Aston Villa’s final game of their tour of Australia and penultimate match of this year’s pre-season comes in the shape of old foes Manchester United this weekend.
Both teams have had an incredibly successful last few months both on and off the field.
Steven Gerrard’s first summer has brought with it a number of high-profile impressive signings such as Diego Carlos, Boubacar Kamara and Philippe Coutinho whilst Erik ten Hag has begun his overall of the Red Devils whilst also getting a real positive tune out of certain members of the current squad.
Villa and United both have 100% win records up to now in their pre-season games so something has to give in this one.
With the claret and blue having just two games remaining before their Premier League opener against Bournemouth, it’s highly likely we’ll start to see exactly what Gerrard is planning in terms of his starting eleven for the trip to the south coast.
He will have some big decisions to make leading up to that game and some could be made for him during this penultimate pre-season clash.
Here’s the starting eleven we think the claret & blue will go with for the game with United and possibly even Bournemouth in two week’s time...
9. LW - Philippe Coutinho
Faces tough competition for one of the three forward spots but will likely get the nod. Did really well against United last year. | Getty Images
10. RW - Emi Buendia
Buendia was impressive in the second-half against Roar and will want to show why he deserves the starting berth ahead of Bailey and/or Traore. | Getty Images
11. ST - Cameron Archer
No time like the present to throw him in from the start with the big boys. There’s no denying he’s been Villa’s most clinical striker during pre-season and he could well have played his way into Gerrard’s thinking. Photo: Malcolm Couzens