Aston Villa v Manchester United 21.12.25 - Pre Match Thread

[Richard]

No Sancho, Guessand, Torres, Mings or Barkley then. Possibly Martinez too, though I can't for a minute think he'd want to miss it.

Are they all definitely out? To be fair only one of those plays a lot (Pau), while Yanited are without 3 or 4 regulars.

[PeterWithesShin]

Their U21s are losing 2-0 to Tamworth and they didn't have enough players to fill the bench.

[Pete3206]

1-1

[Brazilian Villain]

No Sancho, Guessand, Torres, Mings or Barkley then.

Isn't Guessand currently only on a reserve/standby list for Côte d'Ivoire?

[cdbearsfan]

No Sancho, Guessand, Torres, Mings or Barkley then.

Isn't Guessand currently only on a reserve/standby list for Côte d'Ivoire?

Yep. And it's only for pre-tournament withdrawals. The first match is same day as the Man U game so imagine we will know for sure soon.

[andyh]

They have players out due to AFCON.
We have players out due to injury.

We know what the commentators will focus on.

[TonyD]

Michael Oliver in charge.

I suspect he might be limbering up for 2 pens. 

[Somniloquism]

No Sancho, Guessand, Torres, Mings or Barkley then. Possibly Martinez too, though I can't for a minute think he'd want to miss it.

Are they all definitely out? To be fair only one of those plays a lot (Pau), while Yanited are without 3 or 4 regulars.

Sancho: Yes, can't play against his parent club.
Guessand: Maybe, depends on if anyone drops out of Afcon squad.
Torres: Maybe. Some rumours reported after the weekend match stated 2 weeks.
Mings: Yes. Emery mentioned probably 4 weeks away on presser start of December.
Barkley: Yes. Last reported 8-10 weeks before return by Emery on same day as Mings update.

[OzVilla]

It'll be 3 - 0.

Olney
Platt
Gage

[SoccerHQ]

Be interesting to see how we approach it. Go for them, like we did against bournemouth, or sit back and try to dictate the pace and slow the game down.

Slow the pacing down will just allow likes of Fernandes to get on the ball now. Without Amad and Mbeumo down the right they're also going to be far less dangerous with quick counters.

A problem for us is standing off them and Fernandes getting the ball as he likes to ping quick diagonals over our full backs heads and that causes us issues. The 3-2 Boxing day collapse in 2023 he was doing that at will in the second half.

With likes of Man. City and Arsenal it is more of a chess match in the VP games and that suits us but Man. United are dangerous for quick bursts and then fall away as quickly so I'd rather not give them the ball for large periods to grow in confidence which was seemingly the gameplan for the last day in May for some strange reason.

[Nii Lamptey]

Hate playing this lot.
Bit like lancing a boil, let’s get it over with and move onto Chelsea.
If we ‘do’ win, then I’ll start getting my head turned by a title race.

[Garyth]

having considered the squad quality, managers, and current form, I’m still absolutely convinces we’re going to lose this. Somehow.