Amid his best form for the club since joining us, Jhon Duran has received high praise from Aston Villa boss Unai Emery as he continues to make a positive start to the season.
The 20-year-old has put a complicated summer behind him and started the campaign in brilliant form, scoring five goals in seven games across all competitions, all of which have proven to be decisive to the outcome in those particular encounters.
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While his goals have undoubtedly been a huge positive for us in the opening weeks of the season, there have also been encouraging signs that Duran is adapting more effectively and consistently this year in terms of how he fits into Emery’s system, structure and preferred style of play, and he’s displaying the necessary mentality and professionalism, which arguably was lacking previously.
We’ve see that with his impactful pressing in the final third as well as in his link-up play, while he continues to develop a potential partnership with Ollie Watkins up front with both Villa strikers needed this season to help us find a breakthrough in the latter stages of games.
As per Emery’s comments below, it certainly sounds a lot more positive now than it has done in the past, both during last season when Duran was struggling for minutes and to make a meaningful impact, and during the summer when he was heavily linked with an exit and his off-the-pitch antics didn’t help his situation.
The challenge of course now though, will be to maintain this level and keep showing consistency throughout the season, and with Emery backing him with unwavering support as he has made it his challenge to help Duran fulfil his potential, it’s hoped we’ve got plenty more to see from the Colombian international in the coming months and years.
“He’s a good guy. He is young, he is impatient sometimes because he wants everything so quick. Now he is focusing 100 per cent same as me. He is following our idea and my plan with him. We started working together almost two years ago in the January,” Emery told the media at his pre-match press conference on Friday.
“The progress and responsibility I have with him is a huge responsibility because I believe in him. But, of course, sometimes going up sometimes down.
“Sometimes he’s strong, sometimes he’s not playing every minute he is expecting. Now, I think this is his best moment, his commitment and behaviour. He is following everything tactically which I want from him.
“He is working every day like other players. The most important thing is for him to be in the squad and then his quality and potential … I can’t tell you now how much potential he has. It is not fixed. Hopefully we can get of him his potential here.
“My challenge is to get best of him as a striker, playing with Watkins as well. The idea is to play more together. We will get performances individually and collectively with both players.”
The expectation is that Duran will drop back to the bench this weekend when we face Ipswich Town in the Premier League, having started in midweek in our Carabao Cup win at Wycombe Wanderers.
However, whether it’s as a super-sub or a starter as our fixture schedule continues to become increasingly hectic, he’ll get many more opportunities to showcase his quality and make a vital contribution to the team, and it’s hoped that this more positive outlook remains in place over the course of the campaign.