Anthony Onifade

Thu 28 December 2023 17:10, UK

Douglas Luiz will be seeking a path of redemption when Aston Villa play host to Burnley on Saturday (30 December) after an uncharacteristic stinker against Manchester United this week.

Aston Villa missed the chance to go level on points with Liverpool at the Premier League summit as they let a two-goal lead slip to lose 3-2 to Manchester United at Old Trafford on Tuesday (26 December).

Rasmus Hojlund scored his first Premier League goal for Manchester United after playing 1027 minutes in the competition to complete a dramatic comeback.

Aston Villa raced into a two-goal lead in the first half after goals from McGinn and Leander Dendoncker but completely imploded after half-time with two goals from Alejandro Garnacho and Hojlund compounded Villa to their first league defeat since the start of November at Nottingham Forest.

The result means the Villans missed the chance to go level on points with Liverpool after their 2-0 win over Burnley earlier in the evening, now sitting three points behind Jurgen Klopp’s men in third.

Villa’s first defeat in the league for over a month can certainly be put down to several factors, not least the risky high-line which Manchester United ruthlessly exposed, the lack of urgency in the visitor’s pressing but more crucially Emery’s key stars failing to grab the initiative as has regularly been the case all season long.

Big-name stars like Ollie Watkins, Ezri Konsa, Leon Bailey, and Emi Martinez all went into hiding as the Red Devils delivered a second-half onslaught at Old Trafford, but no one would have expected Brazilian maestro Luiz to falter like he did.

The former Manchester City star has proven one of the club’s biggest successes all season long simply because of his consistent and influential performances at the heart of the Aston Villa midfield.

Luiz, who could well be an attraction for any of the so-called “top six” has been in scintillating form this season, having scored six goals and laid on four assists in 23 appearances [Transfermarkt] to help his side up to third in the Premier League table at the time of writing and into the Europa Conference League knockout stages.

The Brazilian has started in all 19 of the Villans’ Premier League games this season as they remarkably sit just two points off league leaders Liverpool.

He is also clearly looking to be more involved offensively during this campaign after registering 1.5 shots per game compared to the 0.9 he averaged last year, with his goal conversion rate rising from 18 per cent to 25 per cent [SofaScore].

The former Manchester City man has averaged a SofaScore rating of 7.52 in the opening few months of the season – the best average rating of any Villa player, having taken 75.8 touches per outing as he looks to get on the ball and make things happen.

He has made 1.2 key passes, laid on three big chances created and recorded a pass success rate of 89 per cent, while his impressive 93 per cent total from balls played in his half shows that he doesn’t give too much away in potentially dangerous areas.

Considering he’s deployed deep in midfield for Emery, he still contributes heavily to the attack, ranking in the 90th percentile of midfielders in Europe’s top five leagues for goal-creating actions and the 81st percentile for shot-creating actions [FBRef] marking him out as one of the most complete all-rounders in his position.

However, none of those characteristics were on show against Manchester United as Luiz was given the runaround by Bruno Fernandes and co.

Whether that is down to Boubacar Kamara’s suspension absence is unlikely because his partner on the night, Leander Dendoncker excelled with a tremendous individual showing, winning 83 per cent of his ground duels, 66 per cent of his aerial duels, completing 75 per cent of his long balls, 89 per cent of his passes and also scoring his first Aston Villa goal.

It was a totally different story for Luiz who was nowhere to be seen at all in midfield, picking up the worst average SofaScore rating of any player on the pitch at 6.3/10, completing just 78 per cent of his passes, registering a 0% success rate in both his ground duels and aerial duels and completing just 33 per cent on his long balls and crosses.

In all fairness, it was an absolute shocker from the Brazilian – a hugely unexpected one from a player who has shown up when needed all season, especially in games against Arsenal and Manchester City in recent weeks.

With a huge chance for Villa to bounce back against Burnley awaiting on Saturday, no player will be wanting to put things right more than Luiz after letting his loyal supporters down this past week.

Vincent Kompany’s side may be on the end of an individual hiding as a result.

In other Aston Villa news, a star player has justified his British record price tag already this season.