Aston Villa v Young Boys: Unai Emery warns against complacency ahead of Swiss rematch
Unai Emery has warned Villa will risk defeat if they let their standards slip against Young Boys.
Villa head into Thursday night’s Europa League tie as big favourites having cruised to victory in Switzerland against the same opponents in last season’s Champions League.
But while his team are flying after reeling off nine wins in their last 11 matches in all competitions, Emery is eager to guard against complacency.
The boss was left unimpressed by many aspects of the 2-0 win over Maccabi Tel Aviv earlier this month and believes Young Boys will pose a similar kind of challenge.
Emery said: “How we are now getting good results through the commitment of the players, the focus on everybody, getting the responsibility we want. This is the way.
“Tomorrow, if we are relaxing because we played some matches before and we won, but we were not performing well with the mentality we need to get consistency. If we’re not keeping this consistency we’re not going to win matches. This is the message now.”
He continued: “For example, Maccabi, in the Europa League, is similar to the match we are going to play tomorrow against Young Boys.
“We must improve things, in terms of how we prepared and played against Maccabi, tomorrow we will need more.”
Villa are targeting a fourth win in five group stage matches in a competition which helped spark their season.
Emery’s men had failed to win any of their first six matches before beating Bologna 1-0 in late September.
Victory on Thursday would further strengthen their position in the top-eight with three matches of the group stage remaining.
Defender Pau Torres said the target was finishing in those positions in order to advance straight through to the last-16, avoiding February’s play-off round.
“The Europa League helped us a lot with games like Feyenoord away and Bologna at home,” he said. “We felt strong again. We were playing well.
“We are focusing tomorrow in the same way. We need to win if we want to stay at the top of the table. We need to focus 100 per cent.”
Jacob Ramsey, Youri Tielemans and Amadou Onana were on the mark as Villa cruised to a win in Bern 14 months ago in their first Champions League group stage fixture.
Young Boys are a further two head coaches down the line since with Gerardo Seone, sacked by Borussia Monchengladbach earlier this season, returning for a second stint at the helm last month.
The Swiss outfit arrived in Birmingham to the news attacking midfielder Ebrima Colley will be out until the new year through injury.
Emery said: “At the start of the season we were not together. It starts with me, with the players following and sharing the message.
“We used the Europa League as a key moment to react, to get momentum with the results. Everything we changed we did collectively. Now, we are getting results because of our commitment.”
