Aston Villa face Everton in the third round of the Carabao Cup at Villa Park on Wednesday night, and Unai Emery is expected to name a strong starting line-up despite making several changes.
Our opponents arrive off the back of an impressive win at Brentford in the Premier League this past weekend, and coupled with the expectation that they will name a strong XI too as they eye progression, it promises to be a difficult challenge that we’ll need to be at our best in to advance.
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Emery will be posed with a familiar selection headache having opted to rotate last week in Europe, and so it will be an intriguing wait to discover how many changes the Villa boss opts to make in this one and who keeps their place in the side.
It’s a competition that Villa will take seriously with the desire to ultimately win, but with Brighton at home in the early Saturday kick-off slot, it’s imperative we get the balance right in our rotation to rest key individuals too.
Multiple changes, but strong Villa XI vs Everton
Robin Olsen is likely to get the nod in between the posts with Emiliano Martinez given the night off, having featured heavily throughout the campaign thus far, while there could be changes to the backline too.
Villa were undone and looked awful in wide areas against Legia Warsaw and that was where we initially got exposed for the goals we conceded, and so it wouldn’t be a surprise if Matty Cash started.
Emery would surely have preferred to rest Lucas Digne for this one, but having confirmed that Alex Moreno isn’t yet ready to return, his options are limited in that position.
In contrast, Pau Torres and Ezri Konsa could be rested, but again, given it was the defence that was the main problem in Warsaw last week, perhaps starting our strongest backline will be the way to go.
Youri Tielemans is expected to come into our midfield in place of Douglas Luiz, and this could be a good time to get Leander Dendoncker up to speed and fully match fit to allow Emery to rest Boubacar Kamara.
That first-choice midfield pairing are so influential to our way of playing, and there is perhaps a real argument in favour of going strong in this game to start, and then resting players in the latter stages if we’re in a winning position.
However, Emery has insisted he is trying to build a team and style with all the players at his disposal, and so changes are expected.
Jacob Ramsey could get his first start this season having featured off the bench in the last two outings after recovering from injury, while Leon Bailey could also come back into the starting XI as the likes of John McGinn and Moussa Diaby get a rest.
Up front, Jhon Duran will likely get another opportunity to impress, while Nicolo Zaniolo has continued to look really positive thus far, and it would be great to see him make a decisive impact in this one to build further momentum having seemingly gained the trust of Emery in a short space of time to be a key figure in the line-up.
Predicted Aston Villa XI vs Everton: Olsen; Cash, Chambers, Lenglet, Digne; Dendoncker, Tielemans; Bailey, J. Ramsey; Zaniolo, Duran.
Any changes? What Villa XI would you start with against Everton this week?
