Aston Villa winger Moussa Diaby has been struggling for form as of late – but there is no reason to panic.
A huge weight of expectation was placed on the shoulders of Moussa Diaby when he arrived for a club-record fee from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer.
The Frenchman was a statement signing made by Unai Emery, who set his stall out to drag Villa towards the European places.
Diaby has shown glimpses of his talent, but there is certainly more to come from a player who set the Bundesliga alight last term with 14 goals and 10 assists in all competitions.
How has Moussa Diaby performed this season?
It’s normal for a player to take a while to adapt to new surroundings but in the case of Diaby – who scored three goals and grabbed five assists in his first 10 Premier League matches – the 24-year-old took to life at Villa pretty quickly.
That fast start was short-lived, however, and he’s since only made three goal contributions in his last 16 matches in all competitions.
It’s been an alarming slump of form for a supremely talented player and although he scored in the recent victory over Burnley, Diaby’s performance levels have generally dropped.
The Frenchman isn’t alone in that regard, though, with top scorer Ollie Watkins only finding the net once in his last nine matches.
Ultimately, Diaby isn’t the first player who has struggled as a Bundesliga export arriving in the Premier League.
Leon Bailey, who also joined from Leverkusen, made a slow start to life at Villa Park and is now one of the first names on the team sheet.
He’s one player who transformed his fortunes around and there are many other examples littered across the division.
Moussa Diaby can become a success like Ilkay Gundogan
Ilkay Gundogan became Pep Guardiola’s first signing at Manchester City in 2016, arriving from Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund.
At the beginning of his City career, the German was concerned his body wouldn’t hold up to the rigours of the Premier League and only made 16 appearances in his debut season.
That led many supporters to believe that Gundogan was too slow, too cautious and too concerned about contact to ever flourish in Guardiola’s system. They were wrong.
The 33-year-old went on to be a crucial cog in the next seven years of his City career, playing a vital role in their unrelenting dominance.
He was the man who turned up for the big occasion, scoring a double on the final day against Aston Villa to win the Premier League title in 2022 and a brilliant volley against Manchester United in last season’s FA Cup triumph, to name but a few.
Gundogan is proof in the pudding that a player arriving from Germany can transform their fortunes after making a slow start and Diaby will hope to do the same at Villa Park.
Supporters know he possesses the quality to become a world-beater, just like the German, he just has to show it regularly.
