View: Robin Olsen has mega opportunity to prove he has Aston Villa future v Liverpool
Robin Olsen is set to get a mega opportunity to prove he has a future at Aston Villa as he is expected to start in the Premier League against Liverpool.
The Sweden international joined on a permanent deal in the summer after spending the second half of last season on loan at Villa Park, where his only appearance was in the final game of the season against Manchester City.
As we hit near the halfway mark of the current campaign, Olsen has so far started just one game in the Carabao Cup and played for 55 minutes in the Premier League after coming on as a substitute for the concussed Emiliano Martinez.
Now though, manager Unai Emery is set to call upon the 32-year-old from the start when the Premier League resumes on Boxing Day against Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool side.
If everyone stays honest and true, it’s quite clear that Olsen has no chance of taking the number one shirt at the club any time soon.
Martinez is now a World Cup winner after his heroics in Qatar, winning the tournament on penalties where he made a big save from Kingsley Coman and got in the head of Aurelien Tchouameni before he dragged his strike wide.
He’ll now enjoy some extra time off after the final, with The Mirror reporting (21 December) that he will now miss the game against the Reds at Villa Park as a result.
That means Olsen will get the nod between the sticks, as he has done in each of their winter friendlies, but this is a chance for him to show that he is good enough to be a number two at this great club.
Some people may question what that means because a back-up goalkeeper almost always sits on the bench for the entirety of games and only plays in games that management deems to be less important or when there is an injury.
However having a top backup goalkeeper is essential to any successful club, and Villa want to become one of those clubs. If they can’t rely on him to step up when needed, against the best opposition, then what’s the point of him being there?
This is his chance to show that he can step up when needed, he can compete with Martinez once the Argentine returns and he does have a future at Villa Park.
In other Aston Villa news, the club must ensure they hold onto Martinez by any means necessary after the World Cup