As we look ahead to the second half of the season, Aston Villa boss Unai Emery will hope influential attacking duo Leon Bailey and Jacob Ramsey will play pivotal roles in our progress and improvement.
While conceding too many goals has been a major problem for Villa so far in this campaign, as evidenced by the fact that we have the worst defensive record of the top 11 sides in the Premier League table, we’ve also been heavily reliant on certain individuals for goals at the other end.
READ MORE: Why familiar, settled Villa unit could be fundamental to fixing glaring issue
Part of what made us so exciting and dangerous going forward last season was that we had multiple decisive players in the final third making a direct contribution, be it adding a specific attacking dynamic in their role or producing consistently in front of goal.
We’ve seen that diminish so far this season, as Ollie Watkins, Jhon Duran and Morgan Rogers have contributed 26 goals and 10 assists between them, and while the likes of John McGinn and Amadou Onana have chipped in at times, we aren’t perhaps as unpredictable and dynamic as we have been previously.
In turn, it was an important boost to not only see Ramsey return from his latest injury setback to get minutes against Brighton earlier this week, but Bailey looked confident and played with positive intent as he tried to make something happen, and although his end product was missing, they were still encouraging signs compared to how we’ve seen him really struggle through the early of the year to get anything going.
The Villa winger has yet to score this season as he’s been limited to contributing three assists in 22 appearances, while Ramsey has bagged one goal and two assists in 16 outings.
As is the case for Rogers and others, their challenge will ultimately be to put up better numbers and be more consistent in the final third, and if they’re able to do that, we’ll hopefully see a much more ruthless and clinical Villa put teams away and dismiss the threat of letting games slip like we did on Monday night.
Beyond the figures though, both Ramsey and Bailey are so important to us with what they bring to add balance and structure to the team. The duo are both prepared to put the hard work in defensively off the ball to make it harder for teams to play through us, but it’s their ability to pick up clever positions on the pitch to find space and time to attack that make them key cogs in Emery’s preferred way of playing.
That adds a rhythm and fluidity to our play to link things together, control tempo and dissect an opposition’s defensive shape, and when you sprinkle in their pace and ability to run with speed with the ball at their feet, it’s a nightmare for defenders to deal with when they add width and stretch the pitch.
Both players still need to get back up to speed and full fitness, while a consistent run of games will help them rediscover a sharpness that has been missing from their play. It’s hoped that they’re able to stay healthy and avoid any further injury setbacks as a priority, and hopefully we’ll see them both making their mark in the second half of the season to help us improve on what we’ve put on the board thus far.
