Unai Emery will have been pleased to see summer signing Amadou Onana open his Aston Villa account just four minutes into his debut in the 2-1 win over West Ham to kick off the Premier League on Saturday.
Amadou Onana is Aston Villa’s most expensive signing of the summer, with Unai Emery sanctioning a £50 million move to bring the Belgian in from Everton.
Onana is one of seven summer arrivals, with Ian Maatsen, Enzo Barrenechea and the return of Jaden Philogene also notable bits of business.
Onana was the only one of Emery’s new faces to start in Villa‘s win against West Ham and was imperious at the heart of the midfield at the London Stadium.
Celebrating his 23rd birthday today, Onana should only get better and under Emery he is certainly working with a manager with a track record of developing players.
Unai Emery explains how Aston Villa can help Amadou Onana fulfil his potential
The likes of Ollie Watkins, Leon Bailey and Morgan Rogers are all recent examples of how Emery can elevate players to the next level.
- READ MORE: Unai Emery has made a mockery of Steven Gerrard with transformation of key Aston Villa duo
Onana arrives a highly-rated defensive midfielder but Emery will be keen to sculpt the player into more of an all-rounder now that he has got his hands on the former Everton man.
The Spanish coach is excited by the potential of the young powerhouse, saying after his goalscoring debut: “There is still lots of work to do and his potential, it is big.
“We need to do a process with him to exploit that potential.”
He explained how Onana can do this, adding: “It is about identifying quickly how we want to play with him and how he dominates the position he is playing.
“He is very mature to learn as soon as possible everything tactically.”
Statistics behind Onana’s impressive debut against West Ham
Onana played in a double pivot with Youri Tielemans at the base of the midfield against West Ham but it will be intriguing to see if he plays a more attacking role once Boubacar Kamara returns from injury.
He certainly looks capable of operating as a box-to-box midfielder, with the 23-year-old posting some impressive statistics in the West Ham win.
According to Sofascore, Onana recorded a pass accuracy of an incredible 97% after misplacing just one of his 31 passes.
He was heavily involved with 51 touches and completed his only dribble of the match as well as both of his long balls.
Onana won ten duels, made three clearances, three tackles and two interceptions and only lost possession four times in his 90 minutes.
Add all of this to his goal and it was a really impressive performance that Emery will hope is a sign of things to come.
