Aston Villa midfielder Boubacar Kamara has offered some fascinating insight into how the squad is looking at our upcoming encounter with Liverpool.
Jurgen Klopp’s side travel to Villa Park for our Boxing Day meeting, as they look to put an indifferent start to the season behind them and close the gap on their rivals in the top four.
READ MORE: First phase of redevelopment plans detailed as Villa receive planning approval
For Villa, we’ll be hoping to build on an impressive start under Unai Emery prior to the World Cup break, and continue to push up the Premier League table and into the top half of the standings.
Naturally, given the quality in the Liverpool squad, it promises to be a difficult challenge for us, but Kamara was in defiant and confident mood as he spoke ahead of the game.
“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, we always want to win,” he told Villa TV. “We always want to go out there and get the three points. We’re not going to sit around, admire them and watch them play. It’s an important game for both us and them. We’re playing at home, so the emphasis is on us to go and win it.
“The supporters support us from the first to the 90th minute, so it’s up to us to give them something to support us for. I love it when we get out on the pitch and I’m listening to all the songs, hearing them cheer and sing. It’s up to us to put in a good performance to make sure we have the backing of the crowd.”
Villa have been busy over the break as we travelled to the UAE for a warm-weather training camp and played several friendlies to maintain fitness levels within the group.
It would also have given Emery a chance to continue to work closely with the players and get his ideas across to them, and so it’s hoped that we see more of his influence in the upcoming games and we continue to show improvement.
Kamara is spot on in his assessment above on how we should go into these games and the style and work ethic that Emery is implementing matches up with that intended approach.
Meanwhile, the Frenchman also provided insight into his own ambitious and elite mindset when it comes to where he wants to be competing, as he insisted that he’s only looking up the table at where he believes we should be competing.
“There’s no point in looking down,” he added. “It (the gap to teams above) encourages us to put in even greater effort.
“That’s what we aspire to. You have to dream big and look to be in the top group of teams.”