Fixtures
- Aston Villa Vs. Brentford – Sat, Apr 6th 2024, 15:00
Brentford were on Unai Emery’s radar at his pre-match press conference on Friday.
Aston Villa’s head coach looked ahead to Saturday’s clash against the Bees when he was quizzed by members of the media at Bodymoor Heath.
Here’s what he had to say…
On team news…
“Jacob Ramsey is again with some problems in his toe, he is not going to be available for the rest of the season.
“Emi Martínez and Ollie Watkins could be (available) tomorrow, we will prepare for the match in the final 24 hours and tomorrow we will know if they’re available and ready to play.
“Emi and Ollie are included in the squad for tomorrow.”
On Moussa Diaby’s fine form…
“For different players, the adaptation to the Premier League and our idea and style demands is easier or sometimes more difficult.
“Moussa Diaby is getting better and he is with the possibility to play in different positions – wide or inside as a No10 or second striker.
“I’m very happy with his progression but often I was speaking with him about the possibility to play in different positions and to get his best performances. I want to get his adaptation higher and for him to be calm in different moments.
“Now, it’s the same. I am very happy with him and I’m very demanding as well. He’s completely involved in our structure.”
On Villa’s progression as a club…
“We are doing the plan we prepared when I arrived here. It was to be demanding in our way, starting from the owners and then to the coaches, the workers and the supporters.
“To include us in the teams that are now contenders to be in the top seven positions in the table is very difficult. We can achieve it like we are doing now, but to be consistent for a long time is the difficulty.
“That is my objective. We are trying to be a contender more than we were before, firstly for the top ten and secondly like we are now.
“With the teams we are facing, some teams are stronger than us because they have more power to be there. We have to be intelligent, we have to be demanding and work better than the others. This is the only way I know. I am very focused on trying to do it.”
On facing Brentford…
“It will be a very, very difficult match. They are being very competitive and we have to try to impose our game plan.
“To dominate the match is not easy against them because they are, more or less, being aggressive, pressing man-to-man. We will prepare the match trying to get our best performance.
“The last match we played at home against Wolverhampton, I was a little bit demanding with the team because I think we have to play getting more in everything – tactically, individually, even myself.
“We won and we were very happy with this match, achieving three points, but tomorrow will be a difficult match if we are not improving some things.”
