Watkins as the strikers. Tielemans is the pacemaker in the centre of midfield. We also have to be very careful with every goal in this league phase. Every goal in the end can be decisive. We are going out on the pitch to try and win this game.
"It may be a surprise to see some big teams under the top eight, but for me Aston Villa was a team who could have competed in the top eight. They are really strong, but tomorrow we know this is very important for us as it is our last home game. We want to fight and we have to do this in every situation."
Hutter added: "Everyone can see we are struggling at the moment. Sometimes it is better to lose 4-0, take a bump on the nose and then bounce back. Sometimes you go on a good run and everything looks so easy, but now we are in a bad run. I will never criticise the team and I will protect the team. I have responsibility as a coach and together, it is a big challenge to come out of this at the end of the season. I trust in our team."
Should PSG or Stuttgart fail to win on matchday seven, a draw will be enough to advance Monaco to the play-off knockout, but Hutter insists he will set his side up to beat Villa.
"We are not an Italian team! We are a team who can play forward, but it makes no sense to go into a game and play a draw. It makes much more sense to do everything well as a team and continue our DNA and identity as a team. At the end of the 90 minutes, if we draw then we will also be really happy."
