Two Aston Villa line-ups Steven Gerrard could toy with vs Walsall

Aston Villa's pre-season kicks off in earnest at Walsall tomorrow as Steven Gerrard casts his watchful eye over his first-team group. A weakened Villa squad will take to the Banks's Stadium with some - the likes of Boubacar Kamara, Lucas Digne, Matty Cash and John McGinn - having arrived in Australia early ahead of the club's tour which begins next week.

Villa will endure another double session today (Friday) at Bodymoor Heath following yesterday's rest day. New assistant head coach Neil Critchley, meanwhile, has spoken about what he and Gerrard hope to get out of tomorrow's workout in Walsall.

He said: "It's something we've discussed over the first few days as to who'll play and what minutes are given out. You're always planning ahead and preparing.

"It's about getting minutes into players' legs first and foremost and you don't want any unnecessary injuries. But it might be that you're looking for little relationships on the pitch, going forward, and you just want to get the players getting used to playing together again. You want to cement your identity for the team, even from the very first game. We want to build a winning culture. It's our first game for a long time and footballers want to play football and they'll be desperate to get out onto the pitch at Walsall on Saturday (1pm kick-off).

Here, BirminghamLive picks two line-ups Gerrard could well toy with at Walsall given the players he has at his disposal.

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This XI is quite possibly the strongest team Villa could field, other than having new £26million signing Diego Carlos involved alongside one of Calum Chambers or Tyrone Mings. With Philippe Coutinho already in Australia, it will be a good