Unai Emery might axe Matty Cash v AZ Alkmaar as Aston Villa injury boost emerges in last 24 hours
Aston Villa full-back Matty Cash is ready and available for Thursday’s Europa Conference League clash against AZ Alkmaar but Unai Emery may choose to axe him despite the injury boost.
Injury Expert Ben Dinnery sharing in his Premier League Injuries table (7 November), placed the Polish international’s fitness status for Thursday’s game at Villa Park at 25% after he was withdrawn inside 60 minutes during their 2-0 Nottingham Forest defeat on Sunday (5 November) with a shoulder injury.
However, Cash was spotted at Bodymoor Heath training with the squad on Wednesday afternoon (8 November), with The Athletic journalist Jacob Tanswell also confirming, via his personal Twitter account that the Pole will be available for their crucial Europa Conference League clash with the Dutch giants.
The Villans will be looking to secure their place in the Europa Conference League knockout stages when they take on the Dutch giants at Villa Park on Thursday (9 November), currently sitting second in their group, level on six points with Legia Warsaw.
However, Emery will have a crucial decision to make on his only specialist right-back on Thursday, with a crucial game against Fulham to come on Sunday (12 November) in the Premier League – a game they will be looking to return to winning ways after the disappointing Forest defeat.
The Spaniard will certainly not want to risk his key right-back for Thursday knowing that a draw or a win for them could well secure their place in the knockout rounds, and its rest Cash could well do with after recent concerning performances.
Calum Chambers or Ezri Konsa may well be viable options for the position.
Against the Dutch outfit during their impressive 4-1 win in the reverse fixture at the AFAS Stadium on 26 October, Cash was handed the worst average score of any Villa player [via SofaScore] at a dreadful 6.2/10 and his underlying stats proved why.
The former Forest man won just three of his eight duels at a worrying success rate of 38% lost possession 11 times and completed just one dribble given he’s expected to provide Villa with the width on the right.
The Luton Town win saw an improved performance, registering two key passes, one big chance created, successfully completing 50% of his dribbles and 92% of his passes but again Mr Hyde reared his ugly head as he was woeful against Forest on Sunday (5 November).
As per SofaScore, the Pole failed to win 100% of his total duels, failed to register a single tackle, failed with 100% of his dribbles, only touched the ball 49 touches, completed one key pass and lost possession of the ball seven times before being dragged off with a shoulder injury.
Right now, Cash is incredibly fortunate he is Emery’s only specialist right-back available right now or he could well have lost his spot a long time ago.
And the fact that Cash doesn’t have any quality competition in the position always leaves room for complacency to creep into his game, but Emery can certainly send a “kick up the backside” message to the Pole by dropping him for Thursday.
It may prove the best way for him to reignite some much-needed consistency back in his game ahead of what will be a further testing run of games after the forthcoming international break.
In other Aston Villa news, one Villa star is currently in the “form of his career” this season.