UECL AZ Alkmaar v Aston Villa Pre Match

[London Villan]

352 for me tonight

Bring in Carlos for Zaniolo and maybe Tielemans for McGinn or Kamara.

[Clampy]

Happy to see Emery make full use of the squad tomorrow . Sunday is a huge game and chance to make top 3 or 4 !!! Use the squad tomorrow that's why we have them

I'm not sure if I'd call Sunday's game huge.

This one's going to be tough by the sound of it though and yeah, I'd put out as strong a side as possible.

[olaftab]

Happy to see Emery make full use of the squad tomorrow . Sunday is a huge game and chance to make top 3 or 4 !!! Use the squad tomorrow that's why we have them

Agree.
As the season progresses we will have bigger games and with players missing.
It is essential that squad players are ready and not expected to be up to standard after several weeks without playing.

No Sunday is not a huge game and if we need to get squad players ready for Premier League games coming up let’s play them against Luton and Fulham.

[VillaTim]

No, use the squad players for the conference games. Full focus and strength for the EPL games and don't underestimate the likes of luton and Fulham. EPL is the priority and Emery does keep saying so too.

[Rigadon]

It’s relatively easy for me to say , as I’m not travelling to the Netherlands, but I have to agree the league needs to take priority.  It is a massive opportunity over the next handful of games to really cement ourselves in the top 4.  I want to win this too, but I’d take CL qualification over that because it’s beyond high time we did qualify.  Mad to think, but winning this wouldn’t change much for villa as a club in comparison with CL qualification. 

[Olneythelonely]

No, use the squad players for the conference games. Full focus and strength for the EPL games and don't underestimate the likes of luton and Fulham. EPL is the priority and Emery does keep saying so too.

Alkmaar are a better team than Luton. We qualified for this competition so that we could compete in it. It shouldn’t be the case that we automatically rest players for Europe, otherwise, what’s the point? I’d say we’ve got a better chance of getting into a better European competition by winning the one we’re currently in, than through the league. Treat every game on its merit and choose the team accordingly.

A side note, I hate when it’s called the EPL.

[tomd2103]

No, use the squad players for the conference games. Full focus and strength for the EPL games and don't underestimate the likes of luton and Fulham. EPL is the priority and Emery does keep saying so too.

I would have to agree.  If we can win the next three league games, it should put us in a very good position going in to a tough run of fixtures at the end of November and start of December. 

The squad players need to start contributing more as they are going to be needed at points in the season.

[hipkiss92]

Martinez

Cash
Carlos
Torres
Digne

Tielemens
Dendoncker
Kamara

Diaby
Duran
Bailey

Bit of rotation, taking out the key players (Konsa, Luiz, McGinn, Ollie) but leaving enough in there to hopefully be solid and get them on the counter attack. Can take Cash, Diaby, Kamara off after an hour to rotate and keep fresh.

[AV84]

The squad players need to start contributing more as they are going to be needed at points in the season.

That's the problem, isn't it. Even with the injuries, we should be able to rotate at least 6 players into the squad midweek and not see a massive drop off in quality. But that's not what's happened, so far.

Tielemans, Bailey, Carlos, Durán, Donk, and even Lenglet should be able to come into the squad and put in a performance that wins matches. I know it's a lot of disruption but other teams were making 11 changes in the last round of games, and still winning.

The results in our group have meant anyone could still qualify at this point, so we really need to be winning the next 2 games to make a mark on the table.

[Risso]

The squad players need to start contributing more as they are going to be needed at points in the season.

That's the problem, isn't it. Even with the injuries, we should be able to rotate at least 6 players into the squad midweek and not see a massive drop off in quality. But that's not what's happened, so far.

Tielemans, Bailey, Carlos, Durán, Donk, and even Lenglet should be able to come into the squad and put in a performance that wins matches. I know it's a lot of disruption but other teams were making 11 changes in the last round of games, and still winning.

The results in our group have meant anyone could still qualify at this point, so we really need to be winning the next 2 games to make a mark on the table.

Yes. That's the one thing that seems to be causing Emery issues at the moment, making changes and keeping a similar level of performance.

[pauliewalnuts]

Agree, we can manage a couple of changes fine, but not four or five.

We made a big deal of qualifying for this competition, we need to do whatever we need to to do well in it.

Rotate for Luton. Alkmaar are a much better side.

[Brazilian Villain]

I agree with PW, it's important we get a result tonight. That would give us a good chance of finishing top with 2 home games to come, and enable us to skip the preliminary knockout round post-Xmas.

[AV84]

We've got Luton, Forest, and Fulham around these two AZ matches. I think that's a run that allows for a couple of changes to the weekend sides.

Before the Warsaw match we've got Spurs, and then a Sun/Tue/Sat against Bournemouth/Man City/Arsenal leading into Zrinjski away.

That's a much tougher run of games, so I think getting two wins against AZ would be the best outcome for us, and we should be aiming for that with selection.

[LeeB]

Agree, we can manage a couple of changes fine, but not four or five.

We made a big deal of qualifying for this competition, we need to do whatever we need to to do well in it.

Rotate for Luton. Alkmaar are a much better side.

I think a lot of teams are the same, even those with better quality in reserve. I always think the key is to just rotate three players at most, but mix it up with who it is and do the same in the league games. We can handle that without losing our shape.

[Footy-Vill]

Agree, we can manage a couple of changes fine, but not four or five.

We made a big deal of qualifying for this competition, we need to do whatever we need to to do well in it.

Rotate for Luton. Alkmaar are a much better side.

I think a lot of teams are the same, even those with better quality in reserve. I always think the key is to just rotate three players at most, but mix it up with who it is and do the same in the league games. We can handle that without losing our shape.

On paper Az away is far far tougher than Luton at home given respective players and form coupled with our own home form.

Insight:
Watkins, Diaby,Luiz,Cash and Torres haven't started in Europa Conference League matches yet.

Question:
Could some of this 5 start start tonight ? Given the respective difficulties of the Az and Luton matches?

Facts:
Seems evident that Zaniolo, Lenglet and Tielemans are European Conference regulars and that makes sense given their European experience they have started both matches in the competition so far.

Starting striker tonight Watkins or Duran or both?
Duran has been the starting striker in Europa Conference so far.

Does Emery revert to Hibs away line up which has been the strongest line up so far in Europe?

Martinez, Konsa, Diego Carlos, Pau, Digne, Bailey, Kamara, Douglas Luiz, McGinn, Diaby, Watkins.