Unai Emery to stay "intelligent" with Aston Villa selections
Unai Emery says he will continue to be “intelligent” with team selections after defending his changes in Wednesday’s Carabao Cup defeat to Crystal Palace.
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Villa lost the fourth round tie 2-1 after Emery made 10 changes to his team which faced Bournemouth in the Premier League last Saturday.
Though the Spaniard says winning a trophy with Villa is an objective, he admitted finishing high up in the league and securing Champions League football is a bigger priority.
"I am focusing and trying to be intelligent, firstly with the players who are coming back after a long injury but also with players who need chances to play and get minutes and confidence,” he said.
"We want to get a trophy and it is an objective of mine here. Last season we played in the Conference League semi-final and got knocked out of two cups. But we got the most important objective, to get the Champions League.
"We are not getting our best performances every match, but we have to try and get it. The players tried to get their best and I have to accept the result and I have to try to understand how Palace achieved the result and how we didn’t.”
