Aston Villa’s players wrapped up their national team duty on Wednesday, with many of them enjoying a productive international window, and crucially for Villa, they seem to have avoided any injuries despite a scare with Matty Cash.
It was a fixture-heavy period with teams playing up to four fixtures. That meant some of Villa’s players had more of a workload than others, which could impact Unai Emery’s plans for the upcoming matches as they get ready for a very busy October schedule.
Here are the number of minutes played by each Villa international during the break, excluding added time:
Victor Lindelof: 360 minutes
Lindelof played every minute of Sweden’s four UEFA Nations League games as they won three games and drew one.
He kept a clean sheet in a 1-0 win in Romania and provided an assist in the 3-1 home win against Cash’s Poland. Lindelof flicked a cross towards the back post from the second phase of a corner, where Benjamin Nygren was waiting to give Sweden a 1-0 lead.
It will be interesting to see whether Lindelof is thrown straight back into the lineup for Villa in Saturday’s meeting with Brentford, or if Taylor Harwood-Bellis starts instead having had the benefit of three weeks of extra time on the grass with Emery and the coaching staff.
John McGinn: 357 minutes
Villa’s skipper started all four games for Scotland and was only subbed off in the 87th minute of the last one.
He scored a penalty in the 3-0 win away at North Macedonia, but it was not a good international window for the Tartan Army overall, as they lost 3-0 to Switzerland and could only manage one draw and a defeat in two games against Slovenia.
McGinn is rarely left out of Villa’s starting 11, but Emery may need to manage the soon-to-be 32-year-old’s minutes in the coming weeks.
Matty Cash: 292 minutes
Cash also started all four of his nation’s fixtures (including against Lindelof’s Sweden) but only played the full 90 in the first game, with his minutes dropping to 76, 63 and 63 in the final three matches. He limped off in their final match with what fortunately turned out to only be a dead leg.
Even though he escaped with just a small injury, Emery will have a decision to make whether to start him against Brentford or to go with Wan-Bissaka.
Johan Manzambi: 261 minutes
Villa fans who were worried about Manzambi getting overworked with his national team after just returning from injury will be pleased that although the 20-year-old did feature in all four Nations League games, he only played a full 90 minutes once.
Manzambi started three games, playing just over an hour in two of them, including the comfortable victory against McGinn’s Scotland. He came on at half-time and went on to score versus North Macedonia from outside the box, although the goalkeeper made a hash of it.
Zion Suzuki: 225 minutes
Suzuki missed Japan’s game against Uruguay with a rib issue, but went on to play the second half of their friendly versus Venezuela, and then full games against Ecuador – keeping a clean sheet and saving a penalty in the shootout – and New Zealand as Japan won the Kirin Cup.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka: 180 minutes
It was a lighter international schedule for Wan-Bissaka, who played the full 90 as DR Congo beat Equatorial Guinea 2-0 and Zimbabwe 2-1 in AFCON qualifying.
DR Congo took part in two friendlies after that, but Wan-Bissaka decided to leave and join up with Villa’s camp in Spain instead, giving him a potential run at the starting right-back spot this weekend.
Ibrahim Mbaye: 177 minutes
Mbaye came off the bench to play just under half an hour in Senegal’s 1-1 draw with Mozambique, before starting the next two games.
He scored in a 1-0 win over Ethiopia, firing decisively into the top corner after an assist from Villa teammate Nicolas Jackson, and also contributed when playing 63 minutes from the start in another 1-0 win against Comoros, assisting Iliman Ndiaye for the goal.
Nicolas Jackson: 171 minutes
Jackson started Senegal’s two AFCON qualifiers, scoring the only goal in 1-1 draw with Mozambique and assisting Mbaye for his strike against Ethiopia. However, he was left on bench for the friendly versus Comoros, giving him valuable rest before he returns to action with Villa.
Matteo Ruggeri: 146 minutes
Ruggeri was not used in the games against Belgium or France, but made his Italy debut in the 4-1 win away against Turkey, playing the full 90 minutes, and he also started the return fixture in Italy, playing 56 minutes against Turkey on that occasion.
The fact he was not exposed to a lot of minutes bodes well for Villa, as Ruggeri is currently the club’s only senior left-back due to an injury to Ian Maatsen. He should be ready to go straight back into the lineup against Brentford.
Add us as a preferred source on Google