Aston Villa have had their Champions League hopes weighed up by the media, with comparisons made with their Premier League rivals to show Unai Emery’s resilience through the club’s injury disaster.
Aston Villa have shown an incredible amount of strength this season through Unai Emery’s ability to adapt his squad to cover for absent players.
The Villans have lost three key players to ACL injuries, as well as having a host of squad members unavailable throughout the course of the season to truly test the adaptability of Emery’s plans.
This week, it was announced that Boubacar Kamara had suffered a season-ending ACL injury during the defeat to Manchester United, seeing the club’s injury list extend even further at a crucial point in the 2023/24 calendar.
What the media have said on Aston Villa injury woes
Every season, every team is affected by injury which adds emphasis on the need to have a strong amount of squad depth.
Not many have had a time as difficult as Villa this season, who sit just one point outside of the Premier League top four despite not having their preferred XI available for the majority of the campaign.
Talking on Sky Sports News, journalist David Reed had a lot to say about the struggle that Emery’s side have faced this term.
“Villa have had not one, not two but three ACL’s to three starting players. They’ve been without Pau Torres for nearly two months now, against Manchester United they fielded their fourth and fifth-choice centre-backs.”
The Villans lost both Emiliano Buendia and Tyrone Mings to ACL injuries in August, putting the manager at a disadvantage before the season had properly started.
Luckily for the Midlands club, the summer signings of figures such as Pau Torres and Moussa Diaby added depth to the squad that proved to be vital after suffering such serious early blows.
How Aston Villa have adapted to injury compared to Newcastle and Man Utd
While suffering defeat to Manchester United closed the gap between 5th and 6th to five points, the Villans are still sitting comfortably in the race for a European finish despite their injury dilemmas.
Behind Villa are United and Newcastle United, who too have had their fair share of injuries, but haven’t adapted as well as Emery’s side, which was analysed by Reed.
“If you’re comparing that [Villa defensive injuries] to Newcastle, that’s Newcastle starting with Paul Dummett and maybe Dan Burn, if you’re talking about United that’s Evans partnering with maybe Linedlof or Maguire.”
The Villans started a pairing of Diego Carlos and Clement Lenglet against Erik ten Hag’s side, players that would be seen as sitting behind Tyrone Mings, Pau Torres and Ezri Konsa in the pecking order.
Reed touched upon Emery’s strength to force his squad to adapt to their losses throughout the season, suggesting that the Villans don’t get enough credit for their success amid squad shortages.
“It’s credit to Aston Villa’s squad building that they are able to get players in like Diego Carlos and Clement Lenglet but we’re not talking about that because the manager hasn’t used that as an excuse all season.”
“They’ve had Jacob Ramsey out injured for a period of time, Alex Moreno out for a period of time and Lucas Digne who’s now coming back and I think that’s slightly been overlooked when it comes to Aston Villa’s performances this year.”
Some sympathised for Newcastle when Kieran Trippier was filmed after approaching fans to say “how many injuries have we got?” when the Magpies lost to Bournemouth.
Actions such as the Englishman’s have not been required at Villa, which is credit to the manager for the ability to keep his squad away from requiring excuses to cover for poor results.
The squad’s resilience under the manager has kept Villa Park hoping for a top four finish despite the brutality of their injury list.
Aston Villa’s Champions League hopes analysed
Despite slipping out of the top four and losing Kamara for the rest of the season, there remains hope that Villa can clinch Champions League football next year.
Reed shared his verdict on the Midlands club’s top four hopes despite injury concerns.
“If they’re able to replicate the performance that they did against Manchester United, I still think there’s a really good opportunity for Villa to finish in that top four.”
Losing to United at home was a harsh result that stemmed from a late spell of lackadaisical defending, but the performance as a whole was impressive by the jaded squad.
Champions League or not, Emery will get his flowers for orchestrating a memorable season for the Villans up against a tsunami of injuries.
