Jhon Duran tease, Fulham, Bologna and Thomas Tuchel - every word from Aston Villa boss Unai Emery

Unai Emery spoke to the press on Friday afternoon ahead of Aston Villa's trip to Craven Cottage

Unai Emery sat down with the media at Bodymoor Heath ahead of Aston Villa's Premier League clash with Fulham at Craven Cottage on Saturday (3pm kick-off).

Villa are looking to return to winning ways in the league after drawing their last two matches in the competition against Ipswich Town and Manchester United. Here's every word Emery said in his pre-match press conference...

Can we get an injury update on your players?

"McGinn has trained with us normally and is feeling good, Konsa as well. He is feeling good. Jaden is feeling good. I think it is the first time this year we have more or less every player available to play. Only still out, but he is training not 100 per cent Robin Olsen."

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What is your assessment of the impact Jhon Duran has made on your team and how close is he to starting?

"I am thinking as well how with his process here and how he is progressing to have more opportunities to start. Maybe tomorrow or the next matches we are going to play, but I think he is ready. His next challenges are coming."

Can you expand on what he has brought to his game?

"Today it is Friday, we trained in the morning. Every player who is in the squad they can start. Jhon Duran, now, his performances have been very good for him and for us. He is playing minutes and progressively I am getting more minutes for him."

What is your assessment of Fulham?

"I respect a lot Marco Silva as a coach. I think he is an incredible coach. He is taking a lot of experiences and the work he is doing is fantastic. They are very competitive and they have very good organisation, tactically, offensively and defensively. You can watch of them how the demands that the coaches impose there.

"They are three points behind us and when I arrived here they were ahead of Villa. They were a rival for us to get into Europe. Last year, they compete very well and were in the middle, but each year they are a team who are an option to get into the top seven. It is a very important match because this is a team I am analysing who are relevant to us to try and keep a top position in the table."

You have three very tough games in seven games - how mentally challenging is that for the players?

"The players were playing for their national teams and they are progressively arriving here. They are feeling comfortable as well. Here we are excited and motivated how we can play in different competitions in each month. Tomorrow we play in the Premier League, which is the most important [competition].

"Tuesday we play in the Champions League and we have to manage the match tomorrow. After that, we are going to try and take the best decisions with the players who are playing more than others. I am very happy because players like Emi Buendia are getting better and we are adding other players, Mings and Kamara.

"They were very important. We are as well getting minutes on the field with Jaden and he played really fantastic matches against Bayern Munich and against Manchester United. I think we can feel comfortable how we are now with different options in the starting XI being competitive and how we can get our best level in the squad. I am very happy."

How difficult does it make your job with the amount of games you are playing?

"I am analysing each opponent, but also building our own team with new options we have. Players are getting better and we have more available ahead of the matches we are going to face. I always analyse deeply our structure and how we can improve that. How we played against Ipswich and how we played against Bayern and how we played against Manchester United.

"After two weeks, also how we recover again our focus playing as a team and how we identify quickly the improvements we want to make. This is my work for each match."

How challenging is it to prepare for a game when many players have been on international duty?

"It is not easy, but trying to focus quickly with the players about the matches we are going to face. Today in the morning we spoke about the tactical game plan for tomorrow. We will travel to Fulham and this evening we will work again and tomorrow morning to change the mind of players after their matches with national teams.

"We are being very demanding when we are selecting the squad, finding how we can improve always our challenges and as well our performances through those players being demanding themselves as well. I don’t want to allow for some circumstances which could relax us. Tomorrow we are going to play for three points."

How important is competition for places?

"I think we were competing last year with some players being injured, important players too. We are competing now until today with some players being injured as well. When we can add players like Mings, Kamara, Buendia, Jaden and Barkley in the squad, we are training everybody to understand our idea and style to get each one in their position feeling comfortable.

"We are then strong. I think this is the message. To keep the same level we had last year is the challenge we have. We have started the season being strong. The Champions League has been even better than expected."

What sort of manager are England getting in Thomas Tuchel?

"Only I can speak about him as a coach. He is a really amazing coach. He has experiences, a lot of them and in different countries. He won the Champions League with Chelsea. I can’t speak about nothing more than my opinion about him as a coach."

Would you fancy international management in the future?

"Really, I am very happy as my role with the clubs. I don’t know about in the future in case I can think about it if a national team calls me to do this work. I don’t exactly now."

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