Unai Emery met with the media at Bodymoor Heath on Tuesday afternoon, ahead of his side's midweek Premier League meeting with Liverpool.
The Villans welcome Arne Slot's table-topping Reds to Villa Park in the second of three-straight home fixtures in the league on Wednesday (ko 7.30pm), just four days after sharing a 1-1 draw with Ipswich Town.
Emery spoke to the local and national outlets at Villa's training ground to preview the clash, discussing Saturday's draw with Ipswich, the challenge Liverpool will pose and the demands on his squad amidst the recent fixture schedule.
Read the key lines from his pre-match press conference below...
On excitement...
“We are excited, how we will face them tomorrow. Now, Liverpool, they are the best team in Premier League, they are the best team in Europe and of course being very difficult.
“Our challenge tomorrow is how we can face them, how we can respond with our qualities against them, how we can play in this level trying to get confidence for ourselves.
“But we are excited, and hopefully we can share tomorrow an exciting moment with our supporters in Villa Park.”
On Ipswich draw...
“Understanding each moment, understanding each competition and trying to progress, getting better.
“Of course, we are demanding of ourselves, how we increase our demands, our objective, but when we are not getting those objectives during the way, we are being frustrated, but we have to accept it.
“The last match we played at home against Ipswich Town, we faced one team, they were resilient and defended well.
“We have the opportunity as well to take information after that match. Tomorrow is going to be difficult, different. We are going to face different ways tactically, but of course, we have to try to get our idea, our style, against every team we are facing, and understanding each team with their different players, or tactical ideas or gameplan.
“Everything we did on Saturday against Ipswich Town was really very important information for me, to try to share with our players and get better in our way, trying to use tomorrow all the information we have.”
On breaking teams down...
“We have experiences last year, because we played as well in Conference League against teams, they were defending very low, and we struggled sometimes.
“We are improving, and we are understanding better everything. We had enough chances on Saturday to win against Ipswich, we had more corners offensively than normal, we avoided as well, a lot of their attacking moments, but of course it was not enough.
“But we analyse with the players, and we are speaking about how we can react, how we can respond for the next matches, playing in some circumstances similar like we played on Saturday against Ipswich, but being positive.
“I think of course we are excited, because were performing overall in the right direction, but we know we need more points in case we will want to achieve the biggest demand, objective we can have in the Premier League, it’s to be in the Champions League.”
On Liverpool...
“We have to try to impose our gameplan, to dominate with our structure tactically and collectively, then trying to use our skilled players as well to get difference on the field against them in the duels and collectively.
“We will have to compete adapting of them, because of course tomorrow Liverpool, they are going to demand [from] us a lot about everything, tactically and individually.
“I appreciate a very high performance they are getting this year, more than the last two years when I arrived here.
“Of course, with Klopp they did fantastic, but this year with Slot they are even doing better.
“For me as a coach, it’s really a big challenge tomorrow, great challenge to try to be motivated, how we can collectively set our gameplan against them.
“It is the most difficult match we are going to play for the last weeks and months.”
On Tyrone Mings...
“Tyrone Mings is a very important player. After last year, his long injury, his comeback has been very good, performing very well.
“He had a small stop in his recovery moment, but he played on Saturday and for tomorrow, of course, we will need him being available and playing and getting his best performances.
“Of course, he is a very important player for us as he is one of the captains. He is a leader as well in the defensive line. His commitment with Aston Villa is really very, very high commitment to help in everything.
“In the dressing room, on the field, and tomorrow, hopefully as well, he can play helping us to get the victory.”
On demands on the squad...
“We are going to prepare each match, good rest, good food, sleep well and play each match with the players feel as better as possible in everything.
“I have to try to be demanding [of] myself as well, to use and to choose the players for each match, trying to get our structure strong but as well, try to protect some players in case they can have some small pain or getting tired, to try to identify it.
“We are going to try to play tomorrow and focus for tomorrow, and hopefully we can play with full energy and 100%.”
Watch Emery's full pre-match press conference below...
