With the World Cup break now upon us, Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has a chance to continue to work and improve the players currently at his disposal.
The Spanish tactician has rarely mentioned needing new players or the January transfer window since taking charge, instead focusing his attention on those available to him and implementing his ideas and principles to improve what he has to work with.
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As noted on several occasions following his unveiling, the 51-year-old has noted how he believes that the Villa squad was underperforming prior to his arrival, and so the objective for now is to get the best out of these players and assess who will fit into his plans in the long-term future.
This is arguably one of Emery’s biggest coaching strengths, and with plenty of talent at his disposal in this Villa squad, it will be fascinating to see who shows significant improvement and development under his stewardship, as that was perhaps one of the biggest criticism of his predecessor given the lack of progress made individually and collectively.
One player in particular has shown positive early signs, with Jacob Ramsey looking set to be a pivotal figure in Emery’s strategy moving forward.
Ramsey makes great start under Emery
Speaking on the Ben Foster Podcast recently, former Villa goalkeeping coach Neil Cutler noted how Ramsey is a “pure natural talent”, but we haven’t seen the best of him as of yet because he hasn’t been able to settle into one particular role in the team.
Having been used in different positions constantly and with changes in management, Ramsey hasn’t hit the heights we believe he’s capable of yet, and a big part of that as well of course is that he’s still just 21 years of age.
With a new manager coming in, there’s always the concern that he will have different plans and so Ramsey and others could be at risk of dropping out. Instead, the Villa youth product has featured heavily in all three games under Emery thus far.
Not only that, but he’s contributed a goal and two assists in those three outings, and we’ve seen Emery start to use him in a particular role having played off the right flank in the first two games before being deployed wide left against Brighton.
Having managed only one goal and one assist in 14 appearances prior to Emery’s arrival, it’s clear that the new Villa boss is getting more out of Ramsey and beyond the numbers, the youngster is getting on the ball more in dangerous areas and using his speed and physicality well to carry the ball and drive at opposition defences.
That in turn not only opens up the pitch for others to find space and cause problems, but he has been able to see movement in front of him and play those through balls in for Leon Bailey and Ollie Watkins to score.
Ramsey has shown an impressive ability to play perfectly weighted passes for his teammates to run onto and have an attempt at goal. With Emery getting him into areas where he can be more effective and impactful – namely drifting into space from wide positions when not stretching the pitch himself – it’s hoped that he can continue his good run of form in the final third when the Premier League resumes next month.
It goes for the team as a whole, but the challenge for Ramsey now is to find consistency. He has the attributes and talent to play this role that Emery is seemingly asking of him, but he has to continue to deliver and take his game to the next level as he looks to not only cement his place in the Villa XI under his new boss, but also nail down one particular role in the side.