Having once again made a crucial impact in midweek, Jhon Duran continues to stake his claim for a bigger role from Aston Villa boss Unai Emery.
The 20-year-old bagged his 10th goal of the season as he scored in our win over RB Leipzig, helping us on our way to a crucial 3-2 victory to get us back on track in the Champions League.
READ MORE: Five key talking points as Villa secure win over RB Leipzig in thriller
Those 10 goals have come in just 790 minutes of football across all competitions, while the Colombian international has started just four games, and so his influence off the bench continues to be a fundamental strength of this Villa team.
The ongoing challenge for Duran though is to continue to apply building pressure on both Emery and Ollie Watkins to warrant a starting berth more consistently, and the argument in favour of that is perhaps starting to gather pace.
While Watkins has been excellent so far this season too with seven goals and five assists in 21 outings, he will know that if he doesn’t continue to produce at a high level, he has competition behind him itching to displace him, and so that hopefully brings out the best in both players.
Emery still favours the England international given what he provides us in the final third from a more complete picture, as his goalscoring, creativity, work ethic in and out of possession all make him a great fit for our system and style of play, and we’ve seen that when he gets on a roll in front of goal, it’s hard to stop him.
However, he has been wasteful in recent weeks and has lacked a clinical edge to his play, and with Duran coming on to score a vital goal again in midweek in Leipzig, could Emery be tempted into making a change, particularly with Watkins picking up an injury issue in the first half, which in turned forced him off at the break?
“Sometimes he [Duran] is very impatient and we have to try and keep balanced with him,” the Villa boss told Amazon Prime, as per BBC Sport. “He scored a great goal and he works and we are trying to get the team strong with a tactical approach. His potential is massive. Tactically he is improving and today he played a fantastic 45 minutes.”
That’s a key point from Emery, in that he not only praised Duran’s goalscoring, but he also highlighted that he is improving tactically to become a more efficient and effective cog in his set-up, and that is arguably the bigger test to prove that he’s capable of leading the line for Villa on a more regular basis.
Coupled with the maturity and growth that the Villa man has shown this year after the distractions and antics of the summer, Duran is making it very difficult for the Villa boss to ignore him, and time will tell if that ultimately leads to displacing Watkins in the starting XI in the coming weeks.
“We worked hard as a team, and that is my job to score,” Duran told Amazon Prime in his post-match interview. “The main thing was the win and the three points away from home. I am just happy to be here and love the competition with Ollie Watkins. When it is my turn hopefully I can step up and help the team.
“We’re so happy to be where we are and we are almost through so we are delighted about that. I am definitely not going out to celebrate my birthday because my aim is to score to celebrate on Saturday to celebrate.”
Emery will undoubtedly continue to try and find a way to play them together too, but that has arguably negatively impacted our structure and way of playing as we lose balance and fluidity in our build-up play with one less player in midfield, and so that’s a challenge for him to overcome to keep both men happy.
Nevertheless, it’s a great ‘problem’ to have as we look to compete on multiple fronts, and the goals and overall impact of both Watkins and Duran will be integral to our success moving forward.
