Aston Villa recorded a score draw at Stoke City in the Championship on Saturday afternoon.
It is fair to say that nothing has frustrated Aston Villa fans more this season than their full-backs continually showing their incompetence in defending, whether it be Ahmed Elmohamady, Neil Taylor or Alan Hutton.
This was proven once again during Villa’s 1-1 draw at Stoke City at the weekend, with Elmohamady failing to stop the home team from attacking on his side.
Speaking on EFL Championship Goals on Sky Sports Football (23/02/2019 at 8:40 pm), Sky pundit Liam Rosenior’s analysis of the senior Villa players defending will not surprise supporters one bit.
“Charlie Adam plays a brilliant crossfield pass to McClean,” Rosenior told Sky Sports Football.
“Now for me, yes it is a great ball, but can Elmohamady get tighter? Can he really affect that? Because he allows [McClean] to play with his head up, which allows him to feed a ball inside to Clucas [who feeds Vokes for the opening goal].”
Initially, Alan Hutton started at right-back, but he was forced off injured early on in the game because of an injury, with Elmohamady being pushed back into his natural position.
That early goal for Villa was a hammer blow to them because they had started well and throughout the game, they looked the better team in what has been a difficult few months for the club.
Nonetheless, over the course of the season, both under Steve Bruce and now Dean Smith, Villa have had James Bree, Axel Tuanzebe, Hutton, Elmohamady, Taylor and now Kortney Hause utilise those full-back positions.
Only Hause is beginning to show his qualities in that position, while Tuanzebe looked good when he was played there, but he is a centre-back by trade.
But there is no doubt that Elmohamady, who has played 26 Championship games this season [transfermarkt], has struggled in defence this term and parting ways with the 2017 summer signing may be the best option for both parties in the summer.
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