Morgan Rogers can be new main man at Aston Villa after giving Ollie Watkins a ‘face like thunder’
Morgan Rogers has been one of the brightest stars in Unai Emery’s Aston Villa squad since arriving in January.
While the 22-year-old has just three goals and one assist in his first 20 appearances for the Villans and is yet to record a goal contribution this season, he is becoming undroppable at Villa Park.
Although Ollie Watkins and Jhon Duran stole the headlines during the 3-2 victory against Everton on Saturday 14 September, Rogers was just as threatening to Jordan Pickford’s goal as anyone else.
Speaking via talkSPORT on Sunday (15 September), Henry Winter said: “He’s tall and powerful, you can almost see him as a winger in Rugby Union, with that pace and strength, as well as a good touch.
“Even though he didn’t have the best game, and overhit that pass to Ollie Watkins, giving him a face like thunder, he’s young and he’ll learn.”
Morgan Rogers becoming key player at Aston Villa
Although he missed a chance to put the ball on a plate for Watkins, overhitting a simple pass across the box to lower his accuracy to 74 per cent, that should not take away from his display at Villa Park [FotMob].
The winger maintained a 100 per cent shot accuracy for the Villans, building up an xG of 0.23, but was unable to get his name on the scoresheet as Emery’s side completed a comeback against the Toffees.
Rogers is not just in the team for his attacking abilities, also entering into 15 total duels, and while he won just 36 per cent of his ground duels and zero per cent of his aerial duels, he was an absolute nuisance in midfield.
There is no doubt that, with his low 65 percentile ranking for non-penalty goals and bottom 18 percentile ranking for assists, he must develop into a more consistent attacker [FBref].
However, his performances have more than warranted the transfer fee paid by Villa in January, and he is only going to improve at the young age of 22.
In other Aston Villa news, Unai Emery has been handed a Champions League boost as one of his stars travelled to Switzerland in a new injury update.
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