Ollie Watkins has praised Aston Villa teammate Morgan Rogers after another influential performance in our 3-1 win over Fulham.
The 22-year-old has quickly become a fundamental figure for Unai Emery since his arrival in January, as he has scored four goals and provided three assists in 25 appearances across all competitions thus far.
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Beyond those numbers though, what has made his time with us so far even more impressive has been his ability to adapt and become a key cog in our system and style of play.
Aside from his goal this weekend, albeit that came via a fortunate deflection, Rogers consistently found pockets of space between the lines in the final third to not only pose a threat himself by driving at Fulham’s defence, but also in helping us play with rhythm and fluidity to control the game.
Unsurprisingly, that led to praise for him from both Emery and his teammates, with Watkins singling him out as he spoke very highly of both his ability and potential.
“He has got the world at his feet,” Watkins said, as per BirminghamLive. “He always wants to work and has the ability to take people on. I am not going to big him up too much as I don’t want his head getting too big, but he’s got it all.”
That will be great for Rogers to hear from a senior figure in the Villa squad to build his confidence and belief further, but it will also hopefully serve as motivation and a challenge for him to maintain that level and continue to kick on.
After our protracted pursuit of his signature from Middlesbrough at the start of the year, it was clear that Emery and his staff saw something in him that not only suggested he had a big future ahead of him on a personal level, but that he would fit what he wanted to add in that position and role for us specifically.
Rogers continues to go from strength to strength having now established himself as a key starter, and we’ll hopefully see more from him as the season progresses to help us maintain our attacking quality and threat across multiple competitions.