Aston Villa face RB Leipzig in our next pre-season outing on Wednesday night, and Unai Emery will hopefully receive a major fitness boost through the return of Jacob Ramsey.
The 23-year-old endured an injury-plagued season last year, as he was limited to just 21 appearances across all competitions after suffering foot injuries at both the start and end of the campaign.
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Ramsey’s presence in the Villa side was undoubtedly missed, as he showed in the second half of the previous season, following the appointment of Emery, how effective he is capable of being in the Basque coach’s system and style of play.
In the last 12 games of the 2022/23 campaign, Ramsey scored four goals and provided five assists, and so while that momentum was frustratingly broken last season, it’s hoped that he’s now had sufficient time to make a full recovery, reach peak fitness and is ready to return to the fold.
Through our opening three games of pre-season, the Villa midfielder has yet to feature, as it appears as though the medical staff are keen to avoid taking any risks and he’ll only get the green light to return when he is completely ready to do so.
The last thing that anyone concerned wants is to see Ramsey suffer a fresh setback on the eve of the new season, and so it’s the sensible approach to manage him and ensure that he’s gearing towards being at his best in terms of condition and form for our Premier League season opener on August 17.
However, as seen in the image below taken from Villa’s training session this week, it looks as though Ramsey is very much in the thick of things in the group session, and that is hopefully a very positive sign that we could see him get minutes against Leipzig to start building his match fitness back up and regaining some form and confidence.
Coupled with the threat posed by the likes of Morgan Rogers and Leon Bailey, Villa potentially have a very dynamic and dangerous attacking trident behind Ollie Watkins heading into the new season, with Emery getting the best out of those at his disposal and continuing to develop and improve their respective games.
The speed, technical ability, energy, work ethic, movement, creativity and goal threat between that quartet is a mouth-watering prospect if we can keep them all fit and in top form, and so it’s fundamental that Ramsey starts getting minutes to find that rhythm and chemistry with his teammates to ensure he can slot back in and make an immediate impact.
While we’ll face Club America before our USA tour ends, we’ve still got pre-season games against Athletic Bilbao and Borussia Dortmund to come, and so it won’t necessarily be a massive blow if Ramsey doesn’t get on the pitch in New Jersey in midweek. However, he’s hopefully now ready to do so, and we can start to reintegrate him and re-establish that understanding and structure to our play to get the best out of him again as well as everyone around him.
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— Talk Villa (@thetalkvilla) July 30, 2024