Will there be much business done by Aston Villa in January?

A look ahead to January for Villa.

Transcript

00:00Charlie, looking at Aston Villa and obviously January window approaching now and it's become

00:06a thing where, you know, a lot of clubs spend big in the summer and get big names in the

00:11summer and tend to not really adjust massively, you know, the last few seasons, especially

00:16in the Premier League, the January windows have been quite quiet. How do you sort of

00:20assess Villa's, you know, season so far up until this point, until this festive period

00:27and how do you feel they're adjusting January? Do they sort of need any sort of position

00:33of improvement, do you feel, and how much can that take them forward into the new year?

00:38I think there are definitely areas for Villa to address. Going on quite a winless run throughout

00:43the end of October and throughout November as well, there's been a few concerns among

00:47supporters but they've remained competitive. Unai Emery is not overly concerned by it and

00:52by the run of form at all because he knows that his players are keeping to the structure

00:56that he wants, keeping to the demands he wants. There have been quite a few injuries, especially

00:59midfield and in defence as well, that's disrupted Villa's rhythm. But once again, they're not

01:04losing games by huge margins. They're sticking in there and keep on cracking on. They just

01:09need to be a bit more clinical maybe in front of goal, not quite having the same cutting

01:13edge as we saw last season. Such an impressive campaign. It's very hard to meet those demands

01:18and meet those levels once again, but that's what fans want. That's what Unai Emery wants.

01:22That's what the players want. Maybe in January they could address a few areas. It's just

01:26they don't want to slip back into the problems with the Premier League's profit and sustainability

01:31regulations. We saw that in the summer, just how much stress that caused. They managed

01:35to sell Douglas Luiz. That got that problem out of the way. They brought in Onanas. They

01:39weren't too weakened. But once again, if they go and spend too much money without selling

01:43too much, then they could run into issues again. Ideally, they want a new right back

01:48because Matty Cash, although he's played pretty consistently, he's not quite of that

01:53Champions League level, most would argue. Ezra Konza, better in the middle. They don't

01:57want to rely on him going into right back. So maybe another right-sided centre-back or

02:01a right back could fill in nicely. And then an attacking midfielder, a bit more creativity

02:06might be desired. We've seen the odd switch with John McGinn moving just behind Watkins.

02:11Morgan Rodgers heading out wide instead. Has that worked? I'm not too sure. Emi Wendier,

02:16is he quite hitting the levels? Jacob Ramsey, constantly injured. So an attacking midfielder

02:20would be desired as well, but it's all about the cash and not having too much of it.

02:24Yeah. Do you feel that maybe Villa's squad depth isn't quite the level it needs to be

02:29to be competing in the Champions League?

02:31I think in right midfield, especially, Moussa Diaby leaving great fee, recouping pretty

02:36much everything that they spent on him, over £50m. But Jadon Filagin hasn't hit the ground

02:41running as much as Villa would have hoped. Leon Bailey hasn't been in the form of his

02:45life by any means. He doesn't seem to have the confidence. So yeah, you're right. The

02:49squad depth may be not quite there, or at least the confidence isn't quite there, which

02:53makes you feel like you haven't got that depth. They can certainly compete. It's just about

02:58finding the confidence and finding the form of these players again.