With Aston Villa adding quality and competition to the squad this summer, Unai Emery faces key decisions on who makes his starting line-up.
Given we’ll hope to play a significant number of games this season as we aim for deep runs in cup competitions and Europe to coincide with progress in the Premier League, every member of the senior squad will have an important role to play at various stages of the campaign.
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In turn, it was always crucial that we added quality depth this summer, and with the signings of Youri Tielemans, Pau Torres and Moussa Diaby, the Villa boss has undoubtedly raised the level within the group, and that’s exactly what we need if we want to compete at the top.
While it’s a similar scenario for both Diaby and Torres in terms of facing competition to solidify their respective places in the Villa XI, and they’ve both impressed in pre-season so far, Tielemans has stood out with his performances against Fulham and Lazio in particular.
Emery’s challenge to strike right midfield balance
Not only has the Belgian international provided an assist, as seen in the video below for Ollie Watkins against Lazio, but he’s been instrumental in the build-up to other goals and has been highly influential with his overall play in midfield to help us dictate tempo and control possession.
Essentially, he has ticked the boxes that Emery brought him in to tick, and we hope that now translates across to competitive games when the new season begins in just over a week’s time.
We saw improvement and development across the board in the squad last season. The players collectively and individually stepped up a level, and we’ll hopefully see that again this year as we continue to adapt to and perfect Emery’s ideas and style of play, with the squad relishing their football.
For Tielemans though, he may well have to break a well-established partnership to get into the line-up, with Douglas Luiz and Boubacar Kamara providing a strong core to the side last season that was pivotal in the turnaround from November onwards.
Luiz was crowned both Supporters’ Player of the Season and Players’ Player of the Season at the end of the last campaign, as he flourished in a more advanced role with freedom to run things in midfield, knowing he had the protection offered by Kamara behind him providing a fundamental balance to our midfield.
While John McGinn showed his versatility to fill in different roles, we finally looked really strong in that area of the pitch having struggled with it being a glaring weakness for some time.
It will be fascinating to see how Emery approaches the integration of Tielemans. Playing the 26-year-old alongside Luiz could work in certain games where we’re dominating possession and need that extra creativity from midfield to unlock a stubborn defence, but there is a feeling that we shouldn’t disrupt that balance with Kamara in the side, and so perhaps it’s one or the other alongside the Frenchman for the most part.
Jacob Ramsey will miss the start of the campaign through injury, so does that open the door to Tielemans starting in his place, with Emery tweaking his set-up to allow either him or Luiz to play more advanced and wider to accommodate both in the same side?
With Emi Buendia impressing playing off the left at times and an ever-improving McGinn on the opposite side with their defensive work in mind too, it really does set up an intriguing season as to how Emery will make it all work and get the best combinations out on the pitch.
One thing we can be confident about though is that the Villa boss will do exactly that given how far we’ve already come under his stewardship. We’ll no doubt see all of our midfield options play crucial roles for us with so many games and different challenges ahead, and having different solutions will be fundamental in finding answers to the questions asked of us.
How do you see Villa’s midfield shaping up for August 12? What’s our strongest midfield when everyone is available?
Tielemans 🤝 Watkins link-up. 😍 pic.twitter.com/7OF2fO0uwu
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) August 4, 2023