Leeds United vs Aston Villa predicted starting XIs as injuries mount up for Steven Gerrard

Aston Villa are back in action on Sunday following the international break.

Steven Gerrard’s men are off to a rocky start this season, but the win over Southampton before the break certainty helped.

Villa will be looking to build on that win in Yorkshire as they take on a Leeds United side who likely have similar ambitions for this season.

But they won’t be helped by a number of injury issues, with Diego Carlos, Boubacar Kamara, Lucas Digne and Matty Cash all out.

Diego Carlos is out long term, while Kamara will be out for a few weeks, as Gerrard confirmed in his pre-match press conference.

He said: “It is not ideal. We have had better days on the injury front.

“Boubacar will be missing until after the World Cup unfortunately, so that is a huge blow.

“It is him and obviously Diego Carlos, two of our signature signings, who are going to be missing for a large part of the season.”

Speaking about the other injuries, he added: “Lucas Digne is a unique situation. He has a heel problem, and it is one we will have to monitor as we go along.

“It is very difficult to put a timescale on Lucas, but he will certainly be missing in the coming weeks.

“We are due to assess that situation in just over two weeks to see whether his heel situation has healed enough for us to progress it.

“It is quite a frustrating one and again another big player missing for us, but is obviously gives others opportunities to step forward.”

With those injuries in mimd, how are Villa likely to line up?

Ahead of Emi Martinez, Ashley Young is likely to continue at right-back, alongside Ezri Konsa, Tyrone Mings and possibly Ludwig Augustinsson.

Douglas Luiz is likely to come into the middle, alongside Jacob Ramsey and John McGinn. Leon Bailey and Phillippe Coutinho are likely to remain behind Ollie Watkins in attack.

On the other side, Leeds have Stuart Dallas and Adam Forshaw absent. Rodrigo Moreno will also likely miss out amid an impressive start to the season.

With that in mind, Patrick Bamford is likely to start up top, ahead of a dangerous-looking three of Luis Sinisterra, Brenden Aaronson and Jack Harrison.

Tyler Adams and Marc Roca will likely anchor the midfield, ahead of a defence made up of Robin Koch, Liam Cooper, Pascal Struijk and Rasmus Kristensen.

Illian Meslier will be between the sticks for Jesse Marsch’s men.

Here are the predicted line-ups in full.

Villa predicted XI: Martinez, Young, Konsa, Mings, Augustinsson, Luiz, Ramsey, McGinn, Bailey, Coutinho, Watkins.

Leeds predicted XI: Meslier, Kristensen, Struijk, Cooper, Koch, Adams, Roca, Sinisterra, Aaronson, Harrison, Bamford.