Aston Villa owner Tony Xia has reacted to his side’s humiliating EFL Cup exit to Luton Town by suggesting certain players will be facing the axe.
Villa fell to defeat in their Championship opener against Sheffield Wednesday at the weekend, as their agonising wait for a win in a competitive game went on.
While the expectation was that they would finally get it right at Kenilworth Road, instead they fell to a 3-1 defeat and came under further fire from supporters and pundits alike.
Roberto Di Matteo has been busy in the transfer market already this summer with four new arrivals and several players offloaded, but it seems as though his work is far from finished with Xia hinting that certain individuals won’t be getting another chance.
Even we agreed to take the LC match as checking game, some players are not worth being given chance. https://t.co/jAOrXj9yFR
— Dr. Tony Xia (@Dr_TonyXia) August 10, 2016
Perhaps Di Matteo’s biggest flaw has been giving certain players that failed so miserably last season another opportunity to show that they can still contribute this year.
Whether it was Micah Richards’ questionable display in defence to Jores Okore’s horror show alongside him, there were several disappointing displays with few, if any, of the Villa players coming out of the game with any credit.
In turn, both Xia and Di Matteo will undoubtedly be back scouring the market this week as they look to try and fix the problems that are evidently still there from last season.
The biggest issue is arguably overcoming the fragility and lack of confidence in the group, and if Di Matteo can’t successfully get these players moving in the right direction having developed a losing mentality, then perhaps his rebuilding job needs to get a bit more drastic and fast.