Unai Emery admits it wasn't easy for him to tell Donyell Malen that he had been left out of Aston Villa's Champions League squad for the knockout rounds.

Unai Emery has left Donyell Malen and Andres Garcia out of Aston Villa’s squad for the Champions League knockout phase. Villa signed Malen from Borussia Dortmund last month in a deal worth €23 million (£19m) plus €3m (£2.

Aston Villa boss Unai Emery ‘argued’ with two of his January signings after being forced to exclude them from the club’s Champions League squad. Donyell Malen and Andres Garcia will not feature for the Villans in the knockout phase of the European competition.

But with Villa suffering something of a defensive crisis, Emery has instead opted for centre-back Alex Disasi, a deadline day loan signing from Chelsea. Fellow loan signings Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio have also been picked. He said: “The rules only can register three changes. We changed five players and only we can register three.

I think his potential is huge potential to exploit. I am very happy to try to exploit and help him recover his performances, individually and collectively. My challenge with him is huge. His challenge

Aston Villa certainly did not enjoy a quiet January transfer window before the deadline on Monday as they made several moves in an attempt to improve their squad. Monchi and Unai Emery made bold moves as they look for an improved second half of the season,