Aston Villa’s squad for the Premier League Summer Series in the USA has been confirmed, with some surprise omissions and key inclusions.
Villa face Newcastle Utd on July 24, followed by fixtures against Fulham and Brentford on July 27 and 30 respectively, as our preparations for the new campaign ramp up.
READ MORE: Villa squad fly out to USA for pre-season tour as key man posts update
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This will be a crucial period for Unai Emery and the players to continue to work on things, improve and build on the progress that we showed last season, as the Spanish tactician will undoubtedly relish the opportunity to have a full pre-season to work with the players.
Our squad for the Summer Series has now been confirmed, as seen in the tweet below, and there were a couple of surprise omissions and key inclusions that perhaps give us an indication of how the squad will look for the upcoming campaign.
With the Telegraph reporting that a move to Luton Town is imminent for Marvelous Nakamba, he’s not included in the travelling party, but neither are Jhon Duran or Tim Iroegbunam.
It remains to be seen if the youngsters have picked up knocks that have prevented them from travelling, with Iroegbunam featuring in our draw with Walsall this past weekend, while conversely, Duran hasn’t featured prominently in any of the training footage released by Villa thus far.
Emery will likely provide clarification on those who haven’t made the trip in due course, with Alex Moreno and Jacob Ramsey still recovering from injury setbacks and so will stay behind and continue to receive treatment, and the same is likely for Bertrand Traore albeit there are arguably question marks over his future too.
It’s a boost to see Philippe Coutinho included as he’ll hopefully be fully fit and in great condition by the end of the trip after missing our last 15 games last season due to injury, while Morgan Sanson will get a chance to impress Emery and cement his place in the squad this season it seems as he’s also included in the group.
The same goes for Cameron Archer who will be itching to get game-time in the USA to prove he can provide competition and cover for Ollie Watkins up top this year, but ultimately the most important thing at this stage is that the players all come through injury-free and fully fit, ready for the start of the new campaign on August 12.
🚨✅ Villa squad for Summer Series confirmed…#avfc #UTV 🟣🔵 pic.twitter.com/RrOnqTysSb
— Talk Villa (@thetalkvilla) July 19, 2023