Unai Emery gets it wrong as Morgan Rogers starts for Aston Villa v Manchester City
Unai Emery could regret his decision to start Morgan Rogers for Aston Villa against Manchester City after the forward’s performance against Wolves.
Villa face one of the biggest tests of their season as they get set to take on Manchester City at the Etihad on Wednesday (3 April).
Emery’s side will arrive full of confidence after their 2-0 win against Wolves at Villa Park on Saturday (30 March), although they are without leading goalscorer Ollie Watkins.
Pep Guardiola will be looking for a response from his players after they failed to find the back of the net last time out, drawing 0-0 with Arsenal at the Etihad on Sunday (31 March).
City haven’t been beaten at home in England’s top flight this season, and Villa supporters will know that claiming all three points will be a tough task.
And it looks as if that task will be even tougher after Emery decided to name Rogers in his starting lineup, which was confirmed via the club’s official X account (3 April).
Unai Emery could regret his decision to start Morgan Rogers for Aston Villa against Manchester City
Rogers was impressive in certain areas of his game against Wolves.
As per Sofascore, he completed 100 per cent of his dribbles and long balls forward.
However, he only managed to complete 70 per cent of his passes and his defensive contributions left a lot to be desired.
In a game like this, Emery needs players out wide who will be switched on going the other way and against Gary O’Neil’s side, Rogers won just eight of his 12 ground duels and was also dribbled past three times.
Emery will be hoping that Rogers offers much more defensively this time around with every point now crucial in the race for the UEFA Champions League.
In other Aston Villa news, a journalist has raged at “unfair” criticism of Ollie Watkins after what the striker did for England.
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