Alan Hutton: Aston Villa have players for makeshift defence during injury crisis
We’re delighted to welcome former Aston Villa full-back Alan Hutton as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at Villa Park…
Alan Hutton would like to see Ezri Konsa fill in at right back and Ashley Young move to the left back as Aston Villa deal with a defensive injury crisis.
Ludwig Augustinsson was the latest player to be added to the treatment room with Lucas Digne and Diego Carlos both out of action, and Matty Cash only just returning to training.
Hutton would like to see Polish international Cash come into the side against Nottingham Forest on Monday (10 October) if he is deemed fit enough.
“Hopefully Matty Cash will come back into contention with him being out on the training pitch now,” Hutton exclusively told Villa News.
“We will have to see how long it could take for Cash to come back into the starting lineup but Bednarek could come in at centre half, Konsa could play right back and put Young to left-back, so there are options for him.
“It’s obviously not ideal but the last two games they’ve had clean sheets and are unbeaten in the last three.
“They’re not playing their best football shall we say but they’re still getting results at the moment.”
Villa shared an update on Cash’s fitness (via the club’s official Twitter account, 30 September) which suggested the Poland international has returned to full training after suffering a hamstring injury against Manchester City.
Digne is unavailable for the “coming weeks” with a heel problem and defensive midfielder Boubacar Kamara is out until after the World Cup with a knee ligament injury.
In other Villa news, Aston Villa may need to manage player workload better according to Alan Hutton.