00:00Charlie, looking at Aston Villa and obviously January window approaching now, it's become
00:08a thing where a lot of clubs spend big in the summer and get big names in the summer
00:12and tend to not really adjust massively. The last few seasons, especially in the Premier
00:18League, the January windows have been quite quiet. How do you assess Villa's season so
00:25far up until this point, until this festive period? How do you feel they've adjusted in
00:31January? Do they need any sort of position of improvement, do you feel? How much can
00:37that take them forward into the new year?
00:40I think there are definitely areas for Villa to address. Going on quite a winless run throughout
00:44the end of October and throughout November as well, there's been a few concerns among
00:48supporters but they've remained competitive. Unai Emery is not overly concerned by it and
00:53by the run of form at all because he knows that his players are keeping to the structure
00:57that he wants, keeping to the demands he wants. There have been quite a few injuries, especially
01:01midfield and in defence as well, that's disrupted Villa's rhythm. But once again, they're not
01:05losing games by huge margins, they're sticking in there and keep on cracking on. They just
01:10need to be a bit more clinical maybe in front of goal, not quite having the same cutting
01:14edge as we saw last season. Such an impressive campaign, it's very hard to meet those demands
01:19and meet those levels once again. But that's what fans want, that's what Unai Emery wants,
01:23that's what the players want. Maybe in January they could address a few areas, it's just
01:27they don't want to slip back into the problems with the Premier League's profit and sustainability
01:32regulations. We saw that in the summer, just how much stress that caused. They managed
01:36to sell Douglas Luiz, that got that problem out of the way. They brought in Onanas, they
01:40weren't too weakened. But once again, if they go and spend too much money without selling
01:44too much, then they could run into issues again. Ideally, they want a new right back
01:49because Matty Cash, although he's played pretty consistently, he's not quite of that
01:54Champions League level, most would argue. Ezra Konza, better in the middle, they don't
01:58want to rely on him going into right back. So maybe another right-sided centre back or
02:02a right back could fill in nicely. And then an attacking midfielder, a bit more creativity
02:07might be desired. We've seen the odd switch with John McGinn moving just behind Watkins,
02:12Morgan Rodgers heading out wide instead. Has that worked? I'm not too sure. Emi Wendier,
02:17is he quite hitting the levels? Jacob Ramsey, constantly injured. So an attacking midfielder
02:21would be desired as well, but it's all about the cash and not having too much of it.
02:25Yeah, do you feel that maybe Villa's squad depth isn't quite the level it needs to be
02:30to be competing in the Champions League?
02:33I think in right midfield especially, Moussa Diaby leaving, great fee, recouping pretty
02:37much everything that they spent on him, over £50m. But Jadon Filagin hasn't hit the ground
02:42running as much as Villa would have hoped. Leon Bailey hasn't been in the form of his
02:46life by any means, he doesn't seem to have the confidence. So yeah, you're right, confidence
02:51isn't quite there, which makes you feel like you haven't got that depth. They can certainly
02:55compete, it's just about finding the confidence and finding the form of these players again.
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