Unai Emery must axe Aston Villa star as woeful stats vs Sunderland emerge
Unai Emery is under massive pressure at Aston Villa after yet another dismal performance.
Villa could only manage a point against Sunderland despite them playing against ten men for an hour at the Stadium of Light.
This came after Reinildo was sent off for kicking out at Matty Cash, after what was an initially poor challenge from the Poland international.
Despite the right-back’s second-half strike, the travelling outfit couldn’t secure three points with Villa attackers like Evann Guessand poor against Sunderland.
With that being said, it is another one of Emery’s forwards who has left a sour taste in the mouths of the claret and blue faithful in the north east.
Morgan Rogers was terrible vs Sunderland
Morgan Rogers may be the PFA Young Player of the Year, but his performances at the moment don’t showcase that sort of talent.
For England, against Serbia, he was superb, so I’ll never understand why Rogers can’t showcase that on a regular basis for Villa again.
The word bone idle comes to mind when assessing his performances at the moment, and that was certainly on show against the Black Cats.
Surprisingly, Rogers was actually subbed off in Sunderland, something which is rarely seen as Emery loves to stand by the 23-year-old.
With that being said, there was a good reason for the Englishman to come off after taking just 44 touches throughout his 82-minute showing.
With that time on the ball, he failed to take a single shot while also failing to complete a single dribble despite his two attempts, maintaining a 0 per cent completion rate once again.
This lack of attacking impetus wasn’t justified by a positive defensive performance, with the Villa man winning just one of his eight attempted ground duels, while giving away possession 16 times.
Unfortunately, now for Rogers, there is very little reason as to why Emery shouldn’t be showing a favourite of his the axe next time around.
Aston Villa favouritism could cost Unai Emery
There is no hiding away from the fact that Rogers has been poor in every single game so far this season, but continues to start every week.
This hasn’t helped to generate results or performances, and at some point, something needs to change, and only Emery can make that happen.
The Englishman’s heat map points towards a player who operated mainly on the left flank, but considering the fact that he wants to play centrally makes this all the more baffling.
He needs to focus on his own area of the pitch, rather than putting in stinking performances where he has little impact elsewhere.
Right now, Jadon Sancho and Harvey Elliott both look much more threatening than him and are more deserving of a starting role.
Bologna are next up for the Villans, and it could prove to be beneficial to afford the attacking midfielder a rest and time to understand that he isn’t guaranteed a start in the hope of improvement.
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