🦁 PL Previews: Aston Villa and Steven Gerrard aim for Europe | OneFootball

After a slow start and a disappointing end, Aston Villa ended 2021/22 sat 14th in the Premier League.

Still, this will be Steven Gerrard’s first full season in charge and Jack Grealish is now firmly in the club’s rearview mirror, so maybe there are reasons for optimism?

Big leaps forward are needed if the club are to achieve their stated aim of qualifying for Europe.

Click here to see all of our season previews so far.

Transfers 🔁

In: Diego Carlos (Sevilla, £26m), Philippe Coutinho (Barcelona, £17.2m), Robin Olsen (Roma, £3m), Boubacar Kamara (Marseille, free), Ludwig Augustinsson (Sevilla, loan)

Out: Matt Targett (Newcastle, £15m), Trézéguet (Besiktas, free), Louis Barry (MK Dons, loan), Conor Hourihane (Derby, free), Lovre Kalinic (Hajduk Split, free)

Transfer balance: -£27.8m

Key fixtures 📆

🔑 Key player: John McGinn

An all-action midfielder, McGinn is at the absolute heart of what Aston Villa want to do and has been for some time now. Only two outfield players played more minutes for the club last season, only one did so the season before, and just three managed it the season before that.

A crunching tackle? An incisive pass? A smart turn? Or popping up with a goal? The Scot does it all but he maybe doesn’t quite do any of it consistently enough, especially when it comes to end product.

McGinn clearly has a nose for goal and it feels like he should have scored more than the three goals he has in each of the past three Premier League campaigns.

If he doesn’t add more goals he is still be incredibly valuable, providing  the foil for Jacob Ramsay to join attacks. One way or another, McGinn will once again be central to Villa’s ambitions.

What has changed since last season? 🤔

“Qualifying for European football is very much part of our strategic plan,” Christian Purslow told fans last July as Villa tried to figure out how to replace Jack Grealish.

European football was quickly out of the question, though, as a poor start to the season cost Dean Smith his job.

Steven Gerrard provided a bit of a boost, as did loan signing Philippe Coutinho, before their form petered out.

Summer signings have focused on making the side more solid after only the top eight outscored Villa last season but improvement is needed at both ends of the pitch if Gerrard is to lead them to Europe, which is clearly the club’s ambition after another summer of attracting some big names from around the continent.

Predicted XI 🔮

(4-3-2-1) — Martínez; Cash, Diego Carlos, Mings, Digne; Ramsey, Kamara, McGinn; Buendía, Coutinho; Watkins

Where will they finish? 🏆

Premier League: 9th FA Cup: Quarter-finals EFL Cup: Fourth round

Click here to see all of our season previews so far.