Aston Villa are enjoying a fruitful season as they remain in the picture for a Premier League top-four finish and are also still in the Champions League and FA Cup.
The Villans qualified for the Champions League last season and they’re enjoying a solid run this term, with a place in the quarter-finals up for grabs.
Morgan Rogers has been one of Aston Villa’s biggest surprises this season, registering an impressive 12 goals and six assists from 40 outings in all competitions.
Rogers joined Villa from Middlesbrough in a deal reportedly worth £15million in February 2024, which already looks like a bargain.
Unai Emery, speaking ahead of Villa’s Champions League last-16 second-leg meeting with Club Brugge, lifted the lid on what Rogers is like behind the scenes.
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Unai Emery says Morgan Rogers understands ‘everything tactically’ at Aston Villa
Emery spoke of how important it is for footballers to be versatile these days, which means they need to be able to understand many things tactically.
The Villa boss said Rogers is “clearly” capable of this, and he’s “always performing very well” because of how he understands things as well as putting them into practice.
“With how football is changing, I appreciate a lot the players being versatile, playing different positions, understanding everything tactically,” Emery told the Villa website.
“One of them in our squad is clearly Morgan Rogers, and John McGinn as well.
“This versatility and performing like we are always needing is really very important. Sometimes I’m pushing other players to be versatile or to adapt. Being versatile in case we will need it.
“Not every player is ready to do it, but Morgan Rogers is always positive and his versatility is very important for us. In the last match, we played in different positions with Morgan.
“He played striker, number ten, right side, left side, and he’s always performing very well because he’s a player who understands tactically everything we are planning and he has the qualities to do it.
“The importance he has now is trying to improve. I’m always pushing him to get more of him, but physically as well he’s keeping the level we needed until today.”
The ‘only reason’ Manchester City sold Morgan Rogers
Manchester City’s loss has been Villa’s gain when it comes to Rogers, who has been a revelation in claret and blue.
In December, Rogers haunted his former club with a masterclass in Villa’s 2-1 victory against Pep Guardiola’s side.
After the game, Guardiola explained why Man City sold Rogers as he started by asking: “Do you know what happened?
“There are some teams that won the treble, won the quadruple [four trophies in a season in 2019], sometimes its the right tempo, its the right time, can give the chance.
“Everybody knows how good Morgan is, and a lot of players who are loaned or sold by the club they were at that age where we have the players that we had to allow us to create the more successful eight years at our club.
“In that moment, when they arrive, they are two or three years younger and in that moment, they are Kevin [De Bruyne] in their prime and David Silva and Bernardo [Silva] and Riyad [Mahrez] and Leroy [Sane] and Raheem [Sterling] and sometimes, it’s difficult and it’s the only reason why.”
However, Guardiola conceded that a youngster like Rogers would now be kept if he was still in Man City’s ranks.
“In this situation right now, these type of players will be with us, that’s obvious but it in the right moment, that’s all what happened,” he said.
“Happy for him because he’s a lovely guy and exploded, I think last season, this season, is a really, really top-class player and England have another exceptional player.”
