As Aston Villa boss Unai Emery looks forward to welcoming Diego Carlos back to the fold in the coming weeks, it promises to be a significant boost for him.
A lot will of course depend on how the 29-year-old is when he eventually gets back on the pitch. Having been sidelined since August with a ruptured Achilles tendon, it will take time for him to get back to full match fitness, and there will be question marks over whether or not he can get back to his pre-injury level.
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Those concerns will hopefully diminish in the coming weeks, with Emery confirming that Carlos is on the verge of returning to group training this month, and he’ll naturally be built back up gradually to the point where his condition is back at 100% and that could involve playing time with the U21s initially.
“Diego Carlos is a very good player,” Emery said this week, as quoted by BirminghamLive. “He has a good mentality and he’s a winner. I think when he’s coming to train with us, maybe next week or in two weeks, I think progressively he will help us.
“He will play as soon as possible, not in the starting XI maybe because, progressively, he needs to keep confidence and keep fit. When he is going to start with us in training I think he will be important to us.”
While Emery noted his mentality as being a strength, there are several other key attributes that Carlos brings to the Villa XI that will be fundamental to the way we want to play.
The first big decision when he returns to full fitness will be who he might displace, as he’ll have to break up the preferred partnership of Tyrone Mings and Ezri Konsa, with the pair continuing to play an important role under Emery since he arrived.
However, what Carlos adds is not only solid defensive play with an aggressive style that will hopefully see us win back possession higher up the pitch and set us off on our own attacks, but he is a physical and commanding presence in the backline who will hopefully make us a more difficult side to break down.
Importantly though, his influence stretches beyond the defensive phase of the game, as with his technical quality, composure in possession and passing ability, he promises to be a fundamental option, particularly for Emery in our push to play out from the back.
We’ve seen others make mistakes under the Spaniard which have led to goals against the likes of Brighton and Leicester City, and while it’s not to suggest that all our problems go away with Carlos at the back, he has shown he’s capable of providing more quality on the ball in that area of the pitch.
Villa will of course take real care with the final stages of his rehabilitation as he nears a comeback, but the experience will no doubt have strengthened his resolve and determination to now play a pivotal role for us, and it will be a huge boost to have him back in the battle for a place in the Villa defence.