One of the bright spots so far this season has been the form of Morgan Rogers and Jacob Ramsey, but the Aston Villa pair still face a critical challenge moving forward.
After an injury-plagued season last year, it has been a huge boost to see Ramsey back playing regularly and getting back to his most promising form, as the 23-year-old has looked increasingly sharp and threatening in the final third as the season has progressed thus far.
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That in turn has finally given us the opportunity to see him play alongside Rogers in our attack, and his Villa teammate has been impressive so far this season too as he’s built on a very promising first six months with us after joining from Middlesbrough in January.
Both have become pivotal figures in Emery’s side and they are a big part of what we do well in terms of playing with rhythm, fluidity and creating openings in the final third to make us a dynamic and dangerous attacking unit for the opposition.
However, in order to take that next step and raise their level even further, they must add a clinical and ruthless edge to their play in front of goal to turn all those positives into consistent, tangible impacts in games.
Rogers, 22, found goalscoring form after a slow start and has two goals and three assists in 12 appearances across all competitions. He’s been an absolute joy to watch in recent months as he continues to showcase incredible physical attributes to stride forward into the opposition half and shrug players off him with ease to lead our attack, and he still has so much more potential and talent to unlock.
That said, Villa are competing at a level now where we have to be clinical if we want to achieve our objectives. Rogers has been guilty of a couple of big misses in the last two Premier League games and his end product isn’t always there, and so that’s a challenge for him, Emery and our coaching staff to improve his decision-making and execution to be more consistent in those situations.
By no means is this meant as a critical piece of him or Ramsey, but it’s clear where they still need to improve and become more impactful as it’s evident that they have the ability to do so given how threatening they’ve looked, and that in turn will help us become even more effective and consistent than we already are and to make further progress.
As for Ramsey, for all the positive play, he has one goal and two assists in 13 appearances so far this season, and when we consider how often he is able to expose space in the final third and create problems for the opposition down that left flank, it has to be said that his end product isn’t as consistent as it needs to be yet.
The schedule has made it tough as we’re playing at the highest level every few days it seems and so that further complicates the task at hand. As brilliantly explosive and entertaining as they have been to watch so far this season though, Emery, and Ramsey and Roger themselves, will be fully aware of the need to be more clinical and consistent in front of goal to reach even higher heights this year, and there is all the confidence in the world that they’ll get it right as the weeks go by.
