Matt Maher: Bad luck? The reason for Aston Villa's injury woes may be much more simple

From a distance you wouldn’t consider Villa as a particularly unlucky club. Competing again in the top half of the Premier League, a more than winnable FA Cup fifth round tie on the horizon and through to the last-16 of the Champions League - there are 80-something rivals in the country who would gladly swap places with Emery’s men.

But theirs is also a season being played against the backdrop of a chronic injury crisis which you fear, at some point, could derail it.

When Ezri Konsa went off in the first half of last weekend’s Cup win over Tottenham, it was the fourth match running Villa had lost a player to injury before the start of the second half. With Tyrone Mings and Pau Torres already absent and new signing Axel Disasi ineligible for the match, it left Emery without a recognised senior centre-half and forced to play two midfielders, Boubacar Kamara and Lamare Bogarde, at the back for the remainder of the game.

Both performed well but at the top level temporary solutions will only last for so long. Kamara, one of Villa’s best performers of the season in his more recognised position, has experienced fluctuating fortunes in three appearances at the back so far. Excellent in the Champions League against Celtic, he found things far tougher in the derby defeat at Wolves just a few days later.

Villa’s injury troubles might not be so obvious to the casual observer as last season when Kamara, Mings and Emi Buendia all missed lengthy periods with serious knee injuries, the latter pair for virtually the entire campaign.

But it is the sheer volume of minor niggles which has been so disruptive. While Villa fare pretty well compared to many Premier League rivals when it comes to total days lost to injury, Konsa’s was the 24th “time-loss” injury (one which rules a player out for at least one league fixture) of the term. Only Brighton and Tottenham have suffered more.

In Villa’s case, that number includes many players who have experienced multiple spells on the sidelines. Matty Cash, who sustained a calf injury in the first half against Celtic, is unavailable for the third time this season, the same number as Leon Bailey. Ross Barkley and £50million record signing Amadou Onana, meanwhile, have both seen their rhythm disrupted by injury more than once. Ditto skipper John McGinn. Of Villa’s regular outfield starters, Morgan Rogers and Youri Tielemans are the only players to have not missed any time through injury.

While the broken foot suffered by Torres, or the unfortunate connection with Mings’ knee which forced his latest absence, are the kind of contact injuries which can happen at any moment on the pitch, the vast majority of Villa’s absences have been due to muscle problems, many of them hamstring.

That poses a different question, far less tongue-in-cheek than those written at the top of this page. What if Villa’s injury woes aren’t bad luck at all? What if there is something in the team’s preparation and training which is causing it?

Emery is far from the only manager to be facing such scrutiny. The same applies to Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta, who has just seen Kai Havertz join Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli on the treatment table with hamstring injuries. Arteta’s north London rival, Ange Postecoglou, has been quizzed over whether the intensity of his training sessions has contributed to Tottenham’s seemingly endless list of absentees.

Critics of both have pointed to the remarkable fitness record of Liverpool under Arne Slot. It isn’t the only reason the Reds have been several points clear at the top for most of the season, yet it has undoubtedly helped the Dutchman to have the vast majority of his players available for most of the campaign.

Slot’s injury prevention record at AZ Alkmaar and Feyenoord was a key reason for Liverpool choosing him as Jurgen Klopp’s successor. In three seasons in charge of Feyenoord, their player availability levels were above 90 per cent. Much has been made of the long-term “periodisation” planning done by his backroom staff, when it comes to assessing player fitness levels.

Yet it would also be naive to think such work does not happen at other clubs. Emery has a seemingly ever-growing army of backroom staff, some of whom are responsible for managing player workload.

The Villa boss can also point, with no little justification, to a schedule which has been relentless. The addition of two further group stage fixtures in the Champions League and Europa League made January, typically among the quieter months in recent years, one of the busiest. 

Villa, for one, do not boast the same depth of squad as some of those clubs more accustomed to competing at the top level in Europe. Little wonder Emery has been left less than happy by the Premier League’s decision to reschedule Villa’s home match with Liverpool into an already busy period of the season.

It is also stating an obvious fact that when a player gets injured, so others are required to carry more of the load, thereby increasing their own risk of injury.

Villa’s bad run is most likely a combination of factors, some of it luck, maybe a little of it down to training methods. But when the schedule is so busy, so getting things right on that score becomes so much harder.

More football, more injured players was the essence of Emery's argument when discussing the subject on Friday. It really might be as simple as that.