Fixtures
- Fulham Vs. Aston Villa – Sat, Feb 17th 2024, 15:00
Unai Emery had Fulham in his sights on Friday afternoon at his pre-match press conference.
Aston Villa’s head coach addressed the prospect of taking his side to Craven Cottage among other topics as he was questioned by the assembled media.
Here’s what he had to say…
On Boubacar Kamara’s injury…
“The most difficult thing, firstly, for the players, as a person, is when they are being injured. When they’re being injured for a long time, it’s the worst thing in football.
“We had two injuries for a long time, for the whole season – Tyrone Mings and Emiliano Buendia – and now it’s the same with Boubacar Kamara. His injury is an ACL and he’s going to be out for the rest of the season.
“Maybe, more or less, in September or October he is coming back.”
On Tyrone Mings’ and Emi Buendia’s recoveries…
“Always they (injured players) are in our mind. They support us every day here in the training ground and it’s very important.
“All the season they are going to be out – Tyrone Mings and Emiliano Buendia. Hopefully they can come back to train at the end of the season with the group and start next season being completely fine to play like they were playing before.”
On Leon Bailey’s new contract…
“We are very happy with him. His process when I arrived here was progressively getting better, but sometimes we were trying to work with him on some improvements, to be consistent.
“His performances were being better at home than away and he’s working hard to try to be consistent – not only when we are with the ball and we can get him into the attacking third for one v ones and to use his speed.
“We have to be compact and defensively strong. We are trying to get the balance with him, playing being consistent. We’re very demanding with him.
“When we decided to extend the contract it’s because he deserved it and because he wanted to stay here. His commitment with Aston Villa is perfect.
“The supporters love him but we have to try to do one step ahead and increase our level. With him it’s the same: continue working, be demanding each match.”
On facing Fulham…
“I like Fulham. I respect a lot their coach, Marco Silva. He has experience and uses it to be very, very competitive. He’s an intelligent coach.
“Tactically he’s very good and they are a very organised team. They were successful at home against Arsenal, against Bournemouth in their last match. Of course, they’ve lost some matches, like against Newcastle, but that can happen.
“When we played at home against them, they showed their potential and their structure. They were organised, competitive; sometimes keeping the ball, sometimes being very aggressive offensively.
“Alex Iwobi is coming back after being in the AFCON and Joao Palhinha is a very good player. They are using different centre-backs but they are all good players. Robinson and Castagne are offensive full-backs demanding a lot from the opponent.
“It’s a difficult match.”
