Throughout Unai Emery’s tenure at Aston Villa thus far, we’ve seen a number of players require time to adjust and adapt to his demands, but eventually, they thrive under the Basque coach.
Whether it’s Youri Tielemans and Morgan Rogers this season, or Ollie Watkins, Leon Bailey and many others last year, there haven’t been too many individuals who haven’t improved their level and become better players under the Villa boss and his coaching staff.
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While injury issues derailed Amadou Onana after a positive start to his time with us, it was a slower burn for Ian Maatsen, who couldn’t displace Lucas Digne at left-back and ultimately had to settle for a limited role throughout most of the campaign.
However, they’ve still featured heavily as we’ve competed across multiple fronts, Onana has made 33 appearances while Maatsen has racked up 44, and that time on the pitch coupled with their work at the training ground is undoubtedly showing dividends now as the Villa pair are enjoying a strong finish to the current campaign.
After Tielemans suffered an injury setback, Emery needed Onana to step in and step up in his compatriot’s absence, and he has.
With Villa requiring more attacking quality in must-win games as we look to get on the front-foot and play with more energy and intensity, Maatsen has ticked all the boxes and has shown real improvement in his defensive work, something that was previously cited as a weak area of his game which allowed Digne to hold on to being first-choice at left-back.
Another pre-season with the squad will no doubt help significantly, but both Onana and Maatsen are setting an important foundation with their respective form to end this season ahead of more prominent roles next year.
Digne will have 12 months remaining on his contract and so there are doubts over his future, and time will tell how PSR will influence our transfer dealings this summer and perhaps force us into an unwanted sale in midfield to open up a clearer path for Onana to establish himself.
The sense is though that they will both be crucial to Emery regardless of those factors, and the Villa boss will be delighted with the progression and adaptation that he’s seen from the duo in recent weeks to prove that they can be consistently influential in our system and preferred style of play.
Emery deserves credit for that too as he’s ultimately struck again with his man-management skills and qualities to develop players and get the best out of them. Onana in particular has spoken glowingly of the impact he’s had on him both on and off the pitch, and it shouldn’t really come as a surprise that we’re seeing them improve given his track record since he was appointed.
It remains to be seen who else follows a similar path in the future, but both Onana and Maatsen have come along impressively in the second half of this season, and we’re certainly going to see a lot more of them moving forward.