Aston Villa face Hibernian in the second leg of our Europa Conference League play-off round tie on Thursday, and Unai Emery is set to make multiple changes.
Villa hold a commanding 5-0 lead from the first leg last week, and so while Emery will guard against complacency, we’re undoubtedly in a strong position to advance and will hope to complete the job with minimal fuss at home.
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With one eye on Liverpool away on Sunday, we’ll no doubt try to rest key individuals and so there will be changes made to the starting XI that beat Burnley last weekend, but given our current absentees due to injury, Emery will be quite limited in the number of tweaks he can make.
Olsen, Tielemans, Duran to start
Having missed the trip to Turf Moor on Sunday due to a small calf injury, Emiliano Martinez isn’t expected to feature in this one and that is certainly the sensible option as we hope he can recover in time for the weekend.
In turn, Robin Olsen will remain between the posts, while we’ll likely see Calum Chambers given a starting berth as we look to rest both Matty Cash and Ezri Konsa.
Diego Carlos is still perhaps working towards peak condition and full match sharpness, and so he could either get another important 90 minutes here or Emery may opt for Konsa instead, with Pau Torres alongside one of them in the heart of the Villa defence to allow them to continue to build what will hopefully be a formidable partnership moving forward.
Lucas Digne is in great form currently, and so he could get the nod at left-back to continue his momentum. With Alex Moreno not yet ready to return combined with Tyrone Mings’ absence, there’s not too much more Villa can change unless Emery considers some of our youth players for a place in the side.
In midfield, Bertrand Traore should come in on the right side as he steps up his return from injury, and Youri Tielemans will no doubt be given the role of trying to dictate things in midfield as he will have been itching to be more involved as he tries to break into the line-up.
John McGinn will push to start against his former club again and he’ll take up his role on the left, but Emery has a decision to make on whether it’s Douglas Luiz or Boubacar Kamara who complete the midfield quartet.
This feels like a perfect opportunity to rest both Moussa Diaby and Ollie Watkins, and so Leon Bailey and Jhon Duran will hope to get the nod in leading our attack.
As noted above, Emery is limited in terms of changes as he would arguably like to make more. Martinez, Mings, Moreno, Emiliano Buendia, Philippe Coutinho, Jacob Ramsey and Tim Iroegbunam are expected to miss out through injury, while Nicolo Zaniolo is ineligible to feature in this tie.
Jaden Philogene is expected to leave imminently so is unlikely to be involved, and while Leander Dendoncker was expected to return to training on Monday, it remains to be seen if he’s fit enough to return to the matchday squad.
It’s possible that Emery does promote some of our youngsters to perhaps fill the bench, but he’ll also want to find the right balance and not disrupt our rhythm too much. We also have the international break after the Liverpool game, and so he may not feel as though he has to change too much at this stage in trying to keep his players fresh.
Predicted Aston Villa XI vs Hibernian: Olsen, Chambers, Carlos, Torres, Digne; Traore, Tielemans, Luiz, McGinn; Bailey, Duran.
How would you like to see Villa line up on Thursday night?
I wouldn’t even rule out a Revan or a Kellyman starting over Digne and McGinn at this point.
Yours won’t be far off though, if not bang on
I would also give Revan a start
Yes its Seb Revan for me too!