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• Emery counting on Conference League experience as schedule bites at Villa

  Aston Villa may be winless in six games ahead of their Champions League meeting with Juventus, but Unai Emery refuses to blame their drop-off on a congested fixture list.

  Villa's winless streak has seen them crash out of the EFL Cup and drop to eighth in the Premier League table, with only a late Ross Barkley header salvaging a 2-2 draw against Crystal Palace on Saturday.

  Emery's men also saw their perfect Champions League start halted by a shock 1-0 defeat to Club Brugge on matchday four, leaving them eighth in the 36-team table.

  Villa have nine more matches to play before the turn of the year, with the first of those at home to a Juve side sat one point behind them in the standings.  

  Emery, however, says they cannot blame a fixture pile-up for their loss of form, particularly after they juggled domestic and Europa Conference League commitments last season.

  "Last year we had experience with the Conference League, we juggled a lot. We want to play a lot of matches and hopefully, we will play until the last month of the season," Emery said.

   

  "The Champions League is the best competition in the world. We are managing each match and more or less being consistent in the preparation and being consistent in the idea of building a team.

  "Tomorrow is a very important three points but even if we don't win, taking one point is good because in the table we are in the top eight positions. 

  "We want to be in the next round and tomorrow if we win, maybe we can be a contender to get it."

  Villa have beaten Bayern Munich and Bologna in their first two Champions League home games, and they could now become just the third English club to win their first three at home in the competition, after Tottenham in 2010 and Leicester City in 2016.

  They kept clean sheets in both of those matches, with AC Milan in 1992-93 the only team to ever win their first three home games in the Champions League without conceding.

   

  Juve have also been tough to break down under Thiago Motta, though, boasting Serie A's best defensive record, and Emery knows Villa will have to make the most of their chances.

  "He was very competitive as a player, he was very intelligent, he was a top player. Physically he was strong, mentally he was strong and now as a coach he has started being successful," Emery, who coached Motta when he was a midfielder at Paris Saint-Germain, added.

  "I appreciate him as a person, I appreciated him as a player and now I appreciate him as a manager.

  "They are very strong defensively, not only with the ball but without the ball... They are building a team, trying to keep consistency and dominating matches with the ball but defensively trying to be strong positionally."

  Villa are also dealing with injury concerns but Emery said Ezri Konsa and Boubacar Kamara will be available as Amadou Onana and Jacob Ramsey miss out.

  Onana sat out the weekend's draw with Palace due to injury, while Ramsey is still nursing a knock sustained in a 2-0 defeat by Liverpool before the international break. 

• PSV's Bosz expecting stern Shakhtar test amid De Jong, Lang concerns

  PSV coach Peter Bosz expects a difficult test as his team host Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League on Wednesday, when they could be without Luuk de Jong and Noah Lang.

  Captain De Jong and Netherlands international Lang both missed Saturday's 5-0 Eredivisie win over Groningen, though former Barcelona striker De Jong returned to training on Monday.

  Both players are considered doubtful for their upcoming clash with Ukrainian champions Shakhtar, as PSV bid to improve on their record of five points from four league-phase games.

  They sit one point above Shakhtar, who are just outside the play-off places in 28th. While the Opta supercomputer gives PSV an 80% chance of sealing a top-24 finish, Shakhtar's hopes are rated at a mere 11%.

  "We have to win at home, but that doesn't just happen. You don't just grab the points," Bosz said.

  "They have very good footballers in the team and, for example, lost very unluckily and narrowly at Arsenal.

  "It is a team that wants to play football and wants to build up, with a goalkeeper (Dmytro Riznyk) who plays along. They want to play with short combinations from the back.

  "They dared to do that in London, with a rather daring build-up. With that they also pushed Arsenal back at times, which was impressive. They have players with individual qualities up front. We will have to work hard."

  After hosting Shakhtar, PSV go to surprise package Brest on matchday six and round out their group-phase campaign against Red Star Belgrade and Liverpool in the new year.

  A run of winnable fixtures before they face Arne Slot's Reds has amplified talk of PSV reaching the playoffs, but Bosz was uninterested in making any predictions.

  "I'm not really calculating, I try to keep it as simple as possible," he said. "If you look at the points, you see how close it is and therefore how important tomorrow's match is. 

  "We do not yet know how many points we will need. We will see that afterwards."

• Kane blames Messi and Ronaldo for number nine shortage

  Harry Kane has blamed the influence of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo for the lack of current number nines in the game.

  He credits the two footballing behemoths for encouraging new players to be wingers rather than taking up the traditional striker role.

  Kane has made his own case for being listed among the best in the number nine role. He netted his 50th goal in the Bundesliga in Bayern Munich’s 3-0 win over Augsburg last week, reaching the milestone in just 43 appearances.

  It smashed the previous record of 50 set by Erling Haaland during his time at Borussia Dortmund.

  "The game is changing a little bit. The way coaching is now [means] a lot of players grow up wanting to be wingers,” Kane told TNT Sport Brazil.

  "I think Messi and Cristiano dominated for a long, long time playing off the wings. I think a lot of players wanted to watch them.

  "When I was growing up, I had some of the best strikers in the world [to watch], so I wanted to be a number nine.

  "That’s just the way football goes. I think, tactically, some managers play with a false nine, or a nine-and-a-half or 10 position.

  "But for sure, when I was growing up at number nine, there were some incredible players."

  Kane certainly took note, becoming a complete striker. Of Kane's 50 Bundesliga goals, 10 have come from penalties, while 32 of them have been with his right foot, nine with his left and nine with his head.

  He is also the quickest Bayern player to hit 50 league goals for the club, surpassing Robert Lewandowski's previous record of 64 games by a staggering 21 matches.

  The England captain, who is preparing for a Champions League tie with Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday, drew particular inspiration from Brazilian great Ronaldo.

  "I think we’re totally different players in the way we play, but ultimately, the way he used to finish was as good as anyone, as well as the way he moved with the ball,” Kane added.

  "His dribbling ability. His movement. I think he was as good as anyone in the world. He had a lot more ability than me if I’m totally honest. He had good pace as well.

  "But for me growing up, I tried to watch all the best strikers in the world, and he was in his prime at the time.

  "It was a joy to watch him, and it’s been nice to score a few goals myself and take a few bits from his game."