Aston Villa were brought back down to earth on Sunday after getting beaten 4-1 by Tottenham.
What’s even worse about that performance is the fact that Aston Villa opened the scoring through Morgan Rogers, but were still comfortably beaten.
On top of that, Unai Emery had nearly every Villa player available to pick from, whilst the opposition had key personnel missing and also watched Cristian Romero being forced off with an injury at 1-1.
The games are coming thick and fast now, including a Champions League away trip to Belgium to take on Club Brugge on Wednesday night.
This is where Aston Villa’s squad will now be tested because there was a lot of quality on the bench and they will now want a chance after that abject showing in London.
Paul Scholes spoke about Villa’s squad, and how strong it has become to try and cope with Premier League and European matters.
Paul Scholes lauds Morgan Rogers, Youri Tielemans and Jacob Ramsey at Aston Villa
As mentioned above, Rogers opened the scoring against Spurs, with Scholes lauding him before the match and then the attacking midfielder going on to score.
Rogers looked unhappy as he was subbed off by Emery, with the attacking midfielder starting the game alongside Jacob Ramsey and Youri Tielemans.
Scholes added that there is ‘more to come’ from Villa’s academy product and that he is a fan of the player following his injury setbacks last season.
Ask most fans and they would probably tell you that Tielemans has been Villa’s best player this term and Scholes made sure to give him his flowers also, as he told Premier League Productions (03/11/24 at 1:50 pm).
“I think he (Emery) made an effort in the summer to really strengthen his squad and I think he has done that,” said Scholes.
“I think he has done that. I think Tielemans is a really good player. I also like Jacob Ramsey. He has had a couple of injuries. But I think there is more to come from him.
“I think there are a lot of goals from midfield. Morgan Rogers, you can argue, has been the signing of the season, so far he looks a top draw player as well. Building that squad was big. When you are playing midweek and weekends as well. You have to have the big squads. It’s okay just bringing numbers in, but you also have to bring quality in and he has managed to do that.”
Rogers’ stats for Aston Villa
First of all, it needs to be noted that Rogers joined Villa in January from Championship side Middlesbrough, so in that sense, he can’t be considered the ‘signing of the season’.
But you can understand where someone like Scholes is coming from because this is his first full season in the Premier League and he isn’t disappointing.
If you include Champions League matches, Rogers has been rated 7.16 for the season so far by WhoScored.
And what’s even more impressive is that he is rated nearly eight in the Champions League alone.
| Tournament | Apps | Key passes | Goals | Assists | Drb | SpG | PS% | Fouled | MotM | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Champions League | 3 | 3 | – | 1 | 5.3 | 2.3 | 75.6 | 1.3 | 1 | 7.74 |
| Premier League | 10 | 1.4 | 3 | 2 | 1.7 | 1.9 | 78.5 | 1.1 | – | 6.98 |
| Total / Average | 13 | 1.8 | 3 | 3 | 2.5 | 2 | 77.9 | 1.2 | 1 | 7.16 |
