Momentum building for Villa man at critical point after important impact

After back-to-back positive impacts off the bench, Aston Villa playmaker Emiliano Buendia is starting to build some much-needed momentum this season.

It’s a crucial period for the 28-year-old, as although he’s now successfully recovered from the serious injury that prevented him from featuring in the last campaign, he’s essentially in a battle to secure his Villa future between now and May.

READ MORE: Villa ace hails decisive Emery influence as key behind win over West Ham

The Argentine ace has 18 months remaining on his current contract, and so the club will likely need to make a decision on his future this summer as to whether or not there is a desire on our side at least to initiate talks over a new deal to extend his stay with us.

With just 10 goals and nine assists in 94 appearances for the club since he joined us July 2021, some will feel as though Buendia’s battle has already been lost, with Villa in need of moving on and upgrading the squad in that position to help us become increasingly competitive.

There is strength in that argument, and Emery, Monchi and our scouting department may already feel as though that change is coming in the summer.

However, Buendia has an opportunity between now and the end of the season to establish himself in those plans, and although it’s not done enough yet, he has made two positive back-to-back impressions off the bench in our last two outings against Leicester City and West Ham respectively.

In 18 minutes against the latter in our FA Cup tie on Friday night, Buendia had 11 touches, one shot on target, won two of three duels and covered significant ground to give us a boost in energy and intensity in both phases of the game.

The same could be said of Jacob Ramsey and Kosta Nedeljkovic, as all four of our substitutes made a positive impact with Amadou Onana getting on the scoresheet, and Buendia is gradually joining them in pushing for a more prominent role in the Villa line-up.

Our winning goal encompassed the way Emery wants us to play, as there was slick, fast movement of the ball through the lines, with three key passes to get from our defensive third to scoring the goal.

Youri Tielemans, Ollie Watkins and goalscorer Morgan Rogers all deserve credit for the pivotal parts they played in that, but Buendia was the link between them as he found a pocket of space between the lines to pick up possession, add speed and fluidity to our attack to set Watkins through, who was then the provider for the goal.

It’s perhaps a little detail and small aspect of the bigger picture, but it’s what we need from Buendia if he is going to an effective part of our squad, not only in the coming months, but potentially beyond that.

Villa have a packed fixture list in January, and so there will likely be more opportunities for him and the others mentioned above. It’s hoped that Buendia can keep making an impact, gradually increase his minutes and start to make a more decisive contribution to really make his case to be part of the long-term vision.