Aston Villa predicted XI vs Manchester United: McGinn suspended, Sanson or Coutinho to start?

Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard faces a pleasant selection headache ahead of Saturday evening’s clash with Manchester United.

Although the claret & blue will be without instrumental midfielder John McGinn who is absent due to suspension, Gerrard has confirmed that both new signings Philippe Coutinho and Lucas Digne are available for selection.

Imagine saying that a couple of years ago?

Anyway before the thought of Coutinho banging one in from 30-yards gets us salivating again - here’s how we think the boss line-up for this weekend’s revenge game over United.

Goalkeeper

Even if the rumours that Sheffield United’s Swedish goalkeeper Robin Olsen is close to joining Villa turn out to be true, he won’t be taking the place of Emiliano Martinez now or probably ever.

Defence

Whilst Gerrard claimed that new signing Lucas Digne is 100% match fit and ready to go on Saturday, I feel instantly taking the place of Matt Targett would be incredibly harsh.

Villa’s back four have been relatively settled since the scouser’s arrival and were solid for the most part against United aside from one lapse in concentration.

With that said, the other three; Matty Cash, Ezri Konsa and Tyrone Mings definitely aren’t in any danger of losing their spots.

Midfield

There will be at least one change within the midfield with the aforementioned John McGinn being absent through suspension.

He, alongside Jacob Ramsey and Douglas Luiz dominated the central areas at Old Trafford and for that reason those two should be certainties to start.

Although many will be clambering for Coutinho to get the nod from minute one, Gerrard did seem to try and temper expectations by saying unlike Digne, the Brazilian isn’t fully match fit just yet so I feel the logical move would be a place on the bench.

If that’s the case, it’s likely Morgan Sanson starts from the off.

Attack

It would come as a shock to see anything other than the three that started the game at Old Trafford.

Danny Ings and Ollie Watkins had their best game as a partnership this season and both could have has goals had it not been for a mixture of the offside flag and questionable VAR usage.

Emi Buendia seems to be improving game-by-game and I feel Saturday might be the day he finally gets on the score-sheet.

Aston Villa (4-3-3): Martinez; Cash, Mings, Konsa, Targett; Ramsey, Luiz, Sanson; Watkins, Ings, Buendia

BirminghamWorld’s football reporter Ben Ramsdale will be live at Villa Park on Saturday evening and you can follow minute-by-minute updates from him here.

A message from the editor:

Thank you for reading. BirminghamWorld is Birmingham’s latest news website, championing everything that is great about our city - reporting on news, lifestyle and sport. We want to start a community among our readers, so please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and keep the conversation going.