Young Lions Watch: The Aston Villa starlets to watch out for in Leeds friendly
Aston Villa take on Premier League rivals Leeds United in their second pre-season friendly this weekend with some of their brightest young stars set to be involved.
Steven Gerrard’s side cruised past Walsall in their preseason opener a week ago (9 July), but several of their Young Lions that shone in that match have not joined them in Australia.
Seb Revan and Tommi O’Reilly have both been left in England while Finn Azaz and Viljami Sinisalo have both left the club on loan.
The summer tour will also not include Carney Chukwuemeka after Gerrard confirmed he had been left out due to his ongoing contract dispute.
However, Villa still have some talented youngsters in their squad that are due to play some part against Jesse Marsch’s Whites.
Who to watch out for
Most of Villa’s young talent is concentrated in the defensive areas, with three of their seven youngsters on the tour being defenders.
Rising star Ben Chrisene is joined by Kaine Kesler Hayden in the full-back areas while Josh Feeney operates at centre-back.
All three players took part at Walsall, coming on together for the second half as Villa ran out 4-0 winners at the Poundland Bescot Stadium.
Further up the pitch, Tim Iroegbunam returns to Villa fresh off winning the Under-19 European Championships with England.
It is unclear what role the holding midfielder will play next season as he is expected to leave on loan, but he should play some part against Leeds.
Finally, there are three talented forwards set to take part in the Australia tour including Iroegbunam’s England teammate Aaron Ramsey.
He will be joined by Jaden Philogene-Bidace fresh off his loan spell with Stoke City as well as Cameron Archer.
Like with Iroegbunam, it is unclear what role Philogene-Bidace will play next season with another loan being likely, but it will be interesting to see how Gerrard fits him into their system against Leeds.
All seven players have the opportunity to prove their quality to Gerrard on Sunday night (17 July) as they seek to nail down a spot in the Villa squad.
In other Aston Villa news, we told the story of the bizarre story of how Brad Guzan was released then re-signed just weeks later ten years ago today.