After some scaremongering in midweek by some press when Adama Traore limped off in the League Cup, the good news coming out of Tim Sherwood’s pre-Sunderland press conference today is the Villa winger is expected back sooner rather than later.
After receiving some close attention from Notts County players with a few kicks to boot after he scored Villa’s first goal, Traore may even feature in the Black Cats clash.
Considering the ex-Barca man hasn’t trained all week, it’s most likely he’ll be on the bench if he is declared fit.
“We will give him every chance to be fit,” said Sherwood at the presser. “But we aren’t going to know until tomorrow morning.
“He took a few kicks the other night. He tried to carry on but he’s a marked man.”
Despite playing less than 90 minutes in total for Villa, it’s been clearly evident that Villa have a new dimension to their attack. It’s early days yet as the team continues to gel and will need probably 10 games to really get into gear, but with Jack Grealish getting into his stride on the left flank, Traore demonstrating his power down the right and Carles Gil linking the play up well in midweek, there’s plenty of hope that Villa will start creating more chances for their front men.
The big question though is who will be those front men?
Rudy Gestede certainly looks like a player whose impact will come in the box (rather than holding up the ball deeper), Jordan Ayew still needs game time to get up to speed, Gabby Agbonlahor is struggling for form (and to finish) and despite wearing the number nine shirt and having the hottest forward boots of all, would Sherwood play Scott Sinclair more centrally?
The next few weeks should be interesting as Villa’s first choice forward line takes shape. It’s good news that Traore will be fit to play a big part in that.
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I would start with the same diamond as last week (subject to Snachez’s fitness – if he can’t play I would frop Gana back and bring in Veretout) and Gestede and Sinclair up front. Easy sub to make to switch to 4-2-3-1 at a suitable point is to remove a midfielder and bring on Traore as RW pushing Sinclair out to LW.
Jordan Avew needs more vertical fitness training.
lol…