Aston Villa journalist Ashley Preece has given his thoughts on a difficult team selection decision facing Steven Gerrard.
According to The Yorkshire Post, Villa will be welcoming back Lucas Digne, Ezri Konsa and Carney Chukwuemeka for their clash tomorrow night in the Premier League.
Digne and Konsa both missed their last game, a 4-0 victory over Southampton, through illness. Digne has been a regular under Gerrard since arriving in January and Konsa has also been a prominent member of the side throughout the season.
Meanwhile, Chukwuemeka missed the game as a result of an injury and has been making a steady impact on the side over the course of the campaign.
The issue facing Gerrard now is whether or not they should all come back straight into the team. Preece discussed the issue on the Leeds-focused Blue, White and Yellow podcast ahead of their clash at Elland Road, and hinted that in his eyes at least, the Villa boss should keep things as they are after the result at the weekend.
He said: “A bit of a boost for Gerrard, we’ve got the two first-team lads available, Lucas Digne and Ezri Konsa and young Carney’s available again. Big decision for Gerrard, he hasn’t made his mind up yet what to do, because Calum Chambers and Ashley Young came back in last weekend against Southampton, so they played well.
“So will he change it? I’m not sure he should.”
TIF Thoughts on Ashley Preece’s comments about Steven Gerrard and the Aston Villa team…
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You can certainly understand why Preece would think it makes sense for Gerrard to keep things the way they are. Given that they beat Southampton 4-0 at the weekend and Leeds are on a terrible run of form recently, having not won a game since the middle of January, the formbook does suggest that Villa should be feeling confident ahead of the game.
Add to that, the fact the players won’t have been properly training in the past week or so as they recovered from their various issues, and it makes sense for them to be eased back into the side rather than being thrown in when they are potentially rusty having been away.
So a place on the bench would make sense as they can be introduced later if the situation demands, while as Preece hints at, we feel Gerrard should stick with the same starting XI from their last game.
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