Aston Villa face Barrow in the second round of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night, with Dean Smith expected to make countless changes to his line-up.
Villa bounced back after defeat to Watford on the opening weekend of the Premier League season by securing a win over Newcastle Utd on Saturday.
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Smith will hope to see his side build on that result, starting in midweek as we look to secure safe passage into the next round of the Carabao Cup to keep our hopes of winning silverware alive this season.
It promises to be a tricky encounter, as are most cup ties against lower league opposition, but given the strength in depth that Villa have in the squad now, we should feel confident about our chances of advancing.
Minimum nine changes as Smith changes Villa line up
After a disrupted pre-season schedule, Smith has been wrestling with the negative impact of his players not quite being fully fit, and that was on show in the defeat at Watford.
While we improved on that against Newcastle Utd as the performance level went up slightly, it’s clear that we’re still not at our peak when it comes to fitness and getting a fully-fit squad available.
In turn, with Brentford to come at the weekend and with Villa likely to want avoid the risk of picking up any fresh injury blows, Smith will perhaps leave out many of those who started this past weekend.
Jed Steer is likely to come in for Emi Martinez, while Frederic Guilbert, Axel Tuanzebe, Kortney Hause and Matt Targett could all get the nod in defence.
Targett struggled against Watford and Smith revealed after that he had been playing catch-up in pre-season after spending the summer recovering from injury, and so the Villa left-back will surely relish the opportunity to get 90 minutes in his legs.
Marvelous Nakamba should come back into the side with John McGinn and Douglas Luiz expected to be rested along with the likes of Matty Cash, Ezri Konsa, Tyrone Mings and Ashley Young, with Conor Hourihane potentially in line to get a run out if Morgan Sanson isn’t yet fit enough to feature.
Carney Chukwuemeka and Jaden Philogene-Bidace should get an opportunity to impress and stake their respective claims for more involvement moving forward, while Leon Bailey could certainly do with the minutes if his hamstring has healed for him to get the green light from the medical staff to play.
With Ollie Watkins still expected to be out and racing to be fit for the Brentford game, Wesley should come in up front to give Danny Ings the night off.
There are still some question marks over the side we’ll see on Tuesday at Barrow, but the XI below could be relatively close to what Smith will ultimately go for.
Aston Villa predicted XI vs Barrow: Steer; Guilbert, Tuanzebe, Hause, Targett; Nakamba, Hourihane, Chukwuemeka; Philogene-Bidace, Bailey, Wesley.