Dan Bardell expects tough game when Aston Villa return against Leeds United
We’re delighted to welcome The Athletic’s Dan Bardell as our exclusive Aston Villa columnist each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the club…
Elland Road is a “horrible place to go” for visiting teams and Dan Bardell is expecting a very tough game for Aston Villa against Leeds United next time out.
The Villans travel to West Yorkshire on 2 October to face a Jesse Marsch side who won’t have played a first-team game for a full 29 days by then, following the international break and multiple postponements after the death of the Queen.
Bardell hopes that Steven Gerrard can get his men to capitalise on any rustiness that may be in evidence from the home side, and thinks the game will go a long way to demonstrating where the club have got to amid an improvement in results and some damaging injuries.
“It’s good that Leeds will perhaps have a bit of rustiness. I think that’s something that Villa can perhaps take advantage of since Leeds won’t have played for a very long time,” Bardell exclusively told Villa News.
“But Elland Road’s a horrible place to go, a really hard place to go. Their fans will be up for it, on a Sunday, it’s on telly.
“There’s this kind of mini rivalry between Leeds and Villa because of what happened in the Championship with them giving us the goal after they scored when [Jonathan] Kodjia was on the floor [29 April 2019].
“So it will be a fascinating game. I’ve been impressed with Leeds with what I’ve seen of them so far. I think with Jesse Marsch they’ve got a definitive style. I can see what he wants Leeds to be.
“With Villa, Gerrard said himself, they’ve had to take a few backwards steps. I think maybe he was trying to run before he could walk with this team.
“It will be a really tough game and I expect to see a similar kind of Villa performance as we saw against Southampton, where Villa sit in a bit, try to keep it tight and nick the game 1-0.
“Because one thing Leeds have got is a defence that can be got at so you’d think Villa are going to try to play on the break and perhaps utilise their quick players, similar actually to how they did against Manchester City because Leeds can be quite open in the way that they play.
“So it should be a good game and I think we’ll know a little bit more about where Villa are after these next two away games, Leeds and [Nottingham] Forest because I think Villa have been pathetic away from home the last six months or so.”
Leeds are no strangers to a rivalry and the infamous Bielsa game has helped raise the stakes in this fixture, so the pressure will be on both managers to get a performance out of their players.
The fortunes of each have been heading in different directions over the previous few matches, as Marsch’s strong start has faded away and the Whites’ previous outing saw them thrashed 5-2 at Brentford on 3 September.
That was the same day that the Villans’ revival began with a surprise showing against reigning champions Manchester City, and with a point there consolidated by three against Southampton two weeks later there are signs of improvement for Gerrard, but with Boubacar Kamara and Lucas Digne both now out injured he has considerable challenges to overcome still.
In other Aston Villa news, Emi Martinez is a target to replace Jan Oblak at Atletico Madrid.