Aston Villa: Tim Iroegbunam repays Unai Emery faith despite what happened v Manchester City
Boubacar Kamara, Aaron Ramsey and John McGinn have left Unai Emery struggling for midfield presences to work alongside Douglas Luiz for Aston Villa.
The former duo have been struggling with injuries for much of the season, while McGinn has been unavailable through suspension due to being handed a red card against Tottenham last month.
Though the Scotland international is likely to return to the Villa starting XI against Brentford on Saturday 6 April, Emery will be extremely pleased with Tim Iroegbunam after his display against Manchester City on Wednesday 3 April.
Despite starting just one Premier League match this season, coming on as a substitute on six occasions, amassing a total of 121 minutes, as per FotMob, the 20-year-old was trusted in one of the most difficult matches of the season.
Emery was quoted by The Athletic (13 March) as saying: “He came back in October. I am working with Tim [Irogbunam] and I believe in him and I want to progress with him in every practice.
“We have to support him to play with the same structure we have when Kamara is not available.”
Though his underlying stats suggest that Iroegbunam was not good enough on the night, the post-match reaction from fans and media told an entirely different story about the youngster.
Statistics only tell part of the story as Tim Iroegbunam impresses in Aston Villa v Manchester City
Against one of the best midfielders in world football, Rodri, Iroegbunam did well to hold his own in the middle of the park, maintaining an 86 per cent pass accuracy over 63 minutes. [FotMob]
However, other than his arrowed passing, the midfielder’s stats would suggest that he was below par against the current Premier League champions.
Iroegbunam only won 33 per cent of his tackles, and just 40 per cent of his ground duels, all while committing one foul as the Villans shipped four goals in a 4-1 loss.
Emery will have learned a lot about his young midfielder, though, and will be far more confident about giving him game time ahead of the end-of-season run-in.
He managed to make four recoveries in the match, which is impressive enough for any player against the likes of Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva and Julian Alvarez.
In other Aston Villa news, a journalist has raged at the “unfair” criticism he’s seen aimed at a Villa star.
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