On Tuesday night, Aston Villa will be facing their local rivals, Wolverhampton in a pre-season friendly, at the Molineux. Out of all the pre-season friendlies Villa have had this summer, this one definitely seems to be the one the Villa fans will have been looking out for. With only two more friendlies left now, against Wolves on Tuesday, and then Nottingham Forest on Saturday, it would seem that at any stage of the pre-season, Tim Sherwood will be fielding his strongest side for these two games, with the new season only just around the corner.
Aston Villa look to be without a few first team players for this one, though as Jores Okore looks to be out until September, after undergoing knee surgery in June, he is now working his way back to full fitness for the new season. Also, there are doubts over local lad Jack Grealish for the game on Tuesday, who picked up a hamstring problem a few weeks back when Villa were in Portugal. Gary Gardner and Carlos Gill both sustained knocks from pre-season games too, as Carlos picked up a knock after the Swindon game, with Gardner sustaining an ankle problem.
Brad Guzan also looks to miss the game, after only just finishing with USA, in the gold cup, as they finished fourth, after losing a third-place game to Panama on Saturday. Except that, Villa seem to have everyone else in contention for the wolves match, and I expect a strong line-up for the game, with maybe a couple of youngsters featuring, like young Jerell Sellars for example, who has definitely made a name for himself in pre-season, after scoring against Swindon last week in the 2-0 victory, and then the night after, scoring two goals against Forest Green Rovers.
Wolves will turn up with a strong line up, and also with a strong performance, as they look to continue their unbeaten form in pre-season, winning three and drawing one so far. Not only will they want to get one over on Villa on Tuesday, because of the fierce rivalry they have always had, but also because Aston Villa have beaten them on their own home soil in their last two encounters, and will not want another defeat again. The only real first team concern for Wolves is that there without new signing Jed Wallace, who is struggling to get back to full fitness to play any part of the remaining pre-season schedule they have got.
Even though Wolves are unbeaten so far, it wasn’t the performance they would have wanted, last time out when they drew 1-1 with Shrewsbury. After Villa’s inconsistent performances in pre-season, they started with a 3-1 defeat to Fulham but since then, they have beaten Swindon 2-0, and also two draws against S.C Braga, and Saturdays 1-1 draw to Walsall.
From these results and the type performances both sides have had, they both will look to be improving their game for this one, and I expect a much more competitive and higher quality game then, the recent performances from both sides so far this summer. With also the local rivalry between the two sides, it will only add even more of a competitive edge to this pre-season friendly.
It’s not all about the result though in pre-season friendlies, especially for Villa’s manager Tim Sherwood, who by now, will be wanting to make sure he knows who will be in contention to start the new season. With the new season slowly approaching new signings are also starting to arrive at Villa Park.
For Kenny Jackett’s force, they will want to improve on a disappointing game at the weekend against Shrewsbury, as they were fortunate to draw the game. Kenny is still looking out on the signings front of things as well as Sherwood is for Villa, as he still looks to replace Bakary Sako, who is waiting to be signed for a Premier League side, which is strongly rumoured to be Leicester City. Kenny will be desperately wanting a better performance from Saturday, and even if it’s only a pre-season friendly, he will be trying to make sure they don’t slip up on Tuesday, against one of their fierce local rivals of Aston Villa.
Whichever way these two managers set their side out, this match should be a strong encounter, and both sets of fans will also be looking forward to this one. When it comes to these two clubs playing, there will certainly be a good atmosphere and attendance turning up, and on Tuesday night, there will be no different.
