What Aston Villa friendly defeat at Hansa Rostock revealed about Unai Emery’s defensive tactics

Aston Villa lost their second pre-season friendly of 2025/26, going down 3-1 in a flying visit to third-tier German side Hansa Rostock on Saturday.

Villa are yet to reintroduce the group of international players who returned to pre-season as recently as last Monday, playing with a similar mix of Premier League experience and youth to Wednesday’s traditional visit to Walsall.

It’s always better to win than to lose but it has to be acknowledged that the requirements of pre-season friendlies are different and Villa still haven’t put out a team that’s anywhere near the standard even of the one that will start the first Carabao Cup tie.

After blanking at the Bescot in midweek, Villa did at least pick up their first goal of pre-season. It was a beautifully taken strike from Jacob Ramsey, who looks to have enjoyed 90 minutes of roaming around Villa’s left in pre-season so far despite the possible distraction of transfer speculation.

While it wasn’t a match from which to draw too many substantial conclusions, Marco Bizot made his first appearance and it was noteworthy that Tyrone Mings and Pau Torres were named together in the starting line-up.

Why is Unai Emery looking at a back three?

Mings and Torres have been an either/or decision for the most part since the Spanish centre-back joined Mings in the Villa ranks in 2023.

The fact that they’re both left-footed has rendered them mostly incompatible and the presence of Ezri Konsa on the right usually means it’s a straight choice between the two.

But they have different and valuable attributes. Villa miss Torres in possession when Mings plays. They miss the leadership and physically dominant defending of Mings when he doesn’t.

Judging by the first half at Hansa Rostock, Villa manager Unai Emery is keen to use part of the club’s extensive pre-season fixture list to look for a way to get all three central defenders into the team. He’s willing to entertain the idea of a back three in order to do it.

Villa tried something different in Germany. Emery used Lamare Bogarde as a Konsa proxy and gave Mings and Torres a chance to show what they can do together.

How did Villa’s back three work against Hansa Rostock?

Villa essentially played with a back three in possession and a back four without the ball.

Torres played on the left of the three and Bogarde dropped back from Wednesday’s impressive midfield role to cover what will be Konsa’s position when he returns to the fold. Mings marshalled the defensive line from the middle.

Àlex Moreno (left) and Andrés García (right) operated as wing-backs when Villa had the ball, taking up high starting positions and getting beyond the midfield players and forwards when they had the chance to get into attacking positions.

Torres, Mings and Bogarde anchored the team in a clear three, a base that was unsurprisingly solid against weaker opposition.

A back three in possession is never really a back three when the ball’s coming the other way and Villa had two out-of-possession shapes in response to Hansa on Saturday.

There were a few occasions when Moreno and García simply retreated into a back five. More often, a familiar back four was deployed without the ball and it was one that might just get the best out of Villa’s central defenders and full-backs in all three phases.

A new role for Andrés García

Villa’s back four out of possession was made up of Moreno, Torres, Mings and Bogarde. The left-back dropped in and the three centre-backs shifted right to move Bogarde to right-back, a position Konsa has played a lot for Villa.

Using Konsa’s ability to do both would appear to be a good way to get the strengths of Torres and Mings into the same team while limiting the attacking burden of Konsa at right-back by having a player either outside or in front of him.

On Saturday, García was that player. On another day it will be Matty Cash. Both players can play as wing-backs but are more familiar with a more straightforward attacking full-back role. Emery’s hybrid would put a legitimate right-back behind them when Villa are defending.

García (or) Cash would be asked to get forward like a wing-back but not to get back like a full-back. The same approach could be adapted to the other side, with García forming the right side of the back four and Ian Maatsen playing in front of Torres out of possession.

It remains to be seen whether Emery liked what he saw from his defence in the first half in Germany.

I’d certainly expect to see him try the same approach again against Eintracht Frankfurt in the early hours of next Sunday morning and, at least once, with Maatsen, Cash and Konsa in the team.

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