Emery speaks ahead of Newcastle

Unai Emery spoke to the media from Bodymoor Heath on Friday afternoon.

Aston Villa's manager fielded questions ahead of his team's trip to Newcastle United in the Premier League.

Here are the key lines from the press conference...

On rebuilding the team…

“The players are doing a huge effort each match to try to do their task in our demands. The first demand is for myself with the coaches, how we can get our structure with the players we have and the combination with the players in the idea we need to build the team, to face, in the level, we achieved last year to be there.

“Until now, we didn't do it. But we are really improving, and we can see, positively, how we can get the next challenges in front of us.

“So it’s good news how we are improving: some players being inured that are joining us; some players are getting fit; some players are understanding better how we want tactically to work.

“We are building the team in the same way we did it three, two, and one years ago, but with the difficult period with some new players and young players to do this gap between the high level and the low level as fast as possible.

“The results are very important, and the results in. the last matches are getting better. We lost against Nottingham Forest at home in the Premier League. After it, we won in Tottenham and we drew against Brentford.

“Of course, it was not enough but we showed some improvement. And then in the Champions League, we have started fantastically. In the League Cup, we won one fantastic match as well in Coventry.

“More or less, we can use those examples to justify that we are improving. But, again, we can be realistic, about the difficult period there is still to do, working hard and improving things.”

On Johan Manzambi…

“His adaptation is going quickly. There are still things to understand about how we want to proceed during the match: offensively, defensively, and tactically with the structure we have.

“He is more or less adapting quickly and doing things that are very, very positive for the team and for our idea. He’s a versatile player, he can drive, he can get into the box, he's doing assists, scoring goals. He is defensively as well, giving us the compactness we need, but not completely. He can improve, of course.

“We want to achieve with him something like the last years gave us with Morgan Rogers. He’s one player who is, more or less, similar, but with his own characteristics as a player.

“I am happy: he's mature – Morgan was mature as well – he likes football, he's responsible, he's a good professional during the process here, working, and in his life.

“It's a very good example of the mentality we need, individually as well.”

On balancing European and Premier League matches…

"The rotation is coming when the players are ready to play in our demands. This is the only difference. We did some changes on Wednesday after the match we played on Saturday. We did some changes on Wednesday and the players responded as well.

“This is one step forward, clearly. How I am going to decide for tomorrow, maybe it's going in the same way, but I need to know how they are playing today because we played on Wednesday and the demand was high.

“Some players may be tired, some can feel some pain, not injuries but maybe pain. How we will play tomorrow with the starting XI players, I need time. Today, after our training session in the afternoon/evening, more or less, I'm going to clarify myself which players are ready for tomorrow and thinking to be, not 80%, to be 100%.”

On Newcastle United…

“They had some changes, but they signed some very good players. Some players who left, especially in the middle, Bruno Guimarães and Sandro Tonali, they can feel some differences in players and performances.

“Nico González is a very fantastic player, and I think he’s going to replace them with the quality he has. Adding to it, they have some injuries – more than normal. They are progressively recovering some players.

“Newcastle in their home is always very difficult. They are going to press, they’re going to play with their supporters pushing them. Individually, they’re going to get duels and be very demanding to beat us.

“From our side, we must be ready to compete strongly. Strongly defending, strongly offensively as well, very compact, each player focused 100% on his task and doing it. We will need players on the bench ready to play in case we need fresh legs.”