Unai Emery explains why he subbed off Morgan Rogers during Aston Villa’s draw v Bournemouth

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Aston Villa failed to capitalise on a strong week by dropping points during their 1-1 draw against Bournemouth on Saturday.

Unai Emery made a few changes from Aston Villa’s Champions League win over Bologna, including Ollie Watkins, Lucas Digne, Matty Cash and Jacob Ramsey returning to the XI.

It just goes to show the squad depth the Midlands side have at their disposal because there are players fighting for places all over the shop.

Morgan Rogers is now one of the first names on the teamsheet for Villa, but he would have felt frustrated with his performance against Bournemouth.

Just before the hour mark, Emery subbed off the attacking midfielder and brought on goalscoring sensation Jhon Duran to play alongside Watkins.

It was only the third time that Emery has taken off Rogers this season and the earliest time he has ever done it – he was subbed off after 83 minutes against Fulham, but the game was won by then and he was also taken off after 64 minutes against Ipswich.

Unai Emery says Morgan Rogers is ‘tired’

Rogers has started every Champions League and Premier League game for Villa, including playing for the England U21s.

Emery was pretty unhappy at Rogers getting picked for the England U21s because he feels that he has outgrown that age group.

But the Villa manager shared, after the draw against Bournemouth, that he subbed off the ball-carrying expert because he was ‘tired’, but acknowledged ‘this is normal’, as posted by Jacob Tanswell on Twitter.

“We drew against Man Utd after the Champions League and we played fantastic,” said Emery.

“Today was the same way. The result is really not a consequence. We made some changes. Morgan Rogers has played a lot and he was tired. But this is normal. Overall, we played physically well.”

Rogers’ stats for Aston Villa

Rogers has played a total of 1012 minutes for Villa, and if he is indeed ‘tired’, then Emery has to watch out for his workload.

It needs to be remembered that, this time last season, he was playing in the Championship and, fast forward to the present, he is playing twice a week in the most difficult competitions in world football.

Despite that, WhoScored has rated Rogers 7.14 for the season in all competitions, which is pretty good going for a player still pretty young and inexperienced for this level.

Villa play Crystal Palace in the EFL Cup on Wednesday night, you expect Rogers to be benched, with players like Emi Buendia vying for starts.