Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has praised Amadou Onana after the midfielder made a positive first impression during our pre-season tour in the USA.
The 22-year-old arrived in a deal worth around £50m last month, as per BBC Sport, and following his extended break after his participation at EURO 2024, he joined up with his new teammates in the US to start his adaptation and integration process.
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Based on his first few outings in a Villa shirt, the early signs are certainly promising, as Onana adds physicality, steeliness and technical ability to our midfield, and goes some way to helping to fill the void left behind by Douglas Luiz.
While it remains to be seen if Villa opt to bring in further reinforcements to compliment the Belgian international and our current options by adding more creativity and flair to that department, Emery is pleased with what he’s seen from Onana so far, as he praised his new midfield ace following the conclusion of our tour Stateside.
“He’s a player who’s demanding of himself, he’s always trying to understand quickly everything we are doing, in every training session, in every meeting we have with him, collectively or individually,” he told the media at his post-match press conference after our encounter with Club America. “He’s 22 years old, his potential is very interesting for us and it’s our and his challenge. We want to add his quality and his potential, trying to do progressively stronger in our structure and tactically with his skills and characteristics of playing.”
With Luiz’s departure, Villa lose creativity and an orchestrator in midfield, a fundamental role that helps an Emery side tick, have rhythm and cohesion, dictate tempo and maintain possession and control.
It’s a key cog in what makes the Basque coach’s system and structure work, and so naturally, the Brazilian’s exit raised concern over the expected impact it would have on us.
However, what we’ve seen this summer is an almost evolution of what Emery wants from his team and how it’s constructed to make it as effective as possible.
If we look at our new recruits, they almost all add physicality, agility, athleticism, height, presence and technical ability to offer composure and accuracy in possession.
Analysing Onana in isolation though, he gives us bite in midfield, a tenacious, imposing figure who can disrupt the opposition while simultaneously building our play up the pitch and releasing our attacking and creative players into space to make their mark on games.
Emery has continued to mould and evolve this squad into his own this summer, to be able to execute his game-plan more effectively and consistently, and to put his vision and preferred style of play into action.
There have been teething problems and disappointment through pre-season thus far, but given how he’s transformed us already since he was appointed and what we’ve achieved under his stewardship to date, there is complete faith and trust in his ability to guide us to the next level.
Changes to personnel and identity would have been made with meticulous and in-depth analysis and assessment from Emery, Monchi and the entire staff behind them, and if they believe that the individuals brought in this summer help us develop and evolve into a more competitive side, that’s good enough for me at this stage of the year.
It will have to be proven all over again on the pitch starting in two weeks time though, but with Onana as the heartbeat of this new-look Villa team as we look to continue to progress and grow, it will hopefully make us a more imposing side and one that is capable of dominating games on a more consistent basis both domestically and in Europe.
He only passes sideways!