Steven Gerrard says Kortney Hause and Keinan Davis are the only Aston Villa players unavailable for Saturday’s Premier League opener away at newly-promoted Bournemouth, speaking to the club’s official website.
And, in truth, you’d have got long odds on either Hause or Davis featuring anyway at the Vitality Stadium.
The former has Ezri Konsa, Tyrone Mings, Calum Chambers and Diego Carlos ahead of him in Gerrard’s pecking order. As for the latter, an impressive loan spell at Nottingham Forest may have done wonders for his reputation but Davis is still set to begin the new campaign as Aston Villa’s fourth choice centre-forward.
Gerrard confirmed earlier this week that Cameron Archer will be staying put for 2022/23.
Aston Villa face Bournemouth this weekend
“It’s really positive. We’ve had a positive pre-season,” the former Rangers boss said in his Friday press conference.
“We’ve had a couple of niggles within the last seven days. Tyrone Mings, Emi Buendia to name a couple. But we have a full squad available who trained yesterday. If they get through today’s session, we should have a full squad to pick from.
“Kortney Hause is still not back with the team. Keinan Davis is back with the team and the plan is for him to get some minutes in the U21 game later on (against Wolves today).
“Outside of those two, we’re fully fit and ready to go.”
Ludwig Augustinsson, Boubacar Kamara and new vice-captain Diego Carlos, then, should all be in contention to make their Premier League bows this weekend.
Carlos is expected to start as the left-sided central defender alongside Konsa or Chambers, taking Mings’ place in Gerrard’s XI.
That may be a big part of the reason why the former Bournemouth stopper is no longer Villa’s skipper. With Carlos in the door, Gerrard is in no position to guarantee Mings a regular starting role in claret-and-blue.
John McGinn will wear the armband against the Cherries.
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