Jhon Duran must repay Unai Emery faith after bold Aston Villa January decision
Aston Villa supporters could be forgiven for failing to notice that the January transfer window was underway, as currently it has been a very quiet month at Villa Park.
With just over a week to go, there has been very little movement in or out, with the only addition close to being made the signing of Kosta Nedeljković with Fabrizio Romano (21 January) reporting that a deal is nearly complete to sign the right back.
However, one player has seen his name linked with the exit door more than most in Unai Emery’s side, with Jhon Duran the subject of plenty of interest from within the Premier League this January.
Reports emerged that West Ham United had approached Aston Villa to secure the Colombian forward’s services on loan for the remainder of the season, but their bid was rejected as Emery views him as a crucial member of his squad [talkSPORT, 21 January].
Duran has been Ollie Watkins’ backup so far this season, but the striker must now repay the faith placed in him by his manager and improve quickly after a number of indifferent recent performances.
When the 20-year-old was introduced from the bench against Everton last time out, Duran managed to only hit the target with 25 per cent of his four shots on goal, with his one good strike doing very little to test Jordan Pickford between the posts [Fotmob].
Despite only having 10 touches of the ball, five of which came in the Toffees’ box, the Colombian forward was dispossessed twice and failed to find a teammate with his one attempted cross in the match.
Out of possession, Duran was bullied by Sean Dyche’s backline, winning only one of his four attempted duels in the match as both James Tarkowski and Jarrad Branthwaite marshalled him well to stop him from getting in behind the defence.
When Emery opted to start the 20-year-old against Middlesbrough in the FA Cup, his display wasn’t much better with Micah Richards voicing his frustration with the Villa forward for his “slow” display [BBC One, 6 January].
Duran was wasteful again at the Riverside, failing to place any of his three attempts on goal on target. The young forward lacks that clinical edge that would make him a reliable force for Villa at the top end of the pitch.
When comparing the Colombian to other strikers in the Europa Conference League this season (where he has played the most minutes) it is apparent that he has more shots on target a game than 93 per cent of his peers [Fbref].
However, Duran has scored fewer goals per game than 71 per cent of strikers in the competition, suggesting he doesn’t tend to take the chances that come his way often enough, as demonstrated by his low average of 0.34 xG per 90 minutes.
Now that Emery has made the bold call to keep Duran at Villa Park for the remainder of the season, rather than sign a new centre-forward, the 20-year-old needs to repay that faith and start hitting the heights most expected of him this season.
Otherwise, Emery may well have changed his mind come the end of the season and with potential Champions League football on the horizon, he’ll need strikers who can put the ball in the back of the net.
In other Aston Villa news, AC Milan have made contact over the potential signing of Clement Lenglet this month
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