(Credit: Imago)

Jacob Raw

Sat 21 March 2026 14:10, UK

Ian Maatsen has had plenty of chances to impress for Aston Villa, but Unai Emery surely has no choice but to bench him against West Ham on Sunday.

The Villans had high hopes for Maatsen when he arrived from Chelsea in 2024, yet so far his career at Villa Park has been nothing but stop-start.

He’s been in a constant battle with Lucas Digne for a starting spot at left-back, and Villa’s inclusion in European competitions has helped Emery share gametime between the pair in the last two seasons.

Maatsen started in the 2-0 win over Lille midweek and was arguably one of the worst players on the field.

Now, Emery will have a decision to make against West Ham over who he starts, as the statistics prove it shouldn’t be a hard choice.

Maatsen’s stats vs Lille show what’s been happening all season at Aston Villa

Maatsen cost Villa around £37.5million from Chelsea, but it feels like the Villans would be lucky to get half of that back if they were to sell the Dutchman.

The left-sided defender has featured plenty in the Premier League this season, and has actually made three more league starts than he did last campaign.

Maatsen is selected for his attacking qualities, which he offers, as his defensive ability is vastly less than Digne’s.

However, a 22 per cent cross percentage shows how little he’s offered Emery’s side this season, with an assist return of zero.

He also averages a 6.63 rating in the league, and has only helped the Villans keep two clean sheets, and his 0.5 interceptions per game ratio show the 24-year-old’s poor footballing IQ.

Not only that, Maatsen is coming off the back of a horrible display against Lille, as he picked up a 6.2 rating, which was worse than any other player on the pitch for both teams.

He was dribbled past the same number of times that he made actual defensive contributions, twice.

Do Aston Villa have transfer replacement for Maatsen?

The easy decision for Emery to make would be to start Digne against West Ham, but that may not be the case, we’ll have to see on matchday.

However, with the French defender ageing and Maatsen showing no real improvement, Villa may need a whole new left-back this summer.

Villa have been loosely linked with multiple new defenders ahead of what will be an important summer transfer window, but not to any left-backs yet.

That doesn’t mean that Roberto Olabe won’t target a new left-sided defender; he could just be keeping his cards close to his chest.