11th Placed Aston Villa Should Be a Good Test for Man Utd
Man Utd face 11th placed Aston Villa in the Premier League later today. Man Utd will play Aston Villa, Leicester and Liverpool in the next few days.
Aston Villa are having a better season than last year where they were nearly relegated and finished just above the drop, but they have sputtered slightly in the second half season after a good beginning of the season.
They have had some famous victories this season and could finish as high as eighth. Aston Villa defeated Everton last time out at Goodison Park 2-1. Ollie Watkins was on the scoresheet that day and has been solid since joining from Brentford in the summer.
Watkins leads the team with 13 goals, followed by Anwar El Ghazi who has 8 goals and has been in form lately. Jack Grealish has 6 goals and 10 assists but he has been out with an injury, but is close to returning.
Aston Villa are a solid team defensively, they have given up the fifth least amount of goals in the league this season with 38. Cash, Targett, Mings, Konsa and Martinez in goal are a decent defensive group that Villa can grow with.
John McGinn and Douglas Luiz work hard in the middle and in January, Aston Villa added french midfielder Morgan Sanson from Marseille, an ambitious signing for a mid-table club.
Aston Villa are a decent side that will give Man Utd a good game, it will be interesting to see how Man Utd lineup given the amount of games that are going to be played in the next few days.
Man Utd’s Team News Against Aston Villa
Man Utd had a four goal cushion on Roma, so the 3-2 loss did not mean much against a Roma side that was always going to come out pressing and force the action.
David de Gea was remarkable in goal against Roma and could cause some decisions to be made. Edison Cavani was fabulous over the two legs as well.
There will be squad rotations, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said in his press conference. The squad must be rotated because of the match congestion, Ole even said he will likely start a whole other stating XI in one of those games.
“I’ve got to think about my players, but I know the other teams fighting for the Champions League place will not. They will not think ‘oh, that’s not Man United’s best team, that’s not the best players’ and I can promise you that it is impossible to play 90 minutes four times at this intensity, at that level, in the Premier League, from Thursday to Thursday. That means I cannot play everyone in every minute, so we have got to prioritise.”
“I feel for my players, I feel for the team, I feel for them. Having had this fantastic season, got to a final, I’m sat here answering these questions and not about the run in. They’ve worked their socks off, they’ve been absolutely brilliant and I’m just very, very happy for them that we’ve got to this place.”
“We just have to do the best we can, it’s another challenge for us and please, you can see I’m not happy with it, I’m not sulking, it’s one of them things that I know my players will take head-on and we as a group will be stronger for it when we come out of it. I just keep my fingers crossed that no one will get injured.”
The Aston Villa game could be where they rotate heavy, the Leicester game could be viewed as more important than the Aston Villa game, but the Leicester game is sandwiched between the Liverpool fixture which is as equally important as the Leicester game.
Eric Bailly and Donny van de Beek played well in Rome and in other cameos lately, they should get in the rotation, Axel Tuanzebe, Alex Telles and even Juan Mata could get a look.
It will be interesting how Ole rotates the squad during in the upcoming week.