Nicolo Zaniolo now surely out of the picture after Unai Emery snub in Aston Villa v Manchester City
Nicolo Zaniolo must surely be out of the picture for Aston Villa now after he was snubbed by Unai Emery against Manchester City on Wednesday (6 December).
The Italian international was forced to sit and watch the entire game from the bench, having been dropped from the starting line-up following his performance in the 2-2 draw with Bournemouth on Sunday (3 December).
It was clearly evident that Villa performed better in the 1-0 victory over the Citizens without the 24-year-old as he was replaced by defensive midfielder Boubacar Kamara, with Leon Bailey moving into a more attacking role behind forward Ollie Watkins.
It hasn’t been the best start to life at Villa Park for Zaniolo after he arrived for his season-long loan from Galatasaray with a fairly big reputation.
The attacking midfielder has been known for his creativity and eye for goal in the final third, having scored five goals in his 12 games for the Turkish club.
But that hasn’t proven to be the case so far with the Villans for him, though, after failing to score a single goal or record an assist in his 16 appearances.
It’s no surprise that Emery didn’t fancy Zaniolo against Man City after hauling him off at half-time in the draw against Bournemouth – something he has done on several occasions already this season.
He was replaced by the returning Jacob Ramsey, who looks to have potentially moved ahead of him after he came off the bench at Villa Park against the Citizens.
After Bailey had previously been jostling with the Italian for a spot in the starting lineup, he now also appears to have stolen a clear march on him following his recent performances.
The Jamaican international scored the winning goal on Wednesday to go alongside his strike against Bournemouth, taking him up to eight goals and six assists in his 21 appearances this season.
They are numbers Zaniolo simply can’t contend with. He has averaged 1.8 shots per game, with only 0.4 of them being on target for a zero per cent conversation rate, having also missed two big chances [SofaScore].
The attacker has averaged just 25.6 touches, a pretty poor pass success rate of 72 per cent and hasn’t created any big chances for his teammates.
He also hasn’t been much help defensively after making just 0.1 interceptions, 0.6 tackles, 0.6 clearances and won 32 per cent of his duels, while he’s lost possession 9.9 times per outing.
Those figures just simply aren’t good enough to get into a Villa side that are absolutely flying in the Premier League, having moved up to third in the table following their latest success.
While it is still early days for him in what is the toughest league to play in, Zaniolo is going to have to up his game when his next chance comes along because there is plenty of competition for places and he can’t afford to get left behind.
In other Aston Villa news, a broadcaster has shared a “scary” admission after what Richard Keys said.