With an almost full-strength Aston Villa squad at his disposal, Unai Emery has important options, but also key decisions ahead, as we look to make progress this season.
After being sidelined since February with a serious knee injury, getting Boubacar Kamara back last month was a huge boost for Villa given how influential the 24-year-old midfielder is for us.
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The statistics and numbers back that up as we struggled from a defensive perspective without him, and so although we enjoyed a superb campaign and achieved memorable objectives, we were weakened by his absence and it did leave a glaring void.
As we’ve evolved and developed this season with the addition of Amadou Onana over the summer, it has seemingly been less of an issue, but Villa have continued to struggle to keep clean sheets, and if we are to kick on and compete at the top level, that is a problem that needs to be both addressed and fixed.
That’s where Kamara can come in and be a major influence, as his tactical intelligence, awareness and positioning in and out of possession will be fundamental to helping solidify our structure, but given he is coming back from a lengthy layoff due to that injury, it will be a gradual process to reintegrate him back into the side and patience will be needed.
The French international has now logged 119 minutes of football this season as the Carabao Cup run-out against Crystal Palace was vital for him, but now it’s about getting back into a rhythm and finding his peak conditioning and fitness to ensure he can do it on a consistent basis as he previously did.
Naturally, we now have the conundrum of making space for him in the starting XI too. With so many games to play, every player will be involved and will have a part to play, but it remains to be seen if Kamara can displace Onana and how that impacts the team both on and off the pitch, of if Emery perhaps deploys them as a pairing and moves Youri Tielemans further up the pitch on occasion.
The Belgian midfielder has been excellent for the most part thus far, as he’s scored goals and given us a real physical presence in the middle of the pitch alongside Tielemans to complement how he pulls the strings and orchestrates our play.
However, Kamara’s influence is huge for Villa, as he not only does that defensive work and shields the backline, but he has the technical ability and composure to pair that with being a key figure on the ball too, and while we only saw glimpses of that last week as he gets back up to speed, the early positive signs were evident.
Villa have leaked far too many goals in the Premier League so far this season, as we’ve now conceded 15 in our opening 10 games. That gives us the worst defensive record of the top 10 sides in the standings, and ultimately that isn’t sustainable if we want to climb higher.
Our defeat to Tottenham was a case in point in our inability to stay compact and robust in our defensive structure and shape over 90 minutes, something that we’ve actually been more effective in doing in the Champions League through our first three games as we’ve yet to concede a single goal.
Kamara coming back into the Villa line-up and getting back to his best is going to be fundamental this season, and it’s hoped that process is seamless and speedy as we look to put a difficult week behind us.
