Just like against Tottenham, Unai Emery’s starting XI for Aston Villa’s clash against West Ham United on Sunday caught many by surprise.
Last week, many thought it was too defensive, well, this time around, it was far more attacking, with John McGinn absent through suspension.
One of the names brought into the Aston Villa XI was January signing Morgan Rogers – he also started the 4-0 win over Ajax on Thursday night.
The £8 million signing played 63 minutes during Aston Villa’s 1-1 draw at the London Stadium and Don Hutchison was critical of the defensive side of his game.
The former West Ham midfielder stated that Morgan Rogers ‘needs to do more’ when he was tracking back and doing his defensive duties, as he told Premier League Productions (17/03/24 at 2:55 pm).
Vladimír Coufal was the man who crossed the ball from the right flank for Michail Antonio’s diving header to open the scoring for the home team.
There were warning signs after warning signs during the early stages that Aston Villa’s new boy wasn’t getting out to the right-back quickly enough.
Well, he ended up being punished when David Moyes’ side opened the scoring after 29 minutes, before Nicolo Zaniolo scored a crucial equaliser from the bench.
Morgan Rogers’ first start for Aston Villa
“Morgan Rogers is playing on the left-hand side for Aston Villa and he sees him (Coufal) and tracks him,” said Hutchison.
“At this point, as a midfield player, you have to be diligent, do your job and you know that the player is potentially on the overlap. He has gone a bit narrow. Now you have to get out and stop the cross.
“No great shakes that he doesn’t it is just a pointer (a warning before the goal is scored). When you come into the team, then you have to do more. It wasn’t just a one-off, it happened two or three times. He is in so much space and again Rogers has gone a bit narrow.
“The player with the most space is Coufal on this side. You give him space, he has options and can flash it across the six-yard box, then it’s a great header from Antonio – yes, Rogers should have gone out quicker.”
Aston Villa are plugging away
Let’s be honest, it has been a long while since Villa have been able to put together 90 minutes of high-quality football in the Premier League.
The biggest issues lie with injuries and suspensions, added on top of an unsettled defence and midfield that continues to get chopped and changed.
After the international break, we will learn our true fate in the race for Champions League football.
If we can cut out the cheap goals, and get some much-needed clean sheets into our bag, then we will get that fourth spot.
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