Bryan King has speculated that Tyrone Mings could start for Aston Villa against Club Brugge in the UEFA Champions League.
The ex-Villa scout doesn’t think that this is the right match for Mings to feature in. However, he hasn’t ruled out Emery handing a start to the Englishman at the Jan Breydel Stadium on Wednesday (6 November).
And King – speaking exclusively to Villa News – is curious to see what Emery does with the defender against Club Brugge.
“I think Mings needs a less competitive match,” King said.
“He needs a couple more games in my opinion. However, maybe Emery will start him or give him half an hour toward the end
Returning from an injury like that and playing in the Champions League is difficult. Club Brugge aren’t your main threat, but they are a tough side to play.
“Villa will want to remain at the top of the Champions League phase, it will be interesting to see what Emery decides to do.”
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King is probably right to suggest that this game might be a bit too big to start Mings in. However, Emery might feel differently about the situation.
Mings now has 90 minutes under his belt and the Villa boss will be keen to hand the centre-back more playing time as he looks to provide competition in his squad.
While the Champions League is the top tier of European football, Club Brugge aren’t the trickiest opponents Villa will play. Therefore, this could be the perfect time for Emery to hand Mings another start.
With a trip to Anfield to play Liverpool in the Premier League on Saturday (9 November) to come, if Emery wants to hand Mings a start ahead of the upcoming international break, Club Brugge is the match to do it.
In other Aston Villa news, a Douglas Luiz return to the club is on the cards.
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The England international started at centre back before moving to the right which resulted in Spurs scoring three goals to secure the win.
The 27-year-old has been forced to play there as Cash has struggled with injuries while Bailey has also struggled for form on the right wing.
Sky Sports and talkSPORT journalist Bardell thinks Unai Emery has a problem with moving Konsa during games, while the right-side duo continue to cause the Villans problems.
Speaking exclusively to Villa News, Bardell said: “It was obviously a difficult day for Villa against Spurs and there were a few things I saw that worried me.
“At the moment there is just a few things causing issues. They missed Cash when he went off, the defensive shape went a bit out of the window and that means Konsa has to move to right back midgame. When he stats there he seems to be generally ok but when he moves it seems to cause the defence a problem.
Obviously on the right-hand side they’ve got Bailey who was a huge player, he’s not started the last two Premier League games, but last season he was massive.
“So just with those two things, they’re two things that Villa haven’t locked down and have caused them problems.“
The Villans had a bad day at the office against Spurs which started well with a Morgan Rogers goal but collapsed in the second half.
The Champions League clash against Club Brugge on Wednesday 6 November poses the opportunity to right the wrongs from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium but may be without Cash for the game.
Being without the Poland international could see Konsa shift across to right back from the start with Bailey potentially ahead of him.
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