Fixtures
- Fulham Vs. Aston Villa – Sat, Oct 19th 2024, 15:00
Unai Emery spoke to members of the local and national media at Bodymoor Heath on Friday afternoon.
The Aston Villa manager was quizzed on a number of topics ahead of his team’s trip to Fulham in the Premier League.
Here are the key lines from his pre-match press conference…
On preparations following the international break…
“It’s not easy but we are trying to focus quickly with the players on the match we are going to face. This morning we were speaking about the tactical game plan for tomorrow and we are going to travel to Fulham and in the hotel we will work again.
“We will try to change their minds after the matches they played with their national teams. We were being very demanding when we selected the squad at the start of the season about how we can improve our challenges and performances.
“Through those players being demanding with themselves in our way, we have to keep the same level we achieved last year. I don’t want to allow some circumstances to relax us.”
On Villa’s upcoming schedule…
“The players that were playing with their national teams are progressively arriving here and feeling comfortable playing the matches they added with their national team.
“We are excited and motivated for how we can face the different competitions for the next month. We are playing tomorrow in the Premier League and it’s the most important. The players are in the same way, I’m trying to send the message to everybody.
“On Tuesday we are playing Champions League and we have to manage, firstly, the match tomorrow and then take the best decision with the players who are playing more minutes than others.
“I’m very happy because some players like Emiliano Buendia are getting better. We are adding another two players who were very important when they were available, Tyrone Mings and Boubacar Kamara.
“We are getting minutes on the pitch with Jaden and he played fantastic matches against Bayern Munich and Manchester United. We can feel comfortable with how we are with different options to play in the starting XI and being competitive.”
On players coming back to fitness…
“We were competing last year with some players being injured. We are competing now with some players being injured as well.
“When we can add players like Tyrone Mings, Boubacar Kamara, Emi Buendia, Jaden Philogene and Ross Barkley in the squad and we are training everybody to understand our style, we are stronger.
“This is the message. To keep the same level we achieved last year is the challenge we have. We started the season being strong in the Champions League, even better than in the Premier League.
“The last two matches we drew and that is my concern about how we can improve, even being in a good position.”
On playing Fulham…
“I respect a lot Marco Silva as a coach. He’s an incredible coach here in England, taking a lot of experiences in different teams and being successful.
“With Fulham, the work he’s doing is fantastic. They are very competitive, they have a very good organisation tactically, defensively, offensively and individually as well they are a very difficult team.
“You can see the demands the coach has imposed on them. They are three points behind us, but when I arrived here two years ago they were in front of Aston Villa and they were a rival for us to get Europe.
“Last year, they competed very well and kept in the middle of the table. This year, they are being an option to get into the top ten and threatening the top seven teams.
“Tomorrow it’s a very important match because this team is one of the teams I’m analysing like a rival team for us to try to keep a top position in the table.”
