Dean Smith spoke to the media via a virtual press conference to preview Aston Villa’s New Year’s Day trip to Manchester United.
The club’s head coach discussed the busy festive schedule and assessing his squad, preparations for the trip to Old Trafford, Villa’s forthcoming fixtures and more.
Here’s what he had to say…
On assessing his squad and possible rotation…
“We’ve got a wonderful performance unit at the training ground and within this football club who look at the numbers, look at where the players are and whether they are in the red zone and I’ll certainly be guided by them.
“But also the players, I think sometimes we can take it out of their hands.
“Being a player before and having JT, who’s been a player at the top of the Premier League, players know when they’re in that red zone.
“We trust them and we’re hoping they give us honest answers of where they are.
“At the moment, momentum and confidence is a big thing for me and we’re going to keep using that.”
On preparations for facing Manchester United…
“We’ll prepare for it like we have all the rest of them.
“We get a day more preparation time for this game (than pre-Chelsea), it’s a busy period but these are the games the players want to play in, the games they look forward to.
“Manchester United is probably one of the first fixtures all the players look for.
“We had a good result there last season and we feel we’re in better place than we were last season.
“But we know the talent Manchester United have got.”
On Villa’s forthcoming fixtures…
“We were probably more fearful of these fixtures last season because there was the newness of actually getting into the Premier League.
“But this season we know where we’re at.
“I think we’ve proven to ourselves, by going to Arsenal and winning, going to Leicester and winning, beating Liverpool, getting a point at Chelsea, we can go and compete with the best in the league.
“So we’re excited about those opportunities and we’ll be ready for them.”