As his search for a decisive touch continues, patience is needed as Unai Emery continues to try and get the best out of Aston Villa loanee Nicolo Zaniolo.
It would be easy to look at the statistics and be entirely dismissive. 13 appearances, eight of which have been starts, 662 minutes played, and no goals or assists.
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The 24-year-old not only arrived with high expectations given what we’ve seen him produce at Roma and Galatasaray respectively, but having played such a key role for Emery already so far this season, more was rightly expected from the Italian international.
However, as often is the case, the statistics don’t always tell the whole story and lead to a growing sense of criticism that isn’t always fair.
Yes, Zaniolo has been wasteful and is still adapting to our system and style of play to be consistent both with his individual work and as part of the collective.
That said, he continues to find pockets of space, offers a threat in the final third at times, and is a physical and hard-working presence in the side to play his part in the bigger picture of what Emery wants.
Those reasons all combine to justify why he he has continued to feature so heavily since arriving in the summer, and Emery also made an important point after our defeat at Nottingham Forest on Sunday in terms of how he’s using Zaniolo thus far.
“Sometimes his mind, he has to be 100% free to play,” Emery is quoted as saying by the media. “At the moment, we are going with him and using him in one position he can play but not his best position. But he’s helping us. I want to give him minutes to understand his teammate.”
As that understanding and chemistry continues to develop, it would be great to see Zaniolo deployed in his preferred position either behind Ollie Watkins or operating on the right side.
He looked lively and positive when he featured against Burnley off the bench in his debut in that role, and so perhaps we’ll see that against AZ Alkmaar on Thursday night if Emery opts to make changes and tweaks his set-up.
Either way though, with Emiliano Buendía absent, Jacob Ramsey working his way back from his own injury and limited options in terms of who can play on that left side and be a functional and important presence in the Villa XI, Zaniolo isn’t hitting the heights we had hoped for, but he’s still contributing to our form so far this season and will hopefully find that all-important breakthrough in the final third sooner rather than later.
We’ve seen Leon Bailey, Youri Tielemans and even the likes of Ollie Watkins come under scrutiny at times from some quarters, but Emery has always found solutions and got more out of them. Hopefully, we’ll see the same with Zaniolo in the coming weeks.
