Unai Emery offers rare Aston Villa team news clue ahead of HSK Zrinjski and Brentford

Unai Emery has hinted he might heavily rotate his Aston Villa lineup for the Europa Conference League tie against HSK Zrinjski on Thursday. It would be an uncharacteristic move as the manager tends to make minimal changes if he can help it, but an opportunity awaits to rest fatigued players.

It comes as no surprise that members of the squad are knackered as maximum effort was required to beat Arsenal and Manchester City within the space of four days. Emery can't put out just any starting XI as Villa still want to win Group E but more switches than usual can be expected.

"We will rest Sunday and Monday," Emery revealed during Saturday's post-match press conference. "We will come back on Tuesday and prepare for the match on Thursday. In the Conference League, we did the first objective, to qualify for the next round.

"We want to finish top of the group but we want to try and use different players. Sure, we will play different players but I'm not sure how many. We also have two players out for Sunday with suspensions – Douglas Luiz and Lucas Digne. That's another reason to introduce others," Emery detailed.

It's likely, then, that those banned for Sunday's trip to Brentford will play in Bosnia but the rest of the positions are seemingly up for grabs. John McGinn, Leon Bailey and Youri Tielemans looked particularly tired against Arsenal, so they could be three to make way, for instance.

That means Moussa Diaby, who has been benched for the last three matches, could be in for a start. Young striker Jhon Duran, who has had to play second fiddle to Ollie Watkins for much of the campaign, could also get an opportunity. We could even see the likes of Omari Kellyman.

How could the rotation impact Villa at Brentford?

Villa having the rare chance to switch up their XI means the key men are more likely to start on Sunday – apart from Luiz and Digne. Fantasy Football managers shouldn't threat about Watkins, though it's difficult to predict if fellow popular picks Matty Cash or Diaby will play from the off.