The director of Aston Villa Unai Emery says that his teams had to be ready to face “the best team of the Premier League and Europe” when Liverpool leaders come to Villa Park on Wednesday evening.
Villa lost six points behind the top four after shooting at home in Ipswich this weekend, Emery saying that a return to the Champions League remains the goal.
The new signatures Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio could both be included while Emery has trouble defense injury problems.
He said: “For me, as a coach, Liverpool is a great challenge, a challenge of the way we can collectively define our match plan against them. This is the most difficult match we are going to play in the past few weeks and months.
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“Liverpool is the best team in the Premier League and Europe. Our challenge is to know how we are confronted with them and answer with our qualities and how we play at this level.
“We are delighted and I hope we can share our excited moments with our fans at Villa Park.”
Villa won only one of his last 14 Premier League games against Liverpool, although a 7-2 victory at Villa Park in October 2020.
A rehearsal – or three points, anyway – would put villa back in the mixture for a European place in a race which seems likely to resume the thread.
“We are positive, but we are excited and we play in the right direction,” said Emery.
“We need more points in case we want to reach the biggest demand and objective that we can have, which must be in the Champions League.”
Team news
Midfielder / defender Boubacar Kamara came out after his departure early against Ipswich, while Villa could include striker Leon Bailey and defenders Ezri Konsa and Matty Cash in the team.
Emery on Kamara: “He was ready to play with a problem behind his back, but the injury did not come from his back, it is his hamstrings. He tries to analyze and meet doctors and physios a lot and how we can improve. Exactly why, it’s difficult.
On the return of Tyrone Mings of the injury: “Mings is a very important player, his return was very good and it works very well. He made a little stop in his recovery but he played on Saturday and tomorrow we will need him available. He is a very important player because he is one of the captains and a defense leader. »»
