Aston Villa face Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Wednesday night, and Unai Emery has provided our latest team news ahead of the encounter.
Villa started our European campaign in emphatic fashion with a 3-0 win at Young Boys last month, and so we’ll be looking to build on that confidence boost and secure another positive result.
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It will certainly be a more difficult challenge against the Bundesliga giants though, and so Emery will need a big performance from his players to prove that we’re capable of competing at this level against the top sides from around Europe.
In order to have the best possible chance of doing that, it had been hoped that we would have good news on the fitness and injury front, but it looks as though Villa will be pretty much as we were with none of players currently sidelined ready to make their respective comebacks in midweek.
“Matty [Cash] is starting to train with us but for tomorrow, he is not going to be available,” he told the media at his pre-match press conference. “[Boubacar] Kamara and Tyrone Mings are training but also not going to play tomorrow.
“We have to accept it [John McGinn’s injury setback]. I want the best players on the field tomorrow, I want to face the best players and I want to play with our best players but we are ready to compete.”
The absence of Cash is a blow considering Villa’s defensive struggles have continued this season, and with Ezri Konsa shifting across to right-back, it’s not the ideal solution despite it producing excellent results previously.
Further, we undoubtedly miss the influence and presence of the likes of Mings, Kamara and McGinn, but it’s hoped that they’ll be ready to return after the upcoming international break to provide us with a major boost from the end of October onwards.
Given our strength in depth though, it will still be a strong Villa XI to face Bayern this week along with a talented bench capable of making the difference if called upon. While we will hopefully avoid picking up any further setbacks this week, Emery will have confidence in our ability to get a positive result and gradually start to welcome pivotal players back in the next week or so to give us a helping hand as we compete across multiple fronts this season.
It will be interesting to see what the Villa boss goes with at the back in this one though, as he must contend with a dangerous Bayern attack that will look to expose our defensive frailties, and so time will tell if Konsa at right-back and Diego Carlos is the right choice in his mind going forward as part of a successful game-plan.
