With the opening game of the season just around the corner, the question on Villa fans lips is, who will be starting for the game against Bournemouth next Saturday?
With Villa being one of the busiest teams this transfer window in the Premier League, there will definitely be some significant changes from last season’s line-up. With big players like Delph and Benteke leaving this summer, Villa was in need of signings, and have bought in Jordan Ayew, Jordan Veretout, Idrissa Gueye and Rudy Gestede all in the last two weeks. With these new signings only being able to feature in the last couple of friendlies, there is still not much indication of who Sherwood will choose to play in some of the positions, with now gaining some fierce competition in some areas of the squad, because of the quality of the signings Sherwood has brought in over the last few months.
In goal, I expect Guzan will be back to play in the opening weekend ahead of Mark Bunn, who even though has had a lot of game time in pre-season, I didn’t feel he did enough to gain a first team start. Although, Guzan didn’t feature at all in Villa’s pre-season because he was playing for USA, I feel he will be ready to start next weekend.
Until the game against Nottingham Forest, I felt the back four was already chosen itself, starting with Alan Hutton at Right back, Jordan Amavi at Left back, and with Jores Okore out until November time, it will be Micah Richards and Ciaran Clark at the centre of the defence. Now though with Full-back Jose Angel Crespo joining, Sherwood may be tempted to put the new signing from Cordoba in. Leandro Bacuna could also play at Right back but the way that Sherwood likes to plays him, it looks like he prefers Leandro in a more attacking role.
In midfield, it will depend on what formation Tim Sherwood decides to play and even if he goes with three centre midfielders, there is still tough competition in that role in who may start there. Tim now has more depth there with his new signings, but the real contenders to start will be Ashley Westwood, Carlos Sanchez, Jordan Veretout and Idrissa Gueye who are all prepared to start in that midfield role. If Villa do go with a 4-3-3 formation, I predict that Westwood, Gueye and Veretout will all start at the Goldsands stadium on Saturday.
Whether Villa go 4-3-3 or 4-4-2, which they played on Saturday against Forest, the line-up will include wingers, and in contention there will be Jack Grealish, Jordan Ayew, Leandro Bacuna Scott Sinclair, Gabriel Agbonlahor and Carlos Gill, all could start for Villa at Bournemouth. I feel that Villa will go with the 4-3-3 set up, and that means one forward, which I feel, will be either new signing Rudy Gestede or Libor Kozak who has had an impressive pre-season scoring three goals. With forwards Christian Benteke, Darren Bent and Andreas Weimann all leaving, this is, and has been the area recently, which Sherwood wants to improve on, and with strong rumours Emmanuel Adebayor could be joining, there still could be a surprise player leading the line on Saturday, instead of Gestede or Kozak.
Whoever Tim decides to play next weekend, from already looking at the options Villa have got, it will be good enough to give any team a tough encounter this season, and with the quality Villa have now got, we should be expecting a good start to the new season.
Predicted line-up vs Bournemouth
