Unai Emery will use pre-season to trial different tactics and systems ahead of the new campaign

Aston Villa will remain busy in the summer transfer market after already signing five new players and selling three.

Douglas Luiz was sold to Juventus for £42m so Villa could continue complying with the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR). It followed the departures of Tim Iroegbunam to Everton for up to £13m and the transfer of Omari Kellyman for £19m.

Lewis Dobbin was first through the door this summer, costing £9m from Everton, swiftly followed by Ian Maatsen in a deal worth £37.5m from Chelsea. Enzo Barrenechea and Samuel Iling-Junior signed from Juventus in a separate deal to Luiz’s move, worth £18.6m combined.

Ross Barkley became the latest player to join Villa this summer as he completed his £5m switch from Luton Town earlier this week. After weeks of activity in the offices at Bodymoor Heath, Unai Emery’s first-team squad will begin to return to the training ground for pre-season training next week.

Villa will play against Walsall and Spartak Trnava before jetting off to the USA for friendlies against Columbus Crew, RB Leipzig and Club America. Upon returning to the UK, Villa then play Athletic Bilbao at the Bescot, before completing their pre-season schedule against Borussia Dortmund at the Signal Iduna Park in Germany.

Emery will be keen to trial new systems and tactics during pre-season, even if he will be missing some senior players in the first games due to commitments with national team squads at Euro 2024 and the Copa America.

Last season, Villa played a back-three while in possession and a double pivot in midfield, while one other midfielder would push up in support of Ollie Watkins in attack. That’s a role John McGinn excelled in, while Youri Tielemans was also effective behind the forward.

However, due to the injury to Boubacar Kamara, McGinn and Tielemans then formed a partnership while Emery did not trust Tim Iroegbunam to be the natural replacement for Kamara. Barrenechea will be given the chance to occupy that Kamara role in pre-season, but Villa may have to be patient with the 23-year-old, who only played his first top-flight season last term while on loan at Frosinone.

One way Villa could play on the opening day against West Ham is by mirroring how they played last term, with Konsa being one of the full-backs, making up a back-three, allowing Ian Maatsen to push into what would be a left-wing-back role with freedom to stay high and wide.

Villa would likely need the security of a holding midfielder by trade to add more defensive security, but a debut on the first day of the season for Barrrenechea could be a lot to ask. Let’s see how he goes in pre-season. The shape would almost be a 3-4-2-1, with with a central midfielder alongside Barrenechea, like Barkley, and two more advanced players supporting Watkins, which could be any of Leon Bailey, Morgan Rogers, Moussa Diaby, Emi Buendia, Jacob Ramsey or of course, McGinn or Tielemans if they’re not sitting next to Barrenechea.

Out of possession, the 3-4-2-1 could become a back five if a right-back was being deployed from the right-wing-back role, like Maatsen on the left.