New Aston Villa signing Evann Guessand has given supporters an insight into life at the club and his adaptation to Unai Emery’s tactics.
Villa have been slowly improving. They’ve won three matches in a row in the Europa League and Premier League after starting the season with six games without a win and Guessand‘s involvement has been part of the solution as Emery looks to get his team back on an even keel.
The Ivory Coast international has started six matches in all competitions since joining Villa in the summer transfer window and appears to have won Emery’s trust by virtue of his defensive work without the ball.
The closest the 24-year-old forward has come to scoring was against Feyenoord in the Europa League on Thursday, when his close-range snapshot in the second half clipped the post on its way wide.
Guessand spoke to the media after the Feyenoord match and discussed his ability to acclimatise to a different and challenging role under a manager who places big systemic demands on his players.
“Everything is good, and I am starting to understand how my teammates play. I am adapting my style of play to my teammates, and I feel good,” he said.
“I am starting to know how to play in this team and understand how the coach wants me to play. I think through time it will get better 100 per cent.
“I don’t have a position where I prefer to play. As long as I am on the pitch, I am happy. Last season I played number 10 on the right, because at Nice we played with two number 10s. At Villa I am playing a bit wider, but as long as I am on the pitch, I am happy.”
Addressing Villa’s difficult and disappointing start to the season, the former Nice star admitted that it was a tough environment to adapt to but said the mentality among the players has been key to the team’s improving fortunes on the pitch.
“It is true that we struggled at the beginning a little bit. Every season is different, but we are now starting to win, and we are stronger in difficult moments now,” he said.
“Maybe when the team changed, some players arrived, and you had to adapt the team to the new players. The coach had to teach the new players to play with their new teammates. This is maybe one of the reasons we struggled at the start.”
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