Villa – Reading; How should Bruce play this?

We face Reading tomorrow then, a game which is quickly followed by another tough game against Fulham away on Monday.
Utter madness and it’s a good job we aren’t fighting for a promotion place at this stage, as it would be a major test for any squad.

That said, I don’t know when the decision was taken, but it seems it was the club itself that decided to change it to Saturday, at the request of Aston Parish church.
I’m not in the slightest religious, but do have respect for others and see this as a good decision, in keeping with the club doing it’s best to keep the local community onside.
Plus Saturday afternoons are always the best time for footy, in my opinion.

But it seriously stretches the squad, in that asking them to play two games in three days is too much by today’s standards.
Which all begs the question of do we prioritise one game over another?
Or do we regard both as the same and just rest a couple of players in each?

I’d suggest it’ll be the latter, as although it seems Steve Bruce has suggested he might make major changes, I don’t believe they’ll all be in the same game.
It wouldn’t make sense, as while we don’t really have much to play for now, it would be sensible to keep the team as stable as possible. Every game the main players play together should help them to develop an understanding and keep the momentum up. Points breed confidence and we want to drop as few as possible in this final run in, if we’re to steamroll the league next season.

So, it’s hard to call the team really, although I’d guess that Mile Jedinak won’t play both games; at least not fully.
Is Nathan Baker up to it? He’s injury prone, so it might pay to give him as much rest as possible too.

So what do we know?
The long term injuries apart, we’re not too bad.
Jonathan Kodjia, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Rushian Hepburn-Murphy and Andre Green are all fit.
Kodjia’s a certainty and the young lads might get minutes, but I’ll be surprised if Gabby gets a look in.
I’d guess Gardner and Grealish might feature too, but I suspect both might be in the last chance saloon, so if they do get on, they’ll need to show something.

Reading got absolutely tonked by Norwich last week and you can be sure they’ll be up for this one, as another defeat might severely dent their promotion hopes. They’re fifth in the league with a game in hand on most sides, but they are by no means guaranteed a play-off place.

I’d like to think we can actually win this, but it has a draw written all over it.
I’ll go for 1-1.

Can Kodjia get yet another goal?
Part of me would love to see him get 20 this season.
But the other part would like to see someone else chipping in with the goals.