Unai Emery has easy Leon Bailey call to make v Bournemouth after ‘excellent’ Aston Villa display
Aston Villa boss Unai Emery is spoiled for choice when it comes to naming his starting line-up for Sunday’s (3 December) Premier League trip to Bournemouth.
Villa maintained their good form with a 2-1 win over Legia Warsaw on Thursday (30 November) to advance in the Europa Conference League.
Alex Moreno was the unlikely match-winner for the Villans after Ernest Muci had cancelled out Moussa Diaby’s early opener.
As usual, Emery will now look to rotate for the showdown with Bournemouth, and one player showed against Legia he is worthy of a start.
Leon Bailey caught the eye in his 20 minutes or so on the field at Villa Park after being brought on in place of John McGinn.
The Jamaica international was full of flicks and tricks, turning his opposite number inside out on one occasion to get the Villa fans going.
As per Sofascore, Bailey completed two of his three dribbles (66.67%) – as many as any other player on the field, despite his limited minutes.
What Bailey brings to this Villa side arguably more than any other player is a directness, as reflected in the progressive carries metric.
Across the past 12 months, Bailey ranks in the 98th percentile of all forward across Europe’s top five leagues in that department [FBref].
That is defined as an attack that moves the ball 10 yards or more closer to the opponent’s goal, which we saw a few times against Legia.
It was a cameo appearance that The Athletic’s Jacob Tanswell described as “excellent”, and one Emery was no doubt impressed by.
The closest the 26-year-old went to scoring was with a shot that cannoned back off the crossbar – “outrageous” in the view of Tanswell.
Bailey has gone six games without a goal, but he has assisted twice in that run and has six goal involvements in 11 Premier League games.
In fact, his 1.40 goals and assists per 90 is bettered only by Jacob Ramsey (1.67) and Jhon Duran (2.50) among Villa players [FBref].
The fact Bailey has started just two league games this term says a lot about the quality at Emery’s disposal, but he is surely now in line for another this weekend.
In other Aston Villa news, one player scored a 5/10 rating with his display against Legia Warsaw.