Switzerland manager Murat Yakin has asked match officials to protect Aston Villa‘s Johan Manzambi from opposition players after their 2-1 UEFA Nations League win over Slovenia at the weekend.
The win over Slovenia saw Switzerland players fouled 15 times, resulting in five yellow cards.
Eight of them [four each] were on both the Aston Villa summer signing and Burnley’s Zeki Amdouni.
Aston Villa player tackled regularly
The Premier League side signed the 20-year-old from SC Freiburg in July, after beating Newcastle United to the deal. Last month, the attacker said he’s happy with his decision to pick the Villans over other clubs.
He missed the start of this season because of a knee injury, and Johan Manzambi made his Aston Villa debut against Nottingham Forest in September.
The Switzerland international made his first Villans start in their 3-2 win over Tottenham Hotspur and got his name on the scoresheet. During this international break, he’s started in all three matches for the national team.
In these fixtures, Manzambi averaged 0.7 fouls and was tackled 3.3 times per game. It was more than average [four times] against Slovenia. Yakin wasn’t happy about it and sent a message to referees. Monday’s print edition of Blick relays his comments.
“It’s part of Johan’s style of play to draw fouls with his dribbling. It’s these skills that thrill the fans. They [referees] have to protect the players. Even if one or two actions looked very dangerous, the referee [against Slovenia, Ivan Kruzliak] saw it correctly,” he said.
| Every Aston Villa signing 26/27 | Nationality | Previous Club | Fee | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nicolas Jackson | Senegal | Chelsea | £65m | |
| Johan Manzambi | Switzerland | Freiburg | £59.5m | |
| Ibrahim Mbaye | Senegal | PSG | £47m | |
| Joao Gomes | Brazil | Wolves | £38m | |
| Zion Suzuki | Japan | Parma | £30m | |
| Taylor Harwood-Bellis | England | Southampton | £29m | |
| Matteo Ruggeri | Italy | Atletico Madrid | £17m | |
| Modou Keba Cisse | Senegal | LASK | £4.3m | |
| Leon Goretzka | Germany | Bayern Munich | Free | |
| Alejandro Garnacho | Argentina | Chelsea | Loan | |
| Aaron Wan-Bissaka | DR Congo | West Ham | Loan |
Aston Villa player reacts
The attacking midfielder wanted to make sure opposition players didn’t create trouble for him.
“The important thing is that I don’t let it get to me and just keep playing my game,” Johan Manzambi explained.
Slovenia manager Boštjan Cesar has come out to defend his players and insists it wasn’t their plan.
“That wasn’t intentional; we didn’t want to injure anyone,” he added.
Switzerland have one more fixture against North Macedonia on Tuesday.
The Villans have six matches this month, starting with the league clash against Brentford on October 10th. Unai Emery’s side can only hope that Manzambi returns to Villa Park without an injury or a fitness issue.
