Aston Villa face Wolves in the Premier League on Saturday evening, and here’s how Unai Emery’s starting line-up could look for the clash.
Following our memorable win over Celtic in the Champions League in midweek, focus returns to domestic matters as we aim to put a consistent run of wins together and climb the Premier League table.
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In his pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon, Emery confirmed that Pau Torres, Tyrone Mings, Matty Cash and Ross Barkley all miss out due to injury, while it’s unclear if Amadou Onana is able to return to the fold just yet.
That presents a real headache for the Villa boss once again, particularly in defence, as we’re short on numbers ahead of the transfer deadline given Diego Carlos’ departure this month too.
Key defensive decisions for Emery vs Wolves
Emiliano Martinez will continue between the posts, but there are question marks over who forms his backline with our absentees list in mind.
What is clear is that Ezri Konsa will start given he’s our only available senior centre-half, and the expectation is that Boubacar Kamara will join him in the heart of our defence after the Frenchman impressed against Celtic in that role.
This promises to be a really difficult challenge for him though given the pace and physicality in the Wolves attack, but such is his class, there’s confidence that he deals with it and continues to operate at a high level regardless of position.
Lucas Digne may well get the nod on the left, while Emery has shown faith in Lamare Bogarde to fill in at right-back when needed, and although he continues to look uncomfortable and less convincing in that role, that could be the case again in this one.
It’s hoped that one of Kosta Nedeljkovic or Andres Garcia is preferred, which frees up Bogarde to play in midfield where he has looked more effective, but time will tell if Emery is willing to hand either a starting berth, with Nedeljkovic being heavily linked with a loan exit this week while Garcia has yet to make his Villa debut after his January arrival.
With Kamara being forced to shift back into defence, John McGinn should come into the Villa XI to partner Youri Tielemans in the midfield pivot, while Leon Bailey, Morgan Rogers and Jacob Ramsey may all keep their respective places to support Ollie Watkins in the final third.
Donyell Malen will continue to push for a bigger role, but he’ll likely be gradually integrated off the bench. Beyond that, there aren’t too many fit and available senior players to present any further selection headaches beyond Ian Maatsen, and so changes could be limited from Emery in this crunch encounter with our Midlands rivals.
