Aston Villa face AZ Alkmaar in the Europa Conference League on Thursday night, and here’s how Unai Emery’s starting line-up could look for the encounter.
Villa have recovered well from our opening game-day defeat to Legia Warsaw, securing back-to-back victories to move into second place in Group E and in a strong position, as things stand, to advance.
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Despite the 4-1 scoreline in Alkmaar last time out, this promises to be another difficult challenge given the quality of the opposition and their desire to get a crucial result on the road, and so Emery is unlikely to make too many changes and weaken his starting XI.
Villa team news vs AZ Alkmaar
Speaking to the media in his pre-match press conference, the Villa boss confirmed that Matty Cash has recovered from a shoulder injury that he picked up at the weekend against Nottingham Forest, and he’ll be available for selection.
There was a big hint that Alex Moreno is ready to get minutes now having recovered from his hamstring injury, although it’s still too early for Jacob Ramsey, who is likely to return to the fold after the international break.
Further, Jhon Duran was seen in training this week as he appears to have recovered from his toe issue, and so the Colombian international is expected to be included in the squad for this clash.
One possible tweak Emery might make to his Villa XI
A win in this meeting will significantly strengthen our hopes of qualifying out of the group, and so that in turn could give Emery flexibility and less pressure in our remaining two group games to then be able to rotate more.
Coupled with the difficulty of the opposition, it does feel as though we’ll go with a strong side again, and so that should start with Emiliano Martinez keeping his spot between the posts.
There could be a couple of changes in front of him in defence though, as although Cash may well be fit enough to feature, this could be a contest where we shift Ezri Konsa over to right-back and have Diego Carlos partner Clement Lenglet, with the possibility that Pau Torres is rested for this one.
Lucas Digne could keep his spot at left-back, with Moreno hopefully ready to come off the bench in the second half and get valuable playing time to build up his match fitness and sharpness. A start for the Spaniard would be a surprise given how lengthy his layoff has been.
John McGinn should lead a strong midfield alongside Boubacar Kamara, with Youri Tielemans perhaps getting a chance to impress with Douglas Luiz given the night off having had a heavy workload already this season.
The midfield quartet could be completed by Nicolo Zaniolo operating on the left side, with Moussa Diaby partnering Ollie Watkins in the final third. Zaniolo’s inclusion would perhaps make more sense in the home fixture, with AZ possibly sitting back and making it difficult for us to break them down by minimising the space in behind.
It could easily be Leon Bailey instead of one of Zaniolo or Diaby though as his recent form arguably deserves a bigger role in this particular game, and so it will be interesting to see what Emery goes with in our attempt to take a big step towards qualifying for the knockout stage.
Predicted Aston Villa XI vs AZ Alkmaar: Martinez, Konsa, Diego Carlos, Lenglet, Digne; McGinn, Kamara, Tielemans, Zaniolo; Diaby, Watkins.
How do you see Villa lining up for this game? Any changes to the above XI?
