Aston Villa: Gary Lineker blown away by ‘terrific’ Douglas Luiz v Nottingham Forest
Aston Villa boosted their chances of finishing in the Champions League places this season with an excellent win over Nuno Espirito Santo’s Nottingham Forest.
Unai Emery’s side claimed all three points and ended a poor run at Villa Park with a 4-2 win on Saturday (24 February) to move five points clear of fifth-placed Tottenham and eight ahead of Manchester United.
While Ollie Watkins and Leon Bailey once again impressed going forward, Douglas Luiz stole the show and earned plenty of praise from Gary Lineker for his “terrific” display.
Speaking on The Rest Is Football (26 February, 37:15) he said: “Douglas Luiz is a good player as well. Douglas Luiz, Watkins and Bailey, they were terrific again and they’ve been very consistent this season.”
The Brazilian has been in superb form throughout the season so far, but his performance against Forest on Saturday was close to perfect as the 25-year-old ran the show from the middle of the park.
Luiz’s two goals stole the show in a performance that would have made most Premier League strikers proud. The midfielder’s two strikes came from only three shots and an xG of 0.55, showing the clinical edge that he has added to his game, according to Fotmob.
Away from his goalscoring exploits, Luiz controlled the tempo of the match in possession completing 97 per cent of his 61 attempted passes, five of which managed to find a teammate in claret and blue in the final third.
Out of possession, Luiz hasn’t been afraid to get stuck in to help Villa win the ball back. While he wasn’t the most successful on Saturday, winning only 46 per cent of his 13 ground duels, no other player in Emery’s side entered more duels.
The Brazilian repeatedly managed to break up play with his defensive interventions, but perhaps more impressively, the 25-year-old won four fouls without committing a single one himself in an incredibly impressive display.
Can Aston Villa avoid a Douglas Luiz transfer this summer?
A lot has been made of Villa’s reliance on Watkins for goals this season, but the worry can almost be extended to Luiz as well as the Brazilian has arguably been just as important in the final third as any other player
The 25-year-old places in the 85th percentile of Premier League midfielders this season for non-penalty goals per 90 minutes, averaging 0.21 a game, according to Fbref. That means he’ll score once every five games, a more than reasonable record for a deep-lying player.
Luiz also has a higher xG per game than 90 per cent of his positional peers and his consistency in front of goal has meant that Emery and Villa haven’t had to stress about finding a new number nine in the January window.
Creatively, Luiz has also been a force, averaging 3.77 shot-creating actions a match, a figure that places him in the 84th percentile of Premier League midfielders this term.
He has truly become one of the Premier League’s best players this season and while that is brilliant for Aston Villa, they may face a battle to ward off interest during the summer transfer window, despite a lack of movement in January.
In other Aston Villa news, Alan Hutton believes Villa could be set to make a statement signing with Denzel Dumfries
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