Aston Villa Face Obstacles as They Look to Continue Turning around Poor Start

Aston Villa’s Growing Injury List


Wins are becoming increasingly expensive for Aston Villa. First, they beat Everton and for their troubles, lost Diego Carlos to a long-term injury. In the 1-0 win over Southampton, it was Boubacar Kamara that was seemingly sacrificed for the three points. With fullback Matty Cash already out with a hamstring issue, losing Lucas Digne during the international break, meant Villa now only have one fit player from what would be considered their five first choice defensive outfield players (if you include defensive midfield).

After a poor start, ironically, the initial focus for Steven Gerrard was to shore up the backline. To at least make Villa hard to beat and not give away silly goals and points. So far, so good, but obviously the key injuries haven’t come at the best of times, with Gerrard trying to turn Villa’s fortunes around, but there’s a noticeable depth to the Villa squad now, above and beyond anything we’ve seen at Villa for a good decade plus.

“I always have faith and confidence, that’s the reason why you build a squad and I’m always eager to get two good players in every position because you try and plan for the what ifs,” reflected Gerrard, at his pre-Leeds press conference.

“You know you’re going to have stages of the season where you get an injury or a couple at the same time.

“We’ve tried to build a squad to be prepared for these situations.”

The Villa boss, who insists on a “no excuse” culture, clearly isn’t feeling sorry for himself and prefers to get on with it. In the second-half against Southampton, Villa showed that if the likes of Ashley Young, Ezri Konsa and Douglas Luiz put in a shift, then Villa shouldn’t miss their absentees too much.

30% OFF Villa Home & Away Shirts + Kit

Ludwig Augustinsson Chance

Villa will certainly be hoping that left-back loanee Ludwig Augustinsson will step-up, after been frozen out of the picture this season. Match sharpness wise, Villa will at least benefit from the Swede playing back-to-back games during the recent international break for Sweden.

“I get a lot of people knocking on my door, at times they’re frustrated, at times they don’t see that they’re very close to an opportunity,” said Gerrard.

“And now, it’s like, ‘go on then, here’s your time, here’s your moment, back up what you’ve said when you’ve knocked on my door’. 

“So there will be opportunities for those players and I’m looking forward to seeing how they play.”

Certainly, if Augustinsson can match the levels of Young, who has done a great job of covering Cash’s injury, then Villa should be on a sound footing.

Gerrard was unable to put a timeframe on Digne’s potential absence, but said, “it’s very difficult to put a timescale on Lucas but he’ll certainly be missing in the coming weeks.”

In a recent episode of the My Old Man Said podcast, we look at Villa’s recent improvement in results and how the injury situation could impact on them during this pivotal month.

Along the way, we also uncover two new Villa Park traditions, single out specific players for praise, while catching up with the latest Villa news, Three Points and Media Muppets.

UTV

Listen to the latest MOMS podcast show here

BECOME A MY OLD MAN SAID MEMBER! 

Get ad-free shows, extra weekly exclusive podcasts and 24/7 access to Match Club, plus join our FPL league with a cash prize.

For more details and to become a MOMS Member, click here: Become a MOMS Member

Follow the show on Twitter at @myoldmansaid and join the show’s listener facebook group The Mad Few.

T-Shirt, Mugs & Merch Listeners can now buy a MOMS Podcast T-shirt or mug to show their support of the show and look cool, check out the MOMS SHOP to buy.

Credits:

David Michael – @oldmansaid 

Chris Budd – @BUDD_music

Phillip Shaw – @prsgame

Cover art – @villaspots

My Old Man Said – https://myoldmansaid.com