Aston Villa vs Manchester United Fouls bOOST

Mainoo is the name on everyone’s lips at the moment. The young midfielder has been in excellent form since breaking into the side and showed his class with a winning goal against Wolves last week.

The academy graduate doesn’t shirk out any challenges either. Before last week’s comprehensive win over West Ham, Mainoo fouled in all of his previous 4 games. The midfielder committed 6 fouls in that period and is likely to have his hands full against the opposition midfield at Villa Park.

Mainoo will face the likes of John McGinn, who draws 1.84 fouls per 90, as well as Boubacar Kamara (1.65), Jacob Ramsey (1.77) and Douglas Luiz (1.45) who are both what you can call ‘all action midfielders’.

Mainoo made a foul against these opponents on Boxing Day and I expect him to do that again.

Man United captain Bruno Fernandes is a joy to watch but he also commits a hell of a lot of fouls. In fact, Fernandes has recorded more fouls than any other United player this season and is averaging 1.32 per 90 minutes.

Fernandes has fouled in 9 of his last 10 games and has made 16 fouls in that time. With the fluid midfield of Aston Villa, Fernandes will have a busy afternoon in Birmingham and Emery will know how to exploit the Portugese’s discipline.

I expect Fernandes to play on Douglas Luiz, who usually sits deepest of the Villa midfield four and draws 1.45 fouls per 90. In Villa’s last fixture, Luiz drew 4 fouls against Chelsea in their FA Cup loss.

Bruno made 2 fouls in the win over Villa in December and I expect him to commit at least one again, as his form suggests.

Villa’s Brazilian midfielder has been a big part of their success, so far this season. Luiz can do it all and provides a strong level of protection to the Villa defence, this season he’s commited 1.48 fouls per 90.

In Luiz’s last 10 games, he’s been kept busy with 11 fouls and 1+ fouls has landed in 8 of those 10 games. Last time these teams met, he commited 1 foul and with United starting to find a bit more form, he’ll be key to Villa’s chances of success here.

United will have Emery’s top 4 spot in their sights and Luiz will be directly against Bruno Fernandes, who was fouled twice in the reverse fixture. United’s captain is fouled on average 0.77 per 90 minutes and has drawn at least 1 foul in 8 of his last 10 games

You could pick any of the Villa midfield when it comes to committing fouls but I fully expect Luiz to be the busiest given both his form and his opponent as discussed above.