Aston Villa return to European action on Thursday night with the second leg of the Europa Conference League quarter-final to play against Lille, giving Unai Emery a decision to make over squad selection.
Aston Villa will hope to carry their high from beating Arsenal on Sunday into the Europa Conference League, with the Villans being just 90 minutes away from progressing into the semi-final of the tournament.
In the first leg, Unai Emery’s side beat LOSC Lille 2-1 at Villa Park, enabling them to take a narrow one-goal lead to a ground that Paulo Fonseca’s side have lost just once at in all competitions this season.
Despite the task in hand, Villa will arrive in France full of confidence on the back of their impeccable 2-0 win over Arsenal at the Emirates however, Emery could still be tempted to make some changes to his starting XI that claimed three points in North London.
Unai Emery must start Matty Cash against LOSC Lille for one key reason
After suffering a hamstring injury on international duty with Poland last month, Matty Cash missed the first leg against Lille and was absent for Villa’s previous four Premier League games.
Fortunately for Emery, the £16m star returned to the bench against Arsenal, acting as an unused substitute as Ezri Konsa continued to play at right-back.
Read more about Matty Cash here
While the Englishman has impressed this season playing that role, there have been some recent concerns over some frailties that come to Villa when Konsa is on the right, as highlighted by Gary Neville when commentating on Sky Sports’ coverage of the Arsenal win.
On two occasions, Neville expressed his worry over Konsa’s role on the right side of defence.
“Konsa at right-back has a real dilemma, he’s getting stuck in between, it’s causing a real problem.”
“I’ve talked about that right-back dilemma, look at Konsa, he’s too wide and there’s a gap between him and Carlos.”
Matty Cash would be a better fit at right-back than Ezri Konsa against Lille
The Arsenal fixture wasn’t the only test that saw the England international exposed, with Brentford’s three goals against Villa the match before all coming from the right side.
Lauded as “unbelievable” for his input in defence against West Ham, Cash is Villa’s best fit at right-back when playing a back four, with the defender coded to play as a traditional full-back, operating up and down the flank to good effect.
Given that Lille showcased their threat from wide areas in the first leg, it would be a bold, but smart, move for Emery to hand the 26-year-old a start, moving Konsa into his favoured central area to benefit the entire back line.
Only time will tell if the manager will make the decision to reintegrate Cash into the starting XI, a change that could prove to be fundamental considering his struggles of late.
