Aston Villa’s Matty Cash had a shocker vs Man Utd | OneFootball

In the end, Aston Villa were left to bemoan a familiar tale of Manchester United being handed a dubious penalty, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side taking full advantage and securing a 3-1 win on Sunday afternoon.

Dean Smith’s men took the lead thanks to an absolute stunner from Bertrand Traore, but saw the game fall apart thanks to a contentious penalty decision, a spot-kick that Bruno Fernandes duly dispatched.

Goals from Mason Greenwood and Edinson Cavani late on sealed the United comeback, and while understandably Smith will be furious with having another refereeing call go against them in a clash with the Manchester side, he may also have a major headache with the performance of Matty Cash.

The full-back had a difficult afternoon coming up against Paul Pogba and Luke Shaw, and while Traore did better than most weeks in trying to track back and help him out, he just couldn’t get going whatsoever.

As per Sofascore, he lost possession 16 times over the course of the game, the third-most of any Villa player, and being forced to go a bit more direct than he perhaps usually would have.

And then, arguably his biggest mishap on the day, was how he let Cavani ghost in front of him with a quick run and nod past Emi Martinez in the Villa goal – it was just a complete lack of concentration that rather typified his display.

And, writing in his post-match player ratings, The Birmingham Mail’s Ashley Preece gave him a five, and said: “Up against Pogba and Shaw on United’s left and battled bravely. Cash was caught out on the odd occasion, though, and allowed Shaw to get beyond him for a strike at goal. Cash was in poor form and lacked conviction in his play as he was pinned back time and time again. The right-back was arguably at fault for Cavani’s header which wrapped it up as the Uruguayan ghosted past him to head home.”

With the Premier League season now reaching its end, Smith surely has the perfect opportunity to be handing out vital first-team minutes to some of the club’s brightest young talents.

And in the 18-year-old Kaine Kesler, he’s got a dream understudy to Cash just waiting for a chance to shine at first-team level.

While one poor performance should hardly see Cash just chucked out of the starting line-up for good, with only a couple of games left, surely it would do a lot more good for the development of Kesler for the teenager to be brought into the fold?

It’s a major headache for Smith but one that could pay big rewards for Villa in the long-term.

Meanwhile, Villa should finally unleash this academy starlet…