Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has confirmed that Enzo Barrenechea will be in our squad to face Arsenal this weekend, and went on to praise the talented midfielder.
The 23-year-old arrived from Juventus earlier this summer as part of our transfer dealings with the Turin giants that saw Douglas Luiz move in the opposite direction.
READ MORE: Why key decision is another statement of intent from Villa and influential figure
While the Argentine ace is not expected to fill that void alone, he will have an important role in midfield over the course of the season as Emery has bolstered his squad with players who can implement his preferred style of play and structure regardless of changes.
In turn, while Barrenechea may not be first choice in our midfield pivot, he’s expected to feature across competitions as the campaign progresses, and he could get his first taste of Premier League football this weekend as he’ll be on the bench against Arsenal on Saturday evening.
“Tomorrow he is in the squad,” Emery said, as per BirminghamLive. “He is working very well, he is young and has a big potential. His process here with us, it is to try to use progressively his potential getting better.
“Of course, I am happy with him. He is a very good player and a very good person. His adaptation in the squad is fantastic at the moment.”
It’s great to hear Emery speak positively about Barrenechea, as we’ve seen it can be a difficult and complicated process adapting to his demands, and patience is certainly required given even more experienced players have needed time to progress and take that next step under the Villa boss.
Importantly though, it sounds as though the midfield ace has the personality and attitude needed to be a reliable option for Emery based on his comments above, while we saw in pre-season that he has the technical ability, awareness and composure to give us that controlling presence in midfield that the Basque coach values so highly.
The expectation is that he’ll get minutes off the bench in the Premier League to help his gradual adaptation to English football, but particularly with the domestic cups and when Emery needs to rotate when the Champions League gets underway, Barrenchea will hope that he’s made enough of a positive impression to build that trust with the Villa boss to establish that he can be a dependable option when needed.
He’ll need to be patient too though given how impressive the partnership between Youri Tielemans and Amadou Onana has looked thus far, while Boubacar Kamara is expected to return to group training next month to ramp up competition. However, given Emery’s assessment of him thus far, it certainly sounds as though we’ll be seeing more of Barrenechea in the coming weeks and months.
