We’re thrilled to welcome Sky Sports writer Dan Bardell as our exclusive Aston Villa blogger, as he’ll be providing his thoughts on the club’s most pressing issues each week…
Unai Emery will make only minor changes to his Aston Villa team for their Europa Conference League start against Legia Warszawa, but Dan Bardell believes the Poles will give the “toughest” task in the group stage.
The early rounds of the Europa Conference League have been suggested as an opportunity for Emery to get some minutes under the less-used players, according to Villa’s new-found depth. Youri Tielemans, Calum Chambers, and Leander Dendoncker will all be eager to make an impression in UEFA’s secondary European tournament.
Aston Villa begin their long-awaited return to group-stage European football in the Polish capital, which the Villans are widely expected to win. Emery’s team will be buoyed by their late comeback victory against Crystal Palace, which extended their undefeated home record to nine games.
However, Bardell has recognised that the away game against Legia Warszawa might be the hardest challenge for the Villans in the group stages, thus “minimal” changes to the starting XI will be made in the hope that the club gets its international comeback off to the best possible start.
“I think Emery will try to make minimal changes for the game,” Bardell told Villa News exclusively. He won’t want to upend the side too much, but one or two alterations are possible.
“It won’t be as ferocious as the [second leg of the Hibernian game], but he’ll go relatively strong.”
“I actually believe the game on Thursday will be the most difficult for Villa [in the group stage].” It will be much closer than most people believe. It’s perhaps Villa’s most difficult game.”
In unrelated Aston Villa news, an injury specialist has predicted a long-term injury for the club’s European debut.
