The Holy Trinity: Aston Villa conclusions from friendly loss against Real Sociedad
Villa returned to the Bescot for their third friendly of pre-season before heading to Indonesia this week
La Liga opponents Real Sociedad were 4-2 winners at the Pallet-Track Bescot Stadium on Tuesday evening.
Aston Villa played their third pre-season friendly of the summer at the home of Walsall and added to a collection of conceded goals that might be alarming in competitive matches.
Instead, the goals scored against Villa by Porto and Real Sociedad serve only to highlight the importance of partnerships and preparation at the back.
In any case, La Real’s third goal was offside and the fourth was the direct result of a handling error by a capable young goalkeeper who won’t play first team football for Villa this season.
Here’s your Holy Trinity of match conclusions.
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1. George Hemmings continues to progress
19-year-old George Hemmings played against Real Sociedad in the position where we’ve become used to seeing Emi Buendía, on the left of a line of three behind a striker and dropping to the left of the midfield out of possession.
It would be disingenuous to deny that Hemmings was shaky in his brief first team opportunity last season but he is impressing again in a second successive pre-season and looks to be maturing nicely into a player capable of standing out in these matches.
He was very sharp in this game. He moved smartly, showed well for the ball and had quicker feet than the players around him.
Villa TV co-commentator and Villa legend Brian Little was won over by the way Hemmings is able to bring the ball in on the turn and he also demonstrated his ability to let the ball run across his body and look after it under pressure, a skill that’s about confidence as much as technique.
It’s great to see him having an effect in possession this summer. He can play clever little passes in the attacking third and his pairing with Ian Maatsen on the left worked well because the left-back’s overlapping runs suited Hemmings’ desire to roam in-field.
The teenager can drop a shoulder to make space and get turned in midfield, and is carrying the ball with authority now too. The signs are positive. With the right loan deal, Hemmings could be in for a key season.
2. Ian Maatsen is gearing up for a big season
Unai Emery and Villa are likely to put their faith in Maatsen in 2026/27 and they need a lot from him – if we’re honest, much more than they’ve seen from him in a Villa shirt so far.
That being the case, everybody is watching him closely in these friendly matches and he, too, is showing some promise with the pressure off.
Even before they combined for Villa’s first goal courtesy of Maatsen’s deft pass into the box and Hemmings’ crisp finish into the bottom corner, the pair were combining well.
With Hemmings floating off the flank, Maatsen consistently sought to get himself free in advanced positions on the left where Ross Barkley in particular could unleash him with a pass from in to out.
Maatsen’s end product is under the microscope at the moment. It’s not perfect or even polished, but we know he can fizz in a low ball that causes problems for the opposition. It should have been the source of a first goal for Villa on the night.
His defensive capabilities are also essential and Villa need to see a step up at the back as well. Real Sociedad gave him plenty of work to do on Tuesday, putting him through his paces by looking for overloads on his side and using them well.
I’m not quite sold on him as a two-way left-back but I’m certain there’s something there. Let’s see more of it while the squad’s in the Far East.
3. Social media is some crazy shit
There are reasons why Aston Villa Review is set up as a newsletter and podcast rather than a suite of social media accounts.
One is that I will do almost anything to contribute to my living but whoring for attention is not on the agenda.
Another, and most pertinent here, is that feeding algorithmic social media timelines with so-called football news is of so little interest to me I can’t even begin to tell you.
I respect some of the people who dedicate themselves to posting from the same finite pool of news as a hundred other ‘creators’ or hawking rumours on forums but after 20 years in the total fucking sham that is the social media marketing industry, I’d really rather stay clear of it.
Something that’s accepted too readily by football fans is poorly sourced information published without fact-checking, only to be proved false. It’s lazy at best, and usually closer to maliciously misleading or just flat-out not caring as long as it delivers clicks.
Not exactly a noble pursuit, if you ask me.
Anyway, Pau Torres played the second half of this match.
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