Aston Villa penalties: Coach Unai Emery says team ‘have to be more clinical’ as penalty woe continues

Villa took the lead in the fourth minute through Ivan Gissand, but wasted four great chances before their Dutch rivals equalized before the end of the first half.

Buendia continued his impressive form recently, but he was unable to score his fourth goal in five matches, after scoring the winning goal against Tottenham on Sunday.

“Buendia played unbelievably, he scored the goal after coming on as a substitute at the weekend,” Michail Antonio told TNT Sports.

“Today he was very creative, making a lot of through passes. When I saw him go up, I thought it was a goal. It’s disappointing to see.” [the miss] But they have to take it seriously and keep moving forward.”

Emery appears to be doing just that as he appeared calm when asked after the match about Villa’s penalty woes.

“Today the responsibility was on Buendia, and he usually has good numbers in taking penalties, but he missed them.

“Of course, something can happen, and we will try to be more effective in the penalty shootout than the last one we had.

“Our suitors are clear. Buendia was today, [Jadon] Sancho, John McGinn, Morgan [Rogers] Penalty kicks can also be taken.

“Of course, Emiliano can repeat that, but the idea is to try to be very responsible with the decision and which strikers can score.”

Of those other options mentioned by Emery, Manchester United loanee Sancho is the most experienced penalty taker.

However, the most recent of his three successful penalties at senior club level came while playing for Borussia Dortmund in February 2021.

The responsibility to address Villa’s problem may fall to Austin McPhee, one of the most respected dead-ball coaches in the game.

He joined Villa in 2021 under Dean Smith as manager, combining his role with his position in Portugal manager Roberto Martinez’s coaching staff.