Aston Villa face Liverpool at Anfield in the Premier League this weekend, and Unai Emery has provided our latest team news ahead of the encounter.
Villa returned to winning ways last time out with an impressive victory at home against Manchester City, but our difficult fixture schedule continues on Saturday night with a tough assignment on Merseyside.
Despite being in a slump in form, Arne Slot’s side will be desperate to put things right and get back on track, and so Emery and the players will undoubtedly need to be at their best to ensure that we return home with the desired result.
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In order to have the best possible chance of doing that, the Villa boss would have been hoping for positive news on the injury front, with Youri Tielemans remaining sidelined last time out, although the squad has gradually been growing stronger as individuals return from their own setbacks.
As per Emery in his pre-match press conference on Friday, he confirmed that Emiliano Buendia misses out due to the injury that he suffered against Man City, but fortunately it doesn’t sound serious. Meanwhile, both Tielemans and Andres Garcia remain sidelined due to ongoing injury issues of their own, but the former is on the verge of stepping up his recovery.
“He [Emi Buendia] is not available for tomorrow, but the injury he has is going well,” he told the media, as per VillaTV. “I think with a few days more, he can be fit and available for the next matches, hopefully.”
“Still the same players out. Youri Tielemans, he is progressing well. He is going to start training hopefully next week with the group.
“The other one is Andrés [Garcia]. Andrés is progressively getting better, but still some weeks to come back.”
Given the pain that Buendia appeared to be in last weekend, it’s a relief to hear that he may well be available for our Europa League outing next week and won’t miss too much time after a positive start to the campaign.
That in turn avoids the risk of seeing his momentum and rhythm disrupted, while it’s a huge boost to hear that Tielemans will be back training with the rest of the group next week as we’ve undoubtedly missed his influence and impact in the heart of our midfield.
Naturally, getting Garcia back would also be good news as it would add competition and depth at right-back to give Matty Cash a chance to rest with a natural replacement ready to come in, and so hopefully we’ll avoid further setbacks between now and having all three of these players back available.