After Legia Warsaw’s failure, Clement Lenglet may never start for Aston Villa again, and Diego Carlos’ injury appears to be helping.
With defender Diego Carlos expected to return to Villa Park training the next week, Aston Villa has got a much-needed boost ahead of a vital few weeks. As a result, Clement Lenglet may never start again following his failure against Legia Warsaw.
The former Sevilla defender is reportedly scheduled to return to first-team practice the following week, giving manager Unai Emery extra alternatives in defense.
After sustaining a hamstring injury in the 3-0 loss to Liverpool at Anfield prior to the international break, where he was taken out so early in the first half, the Brazilian center-back has missed three weeks of play.
Carlos hasn’t exactly had the best of luck since moving from Sevilla last summer, with his long-term injury at the start of the season against Everton summarizing things.
Carlos has recently been ready to take his moment at Villa Park, appearing in all four Premier League games [Transfermarkt] since the Liverpool defeat, despite being back from injury, a new season started, and Emery in the coaching area.
The last thing Emery wanted was for another one of his key defenders to be sidelined for an extended period of time following the long-term injury to veteran international defender Tyrone Mings. However, that is exactly what happened, and it proved to be rather detrimental on the team’s return to Europe on Thursday night (September 21), as they suffered a disappointing 3-2 loss at the hands of Legia Warsaw.
Due to Legia’s potential for scoring more than three goals, the Spaniard was compelled to start Clement Lenglet with Ezri Konsa in place of Pau Torres, who was forced to sit out the game. Both players were utterly destroyed.
The uncapped Englishman is certain to keep his spot in the future given his importance to Emery, as evidenced by his new Aston Villa contract, despite Konsa receiving a pitiful SofaScore rating of 6.1 [SofaScore], failing to register a single tackle, no interceptions, no blocks, and dribbling past once while winning all of his aerial duels.
Lenglet, a loan player from Barcelona, had a terrible night in Poland and was only partially awake for all three of Legia’s goals.
Lenglet completed 100% of his ground duels, 93% of his passes, and one of his single dribbles. However, despite his tall and lanky frame, he failed to win any of his aerial duels. He also only made one tackle throughout the entire game and had no interceptions, clearances, or blocks [SofaScore] in an otherwise underwhelming performance.
At the center of the Aston Villa defense on his debut, the Frenchman undoubtedly fell short of expectations, and Emery will be anxious to re-incorporate Torres at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea on Sunday.
Carlos will soon be back in the game, thus Thursday’s disaster might have been Lenglet’s final start for Emery during his loan stint in the West Midlands.
