Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has provided our latest team news ahead of our Champions League showdown with Juventus on Wednesday night.
Villa currently sit in eighth place in the standings after four games, as following our excellent start with three consecutive wins and clean sheets, we suffered defeat at Club Brugge last time out as part of our ongoing disappointing run of form.
READ MORE: Villa receive crucial double injury boost in training ahead of Juventus clash
Emery and the players have a chance this week to get back on track though as we welcome Juventus to Villa Park for what will hopefully prove to be another memorable European night at home, and there was good news on the injury front ahead of the encounter.
Ezri Konsa, Boubacar Kamara, Amadou Onana and Jacob Ramsey all missed out this past weekend in our 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace due to injury, but the former duo will return in midweek after resuming group training with the rest of the squad on Monday, but the latter pair remain out for the time being.
“In the squad, we include Konsa and Boubacar Kamara for tomorrow but not Onana or Ramsey,” Emery told the media at his pre-match press conference.
While it’s hoped that Onana and Ramsey aren’t too far away from making a comeback of their own, it’s a fundamental boost for Villa to get Konsa and Kamara back given our defensive issues over the course of our six-game winless streak across all competitions.
Konsa will hopefully be restored to his centre-half role alongside Pau Torres with Matty Cash now back from his own injury setback to continue at right-back, while Kamara’s defensive influence in the midfield pivot will be key to adding balance to the side and potentially making us a more robust and resilient defensive side.
Not only have we been conceding too many goals over the past month or so, but a high number of them have been poor and preventable goals which has only added to our frustration, and so it’s hoped that with Konsa and Kamara back, albeit it remains to be seen if they’re ready to start or can only make the bench for this game, we will start to find a more solid structure on a consistent basis to get back on track.