Aston Villa will travel to face Brentford in the Premier League next Sunday, and there will be enforced changes to our starting line-up.
Unai Emery’s side secured back-to-back 1-0 wins over Manchester City and Arsenal this past week as we continue to impress and solidify our top-four spot.
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A key aspect of our success and progression so far this season has been our ability to go with a consistent starting XI, with the Villa boss opting to remain unchanged in the City and Arsenal encounters.
Naturally though, after such a demanding double header, tiredness was certainly a factor on Saturday evening, and so the expectation is that we’ll see multiple changes when we face Zrinjski in the Europa Conference League on Thursday.
There was an injury concern at half-time though this weekend, as Leon Bailey was replaced at the break, having picked up a knock in the first half and he looked to be struggling with it as the game went on.
That came after he registered another assist, as he took his tallies to eight goals and seven assists in 22 appearances so far this season, and so it’s vital that we keep him fit to be able to continue his great form.
Fortunately, Emery allayed that concern to an extent as he suggested that it was more fatigue than an injury issue for both Bailey and Youri Tielemans, who was also replaced in the second half, but he wasn’t entirely sure of the situation just yet and so we’ll have to wait for confirmation later in the week.
“He was tired, completely tired. Hopefully he’s not injured but I don’t know exactly,” Emery told the media in his post-match press conference when asked about Bailey, as per BirminghamLive.
Meanwhile, the Villa boss also gave some insight into the plan for our preparation for Thursday’s trip to Bosnia, with the players being given two days of rest before returning to training.
That will be crucial for them to regroup and recharge, but the likelihood is that we’ll see countless changes to the side to not only rest key individuals, but also involve our depth players, with many of them impressing over the past week when called upon.
Neither Douglas Luiz nor Lucas Digne will be involved at Brentford though after they picked up one-match suspensions for a fifth booking of the season, and so they will perhaps start on Thursday before getting a rest at the weekend.
Time will tell which solutions Emery goes with in their absence, but Alex Moreno seems like an obvious option to fill in for Digne, while Tielemans could see his role adjusted to cover for Luiz, thus opening the door for Jacob Ramsey to possibly come back into the XI.
“We will rest tomorrow and Monday,” he added. “We will come back on Tuesday and prepare for the match on Thursday. In the Conference League, we did the first objective to be in, to qualify for the next round. We want to finish top of the group but we want to try and use different players.
“Sure, we will play different players but I’m not sure how many. We also have two players out for Sunday with suspensions – Douglas Luiz and Lucas Digne. That’s another reason to try and introduce other players.”