Matty Cash makes feelings clear about Aston Villa competition

Matty Cash believes this Aston Villa squad is the strongest he has been a part of since joining the club five years ago.The right-back has made a total of 167 appearances for Villa, playing his part in the club’s rise after surviving relegation in 2019/20.

After securing their return to European football two seasons ago and then reaching the semi-finals of the Europa Conference League last term, Villa are now deep in the Champions League.

Hosting Club Brugge on Wednesday with a two-goal lead from last week’s 3-1 victory in Belgium, Villa have a huge opportunity to qualify for the Champions League quarter-finals.

Villa strengthened in January with the additions of Marcus Rashford, Marco Asensio and Axel Disasi on loan, while Donyell Malen and Andres Garcia were permanent additions, but haven’t been named in the Champions League squad.

Disasi has played at centre-back and right-back since joining from Chelsea, while Garcia has also impressed despite never making a top-flight appearance before arriving from Levante for £5m in January.

“It’s always nice to have competition, especially when you are in the Champions League and you have a lot of games,” Cash said.

“You have to have competition at the top level. Every top club has good competition.”I have had a few niggles which haven’t been great, so I have been working to cut that out. Sometimes it’s just unfortunate. When you play you have to take your chance.

When players fill in they have to do as well. We are all in the same boat.

“We are strong in every position, two really good players now in each. It is really important to have that all around the squad. To have that rotation is good.”