Forget Young: “Stupid” Aston Villa dud who lost 71% duels was a liability v Wolves - opinion

Aston Villa had a fairly miserable return to Premier League action this afternoon after losing 2-1 to their Midlands rivals Wolves at Molineux.

The Villans found themselves 1-0 down after just seven minutes as full-back Jonny Otto got his name on the scoresheet. Things then got worse for the away side as Ashley Young, who replaced the injured Lucas Digne just a few minutes after the opening goal, ended up turning the ball into his own net with 36 minutes on the clock.

A late penalty scored by Ollie Watkins ended up merely being a consolation goal as Steven Gerrard’s side left Molineux with no points.

One player in a Villa shirt who had a particularly disappointing afternoon, arguably more so than Young, was right-back Matty Cash.

Having played the entire 90 minutes, the full-back had 55 touches of the ball but could only complete 26 passes. Out of the four crosses he attempted, three of them were inaccurate, in addition to the one and only long ball he played failing to find its intended target.

The defender, who has been slammed in the past by former Villa manager Dean Smith for his “stupid” decision making, ended up losing possession of the ball for his side 15 times throughout the match.

From a defensive point of view, the Poland international lost 71% of his ground duels, was dribbled past on two occasions and failed to make even one tackle, showing how much of a liability he was at the back.

This display ultimately earned the 24-year-old a disappointing overall match rating of 5.9/10 from SofaScore, making him the lowest-rated Villa player on the day – even lower than Digne, who was only on the pitch for 13 minutes.

Birmingham Live journalist Ashley Preece also picked up on the defender’s shaky performance by saying