{"id":645762,"date":"2025-12-21T07:00:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T07:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/645762\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T07:00:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T07:00:23","slug":"unai-emery-sends-message-to-victor-lindelof-ahead-of-man-united-reunion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/645762\/","title":{"rendered":"Unai Emery sends message to Victor Lindelof ahead of Man United reunion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aston Villa boss has hailed Victor Lindelof ahead of the defender’s reunion with Manchester United\"VictorVictor Lindelof of Aston Villa(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Unai Emery believes Victor Lindelof\u2019s experiences at Manchester United<\/a> are already benefiting Aston Villa<\/a> as the Sweden international prepares for a reunion with the Red Devils this weekend.<\/p>\n

Lindelof joined Villa<\/a> on a free transfer on deadline day last summer, after turning down offers from elsewhere, including Saudi Arabia, following the expiry of his contract at Old Trafford.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old <\/a>made a total of 284 appearances for United over his seven-year spell at the club, winning two trophies: the League Cup in 2023 and the FA Cup<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

So far this season, Lindelof has made 10 appearances for Villa and has started the last two matches\u2014against FC Basel and West Ham – in place of the injured Pau Torres.<\/p>\n

Having impressed in both of Villa\u2019s wins last week, the experienced defender is expected to partner Ezri Konsa at the heart of defence again on Sunday against his former club, United.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has experience and he is a very good professional. He has qualities too. He is still being young to play football,\u201d Emery said of Lindelof.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe signed him in the last moments of the transfer window, because when we identified that possibility, I wanted in that moment everything that he did last week [vs West Ham].<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 90 minutes he did everything I expected from him. He was really fantastic. Every day it is easy how we are working because his adaptation is so quick, and everything we need, through his experiences, he can give us.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe gave us experience before, but maybe the best moment he had until now with us was the match at West Ham. He played a fantastic match.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, he has shown us his level. He can\u2019t stop now, and he must keep it! He is very mature, of course. This is very important.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is responsible too, and he has experiences, and hopefully he can help us a lot for the rest of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow we performed in the last three years was similar to Manchester United. He is coming to us and he is feeling it,\u201d Emery added.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow he is every day, training, sharing time with teammates, it is something normal and he has the adaptation to do it easily.”<\/p>\n

Villa have won their last nine matches in all competitions, and have come from behind to win three of those. In fact, Emery\u2019s side have already gained 15 points from losing positions this season, while this weekend\u2019s opponents United have dropped 10 points from winning positions in the Premier League this season – the third-highest total.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo build mentality, you need time, experience, wins and losses. In bad moments and good moments,\u201d Emery said of Villa\u2019s knack for comebacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to manage bad moments and good moments. In three years we have those experiences together, and the players are joining us in that and they understand.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow the players work together since I arrived here three years ago is the example. We can analyse them from then to now, how they have shown form, attitude and mentality to play football in each match. Those things, we analyse every day and every match we play in.\u201d<\/p>\n

What do you make of Emery’s comments? Tell us here<\/a><\/strong>\"\"The latest Villa headlines sent straight to your phone<\/p>\n

Join our Aston Villa WhatsApp group and get the latest breaking news, interviews and opinion sent straight to your phone, plus matchday team news and live updates of all the action. Just click on this link<\/a> and select \u2018Join Community\u2019 to get started. The only proviso is that you must have WhatsApp on your phone to participate. It’s a free service. No one will be able to see your personal information and you will only receive messages from our Villa writers.<\/p>\n

We will not spam your WhatsApp feed with constant messages, but you will receive updates from us daily with the latest Villa news. If you later decide to opt out, just go to the name at the top of your screen and click ‘Exit Group’. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. Click here to read our Privacy Notice<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aston Villa boss has hailed Victor Lindelof ahead of the defender’s reunion with Manchester UnitedVictor Lindelof of Aston…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[422,94,79,16,6543,15,17754],"class_list":{"0":"post-645762","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-aston-villa-fc","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-unai-emery","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-victor-lindelof"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}