View: Morgan Sanson has to rediscover Marseille form to stay at Aston Villa
There was a lot of excitement when Aston Villa signed Morgan Sanson from Marseille but the Frenchman is yet to score for the Villans.
The 27-year-old has rarely even played for Villa since his move last summer with only 19 Premier League appearances in two seasons, many of which came off the bench, to go along with one solitary Carabao Cup match.
For a transfer fee of £14million, you would have expected him to feature much more often in the Midlands but his failure to find the form that made him so talked about at Marseille has left him well down the order.
Despite that, Birmingham Live have reported that Sanson is still in Steven Gerrard’s plans for the 2022-23 campaign but if he wants to start playing regularly, he has to rediscover that magic from his time in France.
One thing that has never been seen from the 27-year-old at Villa Park is the confidence to back his shooting ability from distance and that is a serious weapon Villa are missing out on.
In this instance, the ball kindly falls to Sanson on the volley and rather than take it down and pass it out wide, as he may do now, he unleashes a venomous strike to startle his opponents.
It seems like a volley is something he is exceptionally good at with this brilliant low cross taken on the full oozing with class and technique.
But he never finds himself in a pocket of space out wide in claret and blue because he seems to be constricted to the middle of the pitch, either by himself or his manager.
The fact he has been so centralised at Villa Park makes it all the more baffling that he hasn’t been ghosting into a position like this where he has loads of space to fire in a shot.
Aston Villa could do with releasing the shackles somewhat and giving him the freedom to do what he likes and maybe then he could find his best form once more.
In other Aston Villa news, another Premier League side are attempting to sign one of Gerrard’s defenders on loan but they face Championship competition.