Credit: Imago

James Barker

Fri 24 April 2026 15:40, UK

Aston Villa shouldn’t be getting beaten by Fulham’s forward line on Saturday, and in particular Rodrigo Muniz.

Unai Emery is preparing to lead his Aston Villa side into a hectic final few weeks of the 2025-26 season on multiple fronts.

Starting with a trip to Craven Cottage to take on Fulham on Saturday afternoon, games then start to come thick and fast for Villa.

A two-legged Europa League semi-final against Nottingham Forest sees a big home game with Tottenham sandwiched between, all to take place between now and 7 May.

Emery and his players will just be taking things one game at a time though, and with Fulham next up for Villa, they will find a Cottagers attack whose cutting edge looks far from sharp at the moment.

How poor has Rodrigo Muniz been for Fulham in front of goal?

Aston Villa have some defensive concerns at the moment, with their latest victory over Sunderland still seeing them ship three goals to the Black Cats.

Indeed, they’ve kept just one clean sheet from their last seven Premier League games, and so teams with a potent attack force would be licking their lips at the prospect of going up against Villa’s backline at the moment.

However, Fulham certainly don’t have one of those right now, with just 16 shots on target over their last five Premier League games, working out at an average of just 3.2 per match over that period.

One of the big reasons behind the Cottagers’ poor form in front of goal recently is down to a lack of quality centre-forward play, and that largely falls on the shoulders of Muniz.

As per Sofascore, the 24-year-old Brazilian failed to register a single shot on goal in 67 minutes against Brentford last time out, as well as having three attempts against Liverpool with none on target either.

He again failed to put a single shot on target in 82 minutes against Burnley, zero on target in a 28-minute cameo off the bench against Forest and the same again from a 30-minute stint off the bench against West Ham respectively.

Muniz’s last shot on target in the Premier League came against Tottenham on 1 March, which for a player who has hit double-figure goal returns in his last two seasons at Craven Cottage, is hugely disappointing.

Muniz shouldn’t be a handful for Aston Villa defenders

The issues for Muniz don’t stop there this season either, as he’s been significantly underperforming in numerous other underlying departments too.

Per Sofascore once again, he’s registered a goal conversion of just four per cent in the top flight this term, with five big chances missed with just 15.1 touches per game.

Muniz has also created only one big chance, has a passing accuracy of 44 per cent, makes 0.3 tackles per game and wins possession in the final third just 0.3 times per match as well.

On top of all of that, he has a dribble success rate of 36 per cent, a ground duel win rate of 39 per cent and an aerial duel win rate of 49 per cent respectively.

So, there in lies the fact that Aston Villa’s defenders, and their centre-backs in particular, have absolutely no excuse to let Muniz get the better of them on Saturday.

If they do, serious questions will need to be asked of whoever it is Emery has put out their at Craven Cottage.