Bertrand Traore tipped to start Aston Villa v Newcastle United amid ‘hamstring’ injury issue – BBC pundit
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 believes Bertrand Traore is in line to make his first Aston Villa start of the season against Newcastle United at Villa Park on Saturday.
Traore, 27, has scored two goals in his last two appearances as a substitute, seemingly justifying Unai Emery’s decision to recall him from his loan spell at Istanbul Basaksehir in January.
Leon Bailey was forced off with an injury in the 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest last week, leading to Traore coming on and netting his 10th goal for the West Midlands club.
And if Bailey’s ruled out of the clash with Newcastle on 15 April, Hutton feels it could be an option for Emery to finally start Traore for the first time.
Speaking to Villa News, Hutton said: “Bailey picked up that hamstring injury and Traore came in.
“He’s now scored two goals in two after being put out on loan by Steven Gerrard.
“He’s come back in and really hit the ground running so he might be an option moving forward.“
Other than any forced changes to the side, Hutton doesn’t see Emery changing much to Villa’s current winning formula.
“Emery doesn’t seem to like making too many changes unless he has to,” the former right-back added.
“If the players who are playing are doing well then he kind of sticks to that.
“There’s a hard run of fixtures coming up against teams who are mainly in the top half.
“It’s going to be a difficult period for Villa if they want to get into Europe so I don’t see Emery wanting to make too many changes.”
After playing Newcastle at home on Saturday, Villa then face Brentford away, Fulham at home and Manchester United away to round off April.
In other Aston Villa news, we can exclusively reveal that Manchester United are set to sign this highly-rated Villa player.