With the right-back position often a talking point for Aston Villa fans, Matty Cash will hope that he showed enough last season to hold onto his starting role.
The 27-year-old was a key figure for Unai Emery once again in the previous campaign, making 38 appearances across all competitions while contributing one goal and two assists to go with his defensive work.
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That now takes him to 180 games in total in a Villa shirt since he joined us in 2020, but once again his injury issues disrupted his season while questionable moments and his limitations have raised doubts over his ability to remain our long-term solution at right-back.
In his defence, there is a greater sense of balance in our backline when he features, as he’s playing in his natural role to give us something in both phases of the game, while it allows Ezri Konsa to play in his preferred and more effective role as our right-sided centre-half.
Whether it was Lamare Bogarde or Axel Disasi trying to fill in on the right side of our back-four when Cash was sidelined, our right flank looked increasingly limited from an attacking perspective, while the French loanee in particular was caught out in big moments in big games towards the latter stages of the season which proved to be costly against Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City.
Further, Cash brings energy, tenacity and technical ability to the position, and so it’s clear as to why Emery continues to show so much faith in him by continuing to play him so regularly.
That said, it seemingly hasn’t been enough to put a stop to speculation that Villa are in the market for a right-back this summer, as reported by The Athletic, and that’s despite bringing in Kosta Nedeljkovic and Andres Garcia over the past 12 months.
In turn, it remains a problematic position despite those two young talents making positive impressions and arguably deserving of bigger opportunities, and question marks persist over whether or not Cash is the long-term answer.
His habit of pushing forward only to cut back and play a safe backward or horizontal pass has drawn groans from the Villa Park faithful on plenty of occasions, but that could be a clear directive from Emery in how he wants Cash, and the team as a whole, to approach our build-up play and retain possession.
His dreadful attempt at a pass back to Emiliano Martinez on the final day of the season at Old Trafford which resulted in the Argentine shot-stopper being sent off, for a silly decision on his part too mind, was another example of his questionable decision-making at times and execution of our gameplan.
Villa have been so effective at cutting through teams with sharp and incisive passes through the middle, but as opposing sides have taken measures to counter that, we are forced to push the ball wide, and our full-backs become fundamental in our alternative approach to breaking sides down.
Cash’s ability to build play hasn’t always been efficient enough, and further, three goal contributions is not a great return when Emery places so much emphasis on his full-backs pushing forward and adding an important attacking dynamic to our play, while Villa are so often caught out down our right side with a switch of play or direct running and being outnumbered on that flank.
He does offer a lot of positives and strengths, both defensively and offensively, but evidently, it’s still not enough to entirely convince if Villa are said to still be in the market for a player in his position.
Time will tell if we swoop for a replacement this summer and subsequently what that means for the Polish international as well as Garcia and Nedeljkovic, but the right-back role remains a conundrum for Emery, and it’s hoped that we’re able to add more solidity and attacking dynamism in that area of the pitch ahead of next season to balance what Ian Maatsen will give us on the opposite side.
Has Cash convinced enough to remain our starting right-back? Or should Villa be in the market for a replacement?
