Despite his advancing years, Aston Villa veteran Ashley Young is continuing to play a pivotal role for us as we target European qualification this season.
Young, 37, has made 25 appearances across all competitions so far this season, but he has really been put to the test over the past week having started three games in the space of seven days.
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Villa won all three outings and kept two clean sheets while conceding just one goal, and when needed to fill in and do a professional job for us at the back, the versatile and experienced stalwart has delivered again.
Given his form over the past month or so, losing Matty Cash to injury was a significant blow for Villa and Unai Emery, as the 25-year-old was starting to show clear signs of improvement in his adaptation to the tactical demands from the Spaniard.
The expectation was always that Young would do a stellar job in deputising for him to fill that void with minimal disruption to the backline, but there was still a question mark and concern over whether or not he could manage the hectic schedule and continue to be a solid presence on that right side.
While there was a wobble away at Leicester City last week as he was caught out by Harvey Barnes for their goal, Young recovered well from that in the second half of that encounter and was solid again in our win over Nottingham Forest.
Defensively, he has been disciplined and resilient to play a key role in maintaining our improvement in that phase of the game. With less of an emphasis on him to push forward and provide an attacking threat, he sits in and shifts across with Alex Moreno marauding forward on the opposite flank, and so that tactical awareness and intelligence has been vital.
That said, Young has shown a desire and commitment to get forward and provide width when possible too, and so it has been an all-round superb contribution from the veteran, who has been an important presence both on and off the pitch for us given his experience, know-how and leadership.
Young has won 91 duels in his 25 outings, won 63% of his tackles, made 53 clearances and 20 interceptions along with nine blocks. With a 77% passing completion rate, he has also been important in our ongoing process of playing out from the back and building our attacks in a more composed and measured fashion.
It’s expected that Cash will return in around 10 days time, and so Young is likely to get the nod again for our encounter with Newcastle Utd this weekend. However, with a week of rest in the bank now, he’ll hopefully feel refreshed and ready to go again, as while Cash had to work to get his place back in the side in February, he may find himself in a similar scenario when he’s back from injury this time round too.
