Off to Birmingham for this one, probably the only away game I'll be able to get to until around Christmas time. My flatmate is a Villa fan so am heading down there with him, obviously though he'll be in the home end with me in the away. We're heading out into Birmingham after that, with a few of my flatmate's mates who are also Villa fans. Gonna be awful for me if they win
Looking forward to this though. Going off what my mate has said Villa have been awful in their first 3 games, and have Hogan and Kodjia out injured. Sounds as though for us neither Hoolahan or Pinto will be fit enough to start. Both are obviously big blows, but there's something about the way we play that is so much better when Pinto is in the side. Hoping maybe we'll at least be able to throw him on at half-time.
I sort of expect us to refer back to 3 at the back, maybe going with something like this:
Gunn
Martin Zimmermann Franke
Murphy --------------------------------- Husband
Reed
Maddison Naismith
Watkins
Oliveira
Subs: McGovern, Pinto, Tettey, Steipermann, Vrancic,, Wes, Jerome
That's what I imagine we'll do. I would prefer to see something a lot more similar to Wednesday, but with this being our 3rd game in 6 days I think we'll make quite a few changes. Wouldn't mind seeing Steipermann given a chance to be fair, he looked a unit when he came on against QPR, but we have so many midfielders it's hard to fit them all in. Also wouldn't surprise me if Wildschut came back into the fold.
If I had to predict the score, I don't think we'll win in all honesty. I'll say 1-1.