Aston Villa vs. Swansea City: Dean Smith’s first match under Villa Park lights
By Josh Tonti
Saturday’s Championship match represents a new era at Aston Villa Football Club. It will be Dean Smith’s first as manager of the claret and blue.
Graham Potter’s Swansea City should be a challenging first opponent for Dean Smith. The Swans have been tough ones to crack in the early going. Through twelve league matches, they have conceded just nine times behind the strong play of centre-halves Joe Rodon and Mike van der Hoorn.
Former Villa target Oliver McBurnie leads the club in scoring on four goals and two assists. Away from home, Potter’s side has lost just once all season.
For Villa, the international window offered a reprieve for some players as they joined their respective nations’ national teams. Additionally, it allowed Smith preparation time to get familiar with the players at the training ground. Saturday’s match offers a first glimpse as to how Smith might line Villa up the rest of the way. At Brentford, he heavily utilized a 4-3-3 system that transitioned into a 4-2-3-1 without the ball.
Aston Villa Predicted XI (4-3-3): Nyland; Bree, Chester (c), Tuanzebe, Taylor; Jedinak, McGinn, Grealish; Bolasie, Abraham, El Ghazi.
Substitutes: Moreira, Elmohamady, Hourihane, Bjarnason, Adomah, Kodjia, Hogan.
I fully expect the fullback competition to ramp-up now that there’s a new manager in charge. Early reports indicate Smith wants Villa to pursue a new left-back and centre-back in the January transfer window.
With that said, could James Bree earn his chance and claim one of the fullback roles? It shouldn’t take much to unseat incumbents Alan Hutton or Ahmed Elmohamady.
Smith seems like a good manager to get Conor Hourihane, John McGinn, and Jack Grealish playing at the same time in central midfield. But, having played 90 minutes on Tuesday, Hourihane gets a break for the safer option, Mile Jedinak in a No. 6 holding role.
In goal, it’s open competition between Ørjan Nyland, André Moreira, and Mark Bunn. Any of them could claim the No. 1 position under Smith.
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It’s nearly impossible to predict who starts in the attack, but Yannick Bolasie AND Anwar El Ghazi deserve to feature – at the same time. Abraham gets the call over Kodjia, who only recently returned from two international matches in Africa.
WHEN: Saturday, 20 October, 2018 / 10:00 a.m. EST / 3:00 p.m. GMT
WHERE: Villa Park, Birmingham
PREDICTION: 1-1 draw (Abraham)