Aston Villa will play hosts to Newcastle United at Villa Park on Saturday night hoping to pick up maximum points at home. The Villans suffered a disappointing 2-0 defeat away at Manchester City in midweek which has halted their momentum heading into this weekend’s clash versus the Magpies.
Dean Smith will once again opt for a 4-3-3 formation and is expected to make one change to his first-team for this game. Anwar El Ghazi could return to Villa’s starting XI while Ross Barkley gets a rest on the bench following his comeback from injury earlier this week.
4-3-3 Aston Villa Predicted Lineup To Face Newcastle United
Defence
Emiliano Martínez will once again operate as Smith’s first-choice keeper after he conceded two goals in each of his last two league outings. Ezri Konsa will lineup alongside Tyrone Mings at the centre of the Aston Villa defence as they try to keep Newcastle’s Callum Wilson and Andy Carroll quiet throughout the 90 minutes.
Matty Cash will be a nailed-on starter at right-back while Matt Targett hopes to put on another industrious display as the left-back if he can recover in time for this contest. Neil Taylor will be on standby just in case the English defender fails to be available for this game.
Smith will instruct both his full-backs to be a bit more adventurous than usual so that they can offer adequate support to the front players.
Midfield
Douglas Luiz and John McGinn will feature as the holding midfielders as they focus on retaining the ball at the centre of the park. The hard-working duo will also be responsible for finding some holes in the Newcastle defence when feeding the ball to their teammates up top.
The gifted trio of Anwar El Ghazi, Jack Grealish and Bertrand Traoré will lineup just ahead of them as part of Dean Smith’s attack. Grealish will have to carry a significant bulk of the creative workload for his side while El Ghazi and Traore look to get in behind the Magpies backline out on the wide areas.
Marvelous Nakamba will have to settle for a spot on the bench but could come on to make an impact in the second half if needed.
Attack
Ollie Watkins will spearhead the Villa attack up top. The English striker is in dire need to find the back of the net so that he can regain some confidence ahead of a busy schedule in Premier League football.
