Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has provided our latest team news ahead of facing Liverpool at Anfield in the Premier League this weekend.
Villa travel to Merseyside off the back of a difficult week or so after three consecutive defeats across all competitions, with concerns building over our performances in those losses.
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Emery and the players will undoubtedly have worked tirelessly this week to try and rectify our issues and produce a reaction on Saturday night, and it will be interesting to see what starting line-up the Villa boss goes with after making five changes in midweek.
Having already confirmed Ross Barkley and Matty Cash are sidelined by injury until after the international break, it was hoped that there would be good news across the board with the rest of the squad as Emery spoke to the media in his pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon.
As reported by the Express and Star, there is a fresh concern heading into the weekend as Emery revealed that midfielder Youri Tielemans is a doubt to be fit to face Liverpool, as the Belgian international has picked up a minor knee injury.
The 27-year-old hasn’t been included in Belgium’s squad for the upcoming international break, and so it remains to be seen if he’s able to get through the game this weekend and then have a fortnight to rest and receive treatment to ensure that his issue doesn’t worsen.
Time will tell if he’ll be risked in the Villa XI though, as Emery could go with Boubacar Kamara and Amadou Onana in the deeper midfield pivot to give us more defensively solidity, but such is the importance and influence of Tielemans in dictating play and pulling the strings for us in midfield, it would be a major blow to be without him.
That said, it would be a nightmare scenario if he did push himself to feature in this game and aggravated the problem, thus resulting in an extended stint on the sidelines.
In turn, the medical staff will make the best decision ahead of the game, and we’ll hopefully have the personnel to come away from Anfield with a positive result to end our poor run of form and get back on track.
