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Boubacar Kamara may be undroppable at Aston Villa after faultless international performance
It may be the international break, but Aston Villa have had plenty of players in action with their national sides over the last couple of days.
While Nicolo Zaniolo had a tough afternoon for Italy against North Macedonia and Ezri Konsa was stuck to the bench for England against Malta, Boubacar Kamara was one of many French players to impress against Gibraltar.
Didier Dechamps’ side ran out 14-0 winners on Saturday 18 November in qualifying for Euro 2024, with Kylian Mbappe scoring a hat trick while the rest of the goals were shared evenly between the starting XI and substitutes.
Kamara was introduced to the match with 23 minutes left to play and while he was one of the only French players to not find the net on Saturday, the Aston Villa man had an impressive afternoon from the bench to continue his excellent start to the campaign.
The 23-year-old completed 100 per cent of his 23 attempted passes as he picked apart the Gibraltar midfield, with three of his efforts into the final third as he aimed to drive France up the field as they ran riot at the Allianz Riviera [Fotmob].
On the ball, it was another positive day for the Villa midfielder as he completed his only dribble in the match and didn’t lose possession once in the 23 minutes he featured. While it was an easy evening for the Frenchman, he looked like a natural fit alongside the likes of Kylian Mbappe and Adrien Rabiot.
Out of possession, the midfielder won all three of his attempted tackles in the match and made three ball recoveries as he constantly managed to win back possession on the limited occasions the away side got on the ball. Gibraltar only registered 27 per cent of possession as they were consistently harried by the French midfield.
Kamara won four of the six duels that he entered and the two that he lost saw him commit fouls in what was the only slightly sloppy mistake in an otherwise perfect cameo from the bench.
While Kamara has been widely praised for his start to the season, he has been quite quiet defensively, sitting in the 66th percentile of all Premier League midfielders for tackles completed per 90 minutes, with an average of 2.4 a game [Fbref].
If he can take the battling performance he produced on international duty and bring it back to Villa Park, Kamara will ensure that he becomes undroppable in claret and blue. Unai Emery is a huge fan of the Frenchman and there are few better at looking after possession than the 23-year-old, who completes an average of 90.3 per cent of his passes.
In other Aston Villa news, Gabby Agbonlahor has claimed that Ezri Konsa is better than Fikayo Tomori and Mark Guehi