View: Leon Bailey set to become Aston Villa star in new role under Unai Emery
On Sunday afternoon Aston Villa fans finally saw the mercurial Leon Bailey at his very best.
It has been a long time coming for Bailey, who since his £30million move from Bayer Leverkusen in 2021 has found game time hard to come by after being hampered by injuries and not being fully trusted under the Steven Gerrard regime.
The fact that Bailey’s four Premier League goals have all come under different managers (Smith, Gerrard, Danks, and Emery) highlights just how hard the winger has found it to remain fully fit and prove himself as a 90-minute man week in and week out.
However, Bailey has taken this criticism on board. Extra strength work, extra physio work, and a chef have all been part of a new regime for the winger, who knows that he can still get better as he continues to adapt to the pace of the Premier League.
And as Unai Emery gets to grip with the challenges which await him in the dugout at Villa Park, he will surely be excited to try and develop the raw and still unexposed gem that is the 25-year-old Jamaican.
Played as a split striker with Ollie Watkins, Bailey was given a license to run into the space behind the United defence on Sunday, and he duly obliged, terrorizing Lisandro Martinez all afternoon and running riot in front of the Holte End.
His goal after seven minutes typified his performance. A well-timed run-in behind United’s back four was met by Jacob Ramsey’s through ball before the winger smashed his shot past the outstretched arms of David de Gea.
As proven during his time at Leverkusen, Bailey has the ability to post some big numbers, netting 15 times and notching up a further 11 assists in 40 matches for the club in 2020/21, but transferring these numbers to the Premier League has been the issue.
Alongside the likes of Kai Havertz, his direct running from outside positions made him a ready-made replacement for Jack Grealish and an upgrade on the likes of Anwar El Ghazi and Bertrand Traore at Aston Villa.
And now being played in the 4-2-2-2 set-up deployed against United, the Jamaicans has the chance to prove his doubters wrong, with Buendia and Ramsey ready-made distributors to exploit the raw pace that he possesses.
Speaking on the tactical roles of the split strikers in his post-match press conference, Emery said: “It was about going against them. I tried to keep possession, tried to break their high pressing and to get our midfielders to get it to Buendia and Ramsey and then attack with Bailey and Watkins on their last (line of) defence.”
It is therefore no coincidence that since Gerrard’s sacking we have seen a reinvigorated Bailey, providing a man-of-the-match performance in the 4-0 drubbing of Brentford and again proving himself a handful on Sunday.
Since being played in his favoured position and given the freedom to express himself, he has provided the attacking flair that this Villa side so desperately needed.
Emery has clocked on that the winger has an X Factor that few defenders in the league can deal with. A combination of pace, power, and the skill to match is hard to find across Europe.
If Emery can unleash Bailey’s full potential in this newfound position, Villa’s fortunes may well turn in quite a drastic fashion.
In other Aston Villa news, Emery’s Arsenal successor Mikel Arteta has welcomed him back into the Premier League