Unai Emery spoke to the media at Bodymoor Heath on Friday afternoon as he previewed Sunday’s game against Luton Town.
Aston Villa’s head coach discussed his team news for the game, the side’s great home form, building a culture and his thoughts on Luton Town.
Here’s what he had to say…
On team news…
“Always when we are playing on Thursday, today is a day to rest, to recover and work with the players who didn’t play.
“Tomorrow is the day when we can know more about the players who played yesterday, but there is nothing serious or relevant to the match on Sunday.
“Jacob Ramsey and Alex Moreno are still out. Tyrone Mings and Emi Buendia are always in our minds.”
On squad depth…
“This is the reason we have to separate every competition and focus on every match with the idea that we must build a team.
“We will need players trying to be ready to play and performing when we are playing in Premier League, when we are playing in Conference League.
“It’s not about trying to play different players in different competitions, it’s about trying to be ready with the players and to get performances collectively when we are changing players.”
On Villa's home form…
“It’s increasing the challenge for the opponent because they are coming thinking that it’s difficult to win, difficult to draw. It’s a great challenge for each team coming here and trying to break it (the 11-game winning run).
“For us, the challenge is still being very hard and motivating because we want to continue being and feeling good with our supporters at home, connecting ad transmitting our energy.
“This is the idea I want to find on Sunday, and then try to play strongly, tactically and within our structure.”
On the culture he’s built…
“I want to be a small family. I want everybody to have feelings with our fans and try to take our heart strongly defending the Aston Villa shirt, Aston Villa’s history and the present.
“That is the emotion that I want to create and share with our supporters. Then, I want to be very, very demanding and ambitious.
“To get our ambitions, we are working hard and always improving our capacity, collectively and individually, and building our mentality to compete and win.”
On Luton Town…
“I respect them a lot. I watched the match against Everton and the draw last week at Nottingham Forest after they were losing 2-0. Their reaction was amazing.
“We have to analyse deeply and prepare our game plan, adapting to them and respecting them. Then we have to impose our idea and try find their weakness with our capacity to build our structure offensively.”