Since arriving this past summer, Amadou Onana has established himself as a key figure in the Aston Villa midfield, but our recent recruit is still striving to find consistency.
The 23-year-old has become an important influence in our deeper midfield pivot alongside his compatriot Youri Tielemans, with the Belgian duo combining brilliantly to control games both in and out of possession effectively by complementing each other’s qualities.
READ MORE: Influential Villa pair face key challenge as improvement still needed in crucial area
There is a balance in the Villa midfield that is giving us the ability to dictate tempo and dominate in both phases, but for the third time already this season, Onana was replaced at half-time in our 1-1 draw with Bournemouth this weekend.
Prior to that, he was taken off at the interval against Everton and Bologna, and while there were mitigating factors involved too, namely injury concerns, there is also a tactical aspect of the decision from Unai Emery to take him off so early in games.
“Tactical decision but as well he had some pain,” Emery said in midweek on Onana. “I decided tactically and also not take a risk with him.”
As noted above, the Villa boss has made that observation in games that it isn’t quite as he wants it just yet, and so there is still work to be done as we surely can’t continue to use up a substitute slot at half-time in games so often, even though the circumstances and context of the game might warrant it and it ultimately gives us the best chance of winning.
It comes at a poignant time too given Boubacar Kamara is now stepping up his workload on his return from a long injury layoff, and so Villa’s competition and strength in depth will put more pressure on those currently in the line-up to keep their respective places, and that will be no different for Onana regardless of the big price-tag that he arrived with in the summer.
The partnership of Kamara and Tielemans promises to be equally as effective and influential in our play, and despite our impressive progress and development without the Frenchman since February, there is no denying that we’ve missed his presence and he will undoubtedly improve us further now that he’s back given how he’s such an effective fit in Emery’s structure and system.
For Onana though, whether it’s staying fit and avoiding niggles or early yellow cards that go on to ultimately hinder his performance, even if only self-consciously as we saw on Saturday, it’s a challenge that he must embrace now after making a really positive start to his time at Villa.
Things get glossed over when we’re winning, but Emery has been consistent in his message that we must always strive to improve and demand more from ourselves to reach higher heights, and that’s true for the collective, but also on an individual basis as Onana continues to adapt and expand his game to suit what the Villa boss wants from him.
“The gap is at the beginning big, bigger than we analysed,” he said on Onana last month, as per Sky Sports. “But we are confident to increase his level in this gap to get to the level where we can think of him as a very good player in the future. He is [already] a very good player but we think he can improve and get to a high level as a player and help us a lot in this way.”
That process is ongoing and will play out as the season progresses, and so while it’s been an excellent start for Onana that has been filled with positive aspects that he can build on, he will have to continue to challenge himself and meet that standard being demanded from him.
