Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has suggested he will play both Ollie Watkins and Jhon Duran together in the Champions League game at RB Leipzig on Tuesday.
The two forwards have started alongside each other in the Villa attack just twice since Duran joined the club in January 2023.
Instead, Emery has usually favoured starting one over the other, but he says he is keen to try and get them to work well as a pair.
“The next challenge I have is to play with both,” said Emery.
“We are trying and I will try again to play with both. We have to keep the balance, tactically, playing with both. The team is always first.”
Duran has become known as something of a super sub for Villa given his goalscoring exploits when coming off the bench.
However, he started as the lone striker against Southampton at the weekend and scored the game’s only goal as Villa recorded back-to-back wins in the Premier League.
“They are both very good strikers – each of them are different,” added Emery.
“Watkins is getting more experiences with the [England] national team and with us in Europe, being consistent, being competitive always in everything we need on the field.
“Jhon Duran has big potential. He is progressively getting better. His adaptation started two years ago and it’s much better than the process we had.”
Villa have won three of their five games in Europe so far, although their most recent results have been a 1-0 loss to Club Brugge and a goalless draw with Juventus.
RB Leipzig, meanwhile, have lost every game they have played so far in Europe.
“This is day six and it’s very important because we can feel we’re close to the next round, but we have the opportunity to be in the top eight,” added Emery.
“This match is very difficult against Leipzig, who were contenders at the beginning of the competition more than us to be in the top eight or top 24.
“They’ve had a really hard schedule, playing against a lot of very good teams.”
