Aston Villa travel to Brentford on Saturday in our second Premier League game of the season, and here’s how Unai Emery’s starting line-up could look.
Villa will be forced into one change with Ezri Konsa serving his suspension after being dismissed against Newcastle United last time out, while Emery confirmed that neither Andres Garcia nor Ross Barkley have recovered in time to feature this weekend.
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With the wait continuing to see further reinforcements arrive, that arguably limits the Villa boss to an extent as we’re in need of more options, but there is undoubtedly still plenty of experience and quality at his disposal for what is likely to be a difficult challenge despite Brentford’s early-season concerns.
Kamara to drop back, Malen to start?
Emiliano Martinez is expected to return to the Villa XI after he missed out last weekend due to suspension, and although Marco Bizot will feel hard done by given his impressive performance, our first-choice goalkeeper will surely get the nod when available regardless.
As noted above, there will be one change to our backline at least with no Konsa, and Emery has a difficult decision to make on how best to fill that void.
Lamare Bogarde is an option as a like-for-like swap having impressed in pre-season, while partnering Tyrone Mings with Pau Torres could also be on the table despite the concerns over a lack of balance at the back with both being left-footed centre-halves.
What is arguably most likely to happen is for Boubacar Kamara to drop back and partner Mings after the Frenchman did a stellar job of it in the final half hour or so against Newcastle, with Lucas Digne and Matty Cash keeping their places to give us that sense of consistency and solidity.
Should Kamara vacate the midfield pivot to play that role, that should in turn allow Youri Tielemans to be restored into his favoured role as our midfield orchestrator next to Amadou Onana, and that will hopefully help with our balance and rhythm when advancing up the pitch into attacking areas.
Morgan Rogers and John McGinn should keep their respective spots in the final third, but with Tielemans dropping deeper, that opens up a starting berth in the trident to support Ollie Watkins, who will lead the line as usual, and that’s where Donyell Malen could come in.
Both Emiliano Buendia and Evann Guessand will have their say as they push for involvement, but the Dutchman perhaps just about edges it having been so impressive over the summer, and deploying him on the right side will hopefully give us an all-important balance and dynamism to our attacking play while stretching the pitch and allowing others to expose more space.
It remains to be seen where Rogers and McGinn start as the former is surely more impactful when playing through the middle, but whether or not shifting McGinn to the left side is the right move is up for debate, but that’s still a top Villa starting line-up with good options on the bench to hopefully secure all three points this weekend and get our season properly up and running.
Predicted Villa XI vs Brentford
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