As the January window approaches, what could Unai Emery’s Aston Villa side need to improve on throughout the market? We’re bringing you the latest update on the Villians and what they could come to do in the New Year.
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00:00Charlie, looking at Aston Villa and obviously January window approaching now, it's become
00:08a thing where a lot of clubs spend big in the summer and get big names in the summer
00:12and tend to not really adjust massively. The last few seasons, especially in the Premier
00:18League, the January windows have been quite quiet. How do you assess Villa's season so
00:25far up until this point, until this festive period? How do you feel they've adjusted in
00:31January? Do they need any sort of position of improvement, do you feel? How much can
00:37that take them forward into the new year?
00:40I think there are definitely areas for Villa to address. Going on quite a winless run throughout
00:44the end of October and throughout November as well, there's been a few concerns among
00:48supporters but they've remained competitive. Unai Emery is not overly concerned by it and
00:53by the run of form at all because he knows that his players are keeping to the structure
00:57that he wants, keeping to the demands he wants. There have been quite a few injuries, especially
01:01midfield and in defence as well, that's disrupted Villa's rhythm. But once again, they're not
01:05losing games by huge margins, they're sticking in there and keep on cracking on. They just
01:10need to be a bit more clinical maybe in front of goal, not quite having the same cutting
01:14edge as we saw last season. Such an impressive campaign, it's very hard to meet those demands
01:19and meet those levels once again. But that's what fans want, that's what Unai Emery wants,
01:23that's what the players want. Maybe in January they could address a few areas, it's just
01:27they don't want to slip back into the problems with the Premier League's profit and sustainability
01:32regulations. We saw that in the summer, just how much stress that caused. They managed
01:36to sell Douglas Luiz, that got that problem out of the way. They brought in Onanas, they
01:40weren't too weakened. But once again, if they go and spend too much money without selling
01:44too much, then they could run into issues again. Ideally, they want a new right back
01:49because Matty Cash, although he's played pretty consistently, he's not quite of that
01:54Champions League level, most would argue. Ezra Konza, better in the middle, they don't
01:58want to rely on him going into right back. So maybe another right-sided centre back or
02:02a right back could fill in nicely. And then an attacking midfielder, a bit more creativity
02:07might be desired. We've seen the odd switch with John McGinn moving just behind Watkins,
02:12Morgan Rodgers heading out wide instead. Has that worked? I'm not too sure. Emi Wendier,
02:17is he quite hitting the levels? Jacob Ramsey, constantly injured. So an attacking midfielder
02:21would be desired as well, but it's all about the cash and not having too much of it.
02:25Yeah, do you feel that maybe Villa's squad depth isn't quite the level it needs to be
02:30to be competing in the Champions League?
02:33I think in right midfield especially, Moussa Diaby leaving, great fee, recouping pretty
02:37much everything that they spent on him, over £50m. But Jadon Filagin hasn't hit the ground
02:42running as much as Villa would have hoped. Leon Bailey hasn't been in the form of his
02:46life by any means, he doesn't seem to have the confidence. So yeah, you're right, confidence
02:51isn't quite there, which makes you feel like you haven't got that depth. They can certainly
02:55compete, it's just about finding the confidence and finding the form of these players again.