Aston Villa's capitulation at Manchester United was shocking, and there can be no excuses

I've seen Aston Villa throw away leads against Manchester United before, and I've seen us find some extraordinary ways to lose football matches at Old Trafford over the years, but I genuinely don't think I've ever been as angry with a Villa performance at that ground as I was watching us surrender two separate two-goal advantages to draw 4-4 against one of the worst Manchester United sides I've ever seen.

There are occasions when you come away from a game disappointed with the result but can acknowledge that the opposition have played well, or that Villa have been unfortunate with a refereeing decision or an individual moment that has changed the course of the afternoon, but there is absolutely none of that here because this was a complete capitulation from a team that should have been capable of seeing the game out on two separate occasions.

Manchester United came into the game in the relegation zone, having made their worst start to a season, and their own supporters were absolutely furious with what they were watching. When Villa went 2-0 ahead, Old Trafford was turning against the home side, the atmosphere was becoming increasingly hostile towards their players and we had an opportunity to take complete control of a fixture that has caused us problems for as long as I can remember.

Instead, we gave them a route back into the game, allowed them to equalise before half-time and then, having recovered to lead 4-2 in the second half, somehow managed to repeat almost exactly the same mistakes.

I was saying in various WhatsApp groups when we were 4-2 up that the game wasn't over, and when six minutes of stoppage time went up, I genuinely feared that if Manchester United scored one, they would find another. I don't say that because I think this is a particularly weak group of Villa players mentally, because I've seen different managers and completely different groups of players do similar things at Old Trafford, but there is something about Aston Villa playing at that ground that I find almost impossible to explain.

The most infuriating aspect is that we weren't playing a Manchester United side capable of producing sustained periods of brilliant attacking football, because they were dreadful defensively and gave Villa more than enough encouragement to go and win the game comfortably. We scored some scrappy goals because of how poor they were, took advantage of their mistakes and still managed to make them look like an outstanding attacking side whenever they came forward.

I said before the game that the last thing Villa needed to do was allow it to become a basketball match, because for all Manchester United's problems since Sir Alex Ferguson retired, the one thing they've generally retained is an ability to hurt teams in transition when there is space to attack.

Yet that's precisely the type of game we allowed them to play, even when we were 2-0 and 4-2 ahead, and I couldn't understand why we seemed incapable of recognising what was happening and doing something to change it.

There were gaps all over the pitch, particularly down our left-hand side, where I thought Ian Maatsen had a really difficult afternoon defensively and Johan Manzambi wasn't offering him enough protection. Manzambi has looked increasingly heavy-legged over the last week or so, which perhaps isn't surprising given the amount of football he's played for Villa and Switzerland, but there was a point where I was desperate for McGinn to move across to that side and provide Maatsen with some assistance.

I thought Alysson offered plenty going forward and was involved in a lot of the good attacking work Villa produced, scoring himself and winning a penalty, but there were occasions when he wasn't getting back quickly enough to help defensively. I've defended that side of his game previously because I think he has shown a willingness to work without the ball, but with Matty Cash unavailable and Taylor Harwood-Bellis being asked to play at right-back, there was an additional responsibility on him to offer protection.

Harwood-Bellis was being asked to perform an unfamiliar role and I don't want to be overly critical of him individually, but there were moments when he found himself too far forward for the circumstances of the game, and when you're leading 2-0 at Old Trafford, you simply don't need to be taking those sorts of risks.

Kamara's decision to make the challenge that resulted in Manchester United's penalty was another example of the lack of composure. I thought it was a penalty, even if he did get something on the ball, and while you can debate whether the same decision would have been given at the other end, my bigger frustration is that he gave the referee a decision to make when Villa were in such a commanding position.

We had already seen how quickly the momentum could change in the first half, so when Villa recovered from 2-2 to lead 4-2, I expected a far more professional approach to managing the remainder of the game.

We didn't necessarily need to retreat and defend our penalty area for the final stages, because Manchester United were so vulnerable that another goal would almost certainly have finished them off, but equally, if we weren't going to attack them with any real conviction, we needed to demonstrate an ability to keep possession and take the momentum out of the game.

I don't think we did either particularly well, and that brings me to the substitutions, because as much as I admire Unai Emery and believe he is an absolutely phenomenal manager, I think he has to accept some responsibility for what happened.

At 4-2, the changes almost felt like we were congratulating ourselves on a victory that hadn't actually been secured, with young players coming off the bench as though we were giving everybody an opportunity to enjoy the occasion rather than recognising that Manchester United had been finding ways to get at us throughout the afternoon.

I don't say that as a criticism of Brian Madjo, Ibrahim Mbaye or George Hemmings, because they're talented young players who I expect to have important futures at Aston Villa, but I couldn't understand the thinking behind introducing that level of inexperience into a game that was still far from finished, would the tactically advanced Emi Buendia not have made sense?

There were also important players coming off who might have been better equipped to deal with the circumstances we eventually found ourselves in. John McGinn had shown the courage to step up and score the penalty early in the second half, while Leon Goretzka is exactly the type of experienced player you'd expect to bring some composure and leadership when a game begins to get away from you.

I appreciate that Goretzka was unlikely to complete 90 minutes, so I didn't have a particular problem with him being replaced in isolation, but when you consider the collective effect of the changes, Villa ended up without some of the biggest personalities in the side at precisely the moment when they needed somebody to take responsibility.

Tyrone Mings wasn't on the pitch either, and although I think they are looking to develop Kamara into a leader there was a real lack of authority in the closing stages, with nobody seemingly capable of recognising the danger and getting everybody organised.

We've discussed Villa's game management on a number of occasions this season, including against Nottingham Forest and Brentford, and while those situations weren't identical, there is a growing concern about our ability to recognise when the circumstances of a game require a different approach.

Emery deserves enormous credit for the improvements we've made under him, and I remain convinced that this group of players will develop into a very good team, but that doesn't mean he should be exempt from criticism when his decisions contribute to a result like this.

Of course, he cannot control every individual mistake that a player makes, and some of the defending in the closing stages was completely unforgivable, but the manager is responsible for the decisions that shape how his team approaches those situations, and I thought Villa got far too much wrong.

When Joshua Zirkzee scored to make it 4-3, I almost felt that the equaliser was inevitable, because we had given Manchester United the encouragement they needed and the crowd suddenly had something to get behind again.

This was a team whose own supporters had been turning on them earlier in the game, yet Villa somehow managed to create the circumstances for them to believe they could get something out of it, and when that late corner came into our penalty area, I had absolutely no confidence that we were going to defend it properly.

The manner in which we conceded the fourth goal was abysmal, and although there have been suggestions that Zion Suzuki was fouled, I don't agree with that interpretation. He's a huge goalkeeper who has generally been excellent at dealing with crosses since arriving at Villa, but he has to be stronger in those situations, and his recent difficulties are becoming a concern after such an encouraging start to his career at the club. It probably was a foul, but we didn't deserve the run of the green if I am honest.

Even at 4-4, Villa's decision-making was extraordinary, because rather than recognising that we'd already thrown away a victory and ensuring we didn't somehow manage to lose the game, players were charging forward and leaving ourselves exposed again. Manchester United could quite easily have scored a fifth, and the fact that I came away almost relieved we hadn't lost a game in which we'd led 2-0 and 4-2 tells you everything about how badly we handled it.

I've seen people trying to blame the referee, and I genuinely cannot understand that approach because Villa have absolutely nobody to blame but themselves. If we'd been on the receiving end of the penalty decision, I'd have wanted it given, and the suggestion that officiating was responsible for us conceding four goals and surrendering two separate two-goal leads is an excuse I'm simply not prepared to entertain.

I'm generally very quick to praise these players when they perform well, and I think anybody who follows my coverage will know how much faith I have in Emery and the direction Aston Villa are heading, but I also think there have to be occasions when performances are called out for what they are.

This was amateurish, unprofessional and completely unacceptable from a team with aspirations of competing at the highest level, particularly against an opposition side that was there to be beaten and whose supporters had virtually given up on them at different stages of the game.

What makes it even harder to accept is that Villa have now found a way to surrender a commanding position at Old Trafford with another group of players and another outstanding manager, having previously thrown away a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2 there under Emery.

I don't believe there is some fundamental weakness running through every player who wears an Aston Villa shirt, but I do believe there is a problem with how this football club approaches games at Old Trafford, and after watching us produce what I consider to be our worst capitulation there, I'm struggling to understand how we continue to allow it to happen.

The international break probably comes at a good time because a result like this can have a damaging effect on confidence and momentum, but I hope the players and coaching staff spend some time reflecting on what happened rather than attempting to find positives or excuses.

Villa are a good side, we've improved considerably since the beginning of the season and I still expect us to have a successful campaign, but none of that makes what happened at Manchester United any more acceptable, because you simply cannot lead by two goals twice against a team in that position and fail to win the football match.

I've been watching Aston Villa for a long time and have experienced plenty of disappointment at Old Trafford, but I genuinely don't think I've ever been quite as disgusted by the way we've thrown away an opportunity there as I was on Sunday.