It’s been nine games across all competitions since Aston Villa scored more than one goal in a game, that last came in a 3-2 win over RB Salzburg in the Europa League on January 29.
Four days prior to that, it could be argued that we saw our last impressive performance as we secured a 2-0 win away at Newcastle United in the Premier League.
That would be the last game Youri Tielemans would feature in before he spent an extended period of time on the sidelines due to injury, and as we patiently wait for the Belgian international’s return after the upcoming international break, his influence and quality has been sorely missed over the past two months.
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Tielemans has the composure, technical quality, positional awareness and intelligence to make us tick. He has grown into a fundamental role under Unai Emery, making him indispensable in our system and to the way we want to play.
Take our midfield metronome out of the equation, and we’ve looked a shadow of the team that was reaching heady heights in January, while the blows of losing Boubacar Kamara and John McGinn certainly didn’t help our cause either.
Villa’s lack of creativity, quality and ideas in the final third has been a painful watch for weeks now, and our sloppiness, lack of a clinical edge and wastefulness in attack has also directly contributed to our problems at the other end of the pitch, just as we saw at Old Trafford this past weekend.
Tielemans can only solve so much, and while we wait for him to return, the question has to be asked as to whether or not the 28-year-old will be the answer to all of our concerns?
Yes, he’ll add rhythm, tempo and quality to our play in deeper areas to play through the lines, pick out teammates in good positions, create for others and emerge as a goal threat himself.
However, he can’t provide the quality in midfield and then be the solution in front of goal too, and so Emery has to find a way to get more out of his attacking options in conjunction with the boost of being able to lean on Tielemans to run the show further back.
Morgan Rogers will no doubt benefit as Tielemans not only sees passes that others don’t, but he can also execute that vision with his class on the ball, and that should result in releasing Rogers in space further up the pitch where he does most of his damage.
Whether it’s Rogers, Ollie Watkins, Tammy Abraham, Leon Bailey, Alysson, Emiliano Buendia, Jadon Sancho or others though, Villa’s current struggles and malaise in attack won’t simply magically dissipate once Tielemans is back, but it’s certainly hoped that the lift his comeback brings along with renewed confidence and belief will inspire us to rediscover our previous levels of performance on a consistent basis.
What his time on the sidelines has done though is reiterate just how fundamentally important he is for us, and has identified a flaw in the current squad that may well need to be addressed in the summer so that we can cope with his absence more effectively moving forward.
