We've got the perfect start to the tournament and we sit on six points after two games played. We host Yokohama F. Marinos at home and got a great chance to take our third straight win. We know playing the Club World Cup is a big thing for the club as a whole and we want to perform well in this tournament. It gives us the option to play our whole roster when we got that many games and play two games every week. As a manager it gives me the chance to play the players who don't start league games and a chance to keep the whole roster happy. But using the whole roster doesn't mean we have to drop in performance. We need to take every game seriously and be at our best to achieve the goals we've set ourselves in front of the season.
i dont know much about my oppenents but this competiton will be used for my back up players as the league is my main aim but i wont be picking my team until the league game has been played
We have had a fortunate start to this competition but we are only two games in and there are still 6 to play so anything can still happen.
Next we are at home which gives us a slight bonus and we play Al Ahly who have had their bye week already so have only had one game and drew that. They look to have a good side and are slightly stronger than us at the back and midfield but we have the better fire power up front. We need to utilise that and ensure we convert our chances.
We have a full squad with no injuries or suspensions so may look to rotate one or two but will also be looking to pick up 3 points as well if we can.
A welcome bye week for Aston Villa sees the players given a few days off for some rest and recuperation. We will be watching to see what happens in the group and hopefully it will leave us in a positive position after a win and a draw to start the campaign. With a tricky fixture against Leicester at the weekend it'll be good to have everyone fully fit and hopefully the break will give Tristan Jumeau a chance to recover from his knock.
A quirk oi this competition format is that the manager can help Villa through his managerial involvement with Eqyptians Al Ahly - as we see this week when he takes them to Goodison. The players will be cheering on their manager in that one for sure.
Everton vs Al Ahly
After the bye week in round one and an away game in Brazil last week we continue on the road with our first test against one of the English big boys. So far it is the eight English teams in the top eight spots in the group and we need some of the international teams to start putting their hands up and challenging. This is our first go at doing just that and hopefully we can be the ones to make a statement.
We'll be three rounds in and we won't have played a home game but that is fine as it means we will have some of the toughest fixtures out of the way. Indeed we will be based in Cairo for the final two rounds of the competition. The goal is to in the qualification hunt until then so we can give hopefully top four but, if not, top eight a real go.
We know all about Everton and their manager with some great battles against them over the years. We know it won't be an easy game and we have our work cut out. Both sides will be at full strength so it will be the normal game of cat and mouse between me and David for who gets the tactics right and, more importantly, who guesses what the opponent will do.
In honesty, we'd take another point from this one but we'll give it our best and coming away with a win would be a huge bonus. It may be that the reward of three points is worth risking a gamble...
All round so far we are 2 from 2 in this competition and now looking forward to another match, our opponents are a strong side so will come and give us a decent challenge so we need to remain focused, all players are ready for selection and fitness is looking great so we can field a strong side to hopefully make it 3 from 3.
