Aston Villa have been absolutely terrible lately and with their latest defeat at the hands of Ipswich Town, that too at home, has made them a laughing stock in the 2016-17 campaign of the Sky Bet Championship. Steve Bruce’s outfit have now lost three games on the trot, as a result of which they now find themselves loitering as low as sixteenth spot on the league table. The dreams of playoff spots are seemingly unrealistic now and to worsen their case, they have the daunting task of hosting the Tykes at the Villa Park on Tuesday.
We have compiled the predicted line-up of Aston Villa who will set their foot into the game as the underdogs against Paul Heckingbottom’s brigade, which goes as follows.
Predicted 5-3-2 Aston Villa Lineup Vs Barnsley
Defence
Brought from Manchester United on loan, Sam Johnstone was unlucky not to get a clean sheet but that should not blow his chances of starting between the sticks in the midweek fixture. The 23-year-old did make some good saves to keep his side in the game and did earn some appreciation for his performance.
In front of Johnstone, the pack of five defenders in the shape of Alan Hutton, Nathan Baker, James Chester, Tommy Elphick and Neil Taylor are expected to be stationed. Elphick, Baker, and Chester should see themselves at the heart of the defense, whereas to guardian the right and left-back region should be Hutton and Taylor.
The latter one didn’t have the best of debuts whereas the former was plugged out of the game early and thus, the duo would have a point to prove in the midweek fixture.
Midfield
Newcomers from the last month’s transfer window in the shape of Connor Hourihane, Henri Lansbury, and Birkir Bjarnason should once again get the nod to start for the Lions.
Hourihone was evidently very energetic, lively and purposeful and always appeared as a threat to Ipswich Town, though Bjarnason is yet to hit the ground up and running.
Ritchie De Laet is out for the season and thus, Lansbury is expected to be involved in molding a three-man midfield setup.
Attack
The attacking setup should probably see the duo of Jonathan Kodjia and January transfer window signing Scott Hogan being engineered up front.
The duo had a severe dearth of opportunities being fetched to them in order to bang goals against Mick McCarthy’s side and will have a much bigger test waiting for them in their upcoming outing.
