Morgan Rogers comments on Aston Villa squad after Crystal Palace collapse

The forward warned there were “no excuses for Unai Emery’s team after they fell to a seventh defeat in nine Premier League away matches.

Villa were playing their fourth league game in the space of 11 days and boss Emery, who lost goalkeeper Emi Martinez to injury at half-time, has been critical of the hectic schedule.

But Rogers, who netted his 12th goal of the season in all competitions, believes they should still have been able to put in a better showing.

January signings Marco Asensio and Marcus Rashford both came off the bench in the second half.

Rogers said: “I don’t think we’re going to make excuses. I think we’ve got a good enough squad, a big enough squad.

“Last week we were talking about how good our subs are off the bench and so on and so forth.

“So, no, we’re not going to make that an excuse. We just weren’t good enough, it’s as simple as that.”

Villa are quickly back in action when they host Cardiff in the fifth round of the FA Cup on Friday, before travelling to Belgium for the first leg of their Champions League tie with Club Brugge next Tuesday. 

Rogers continued: “We need to look at ourselves, go again, we’ve got games coming thick and fast in different competitions. We need to take our eye off the Premier League a bit and concentrate on other things.

“Games are coming thick and fast now, we can’t dwell on it, and we have to move on as a team.”

Rogers saw a goal controversially disallowed for offside before eventually netting in impressive fashion seven minutes into the second half, cancelling out Ismaila Sarr’s opener for Palace.

But with the match seemingly in the balance it was the home side who seized the initiative, Jean Philippe-Mateta firing them back in front before further goals from Sarr and Eddie Nketiah condemned Villa to their joint-worst defeat of the season.

Emery had opted to change his usual system and field a back three, with the primary aim of neutralising Palace’s attacking threat.

Yet it could not fix a Villa defence which now has the Premier League’s worst record outside the bottom five, as they slipped down to 10th in the table. Martinez, meanwhile, will be tested after complaining of pain in the first half.

Rogers said: “I thought in the first half we did pretty well, they scored probably against the run of play a bit, which isn’t ideal.

“But I think we did well to get back into the game. Obviously, I had the offside, the goal that didn’t count. And then I was lucky to get the one I did in the second half.

“Then we probably didn’t stamp our authority on the game, it was a bit too easy for them to get through us.

“They created chances and scored, they deserved the win. We just weren’t good enough. It was one of those games.”