Aston Villa face Zrinjski in the Europa Conference League on Thursday, and here is how Unai Emery’s starting XI could look.
Defeat in our opener at Legia Warsaw leaves us bottom of Group E currently, and although there are still five games to go to try and secure qualification for the next phase, Villa certainly have work to do after the early setback.
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Emery opted to rotate and make changes in Warsaw, and that decision ultimately didn’t pay off as the likes of Calum Chambers and Youri Tielemans struggled to make the desired impact, and so it brought into question whether or not we can take that ‘gamble’ again if our European hopes are in a precarious place.
Having since crashed out of the Carabao Cup in another midweek disappointment, again after rotating, will the Villa boss show faith in his squad players and demand more from them to step up, or will he go full strength?
Villa should go strong, rest players late on if possible
With the international break coming up after our trip to Wolves on Sunday, Emery should arguably go with his strongest possible XI in our next two outings and hopefully go into that break in buoyant mood.
That in turn would see us go with the same side that defeated Chelsea and Brighton more recently, with that consistency and familiarity in the line-up serving us well in the Premier League.
Particularly with our defeat in the first game in mind, we have to put points on the board and put ourselves in a better position to advance, and especially at home, we can ill-afford to slip up again.
With that in mind, Emiliano Martinez will hopefully start between the posts, with a backline consisting of Matty Cash, Ezri Konsa, Pau Torres and Lucas Digne in front of him.
John McGinn, Boubacar Kamara, Douglas Luiz and Nicolo Zaniolo forming our midfield has worked well in recent weeks, providing balance and quality in the heart of the side, and so there is surely a strong case in favour of starting that quartet here too.
Up top, an in-form Olllie Watkins to lead the line will give him an opportunity to keep his momentum and confidence building ahead of Wolves, with the class of Moussa Diaby in behind him to give us an edge to our attacking play.
Ideally, if Villa can start fast, get ourselves into a commanding position heading into the latter stages of the contest, then there is an opportunity to rest players and give the likes of Diego Carlos, Tielemans, Leander Dendoncker, Jacob Ramsey and Jhon Duran minutes.
Ramsey and Carlos are perhaps best placed to push for a starting berth given the former’s impact last weekend off the bench, while the latter has also seemingly now recovered from his latest injury setback.
However, If Villa can put some results together in Europe in our next few fixtures, that in turn will hopefully give Emery a more comfortable option of resting players in the final group games and rotating then. The focus for now though has to be on three points on Thursday, and going as strong as possible with our XI makes sense.
UPDATE: Unai Emery confirmed in his pre-match press conference that Boubacar Kamara, Moussa Diaby and Jacob Ramsey have been ruled out, while Leon Bailey is in contention to return.
Predicted Aston Villa XI vs Zrinjski: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Pau, Digne; Bailey, Tielemans, Luiz, McGinn; Zaniolo, Watkins.
Do you expect the same XI above, or any changes?