Can Unai Emery unlock Marcus Rashford’s potential at Aston Villa? | OneFootball

As strange as it feels to call a 27-year-old with 87 Premier League goals and 40 assists a “risk”, it’s the optics of the deal that make it questionable. The Englishman has fallen out of favour with Ruben Amorim at Man Utd and has been looking for a move all month.

So how can Unai Emery use Marcus Rashford in order to improve his Aston Villa side whilst bringing the best out of the 27-year-old star? It’s important Emery finds out the answer, as he looks to compete in both the Premier League and Champions League in this second half of the season.

To understand how Rashford could fit into things at Villa, we first have to discuss their current system and the zones players tend to occupy on the ball. As you can see from the passing map against West Ham United, Ollie Watkins (FW) and Jason Ramsey (LW) would look to occupy those left half space zones. This is often with Watkins making runs in behind allowing Ramsey to drift inside from the left and Lucas Digne to provide the overlapping run and give some width on the left.

This would often see Digne, Ramsey, Morgan Rogers, Leon Bailey and Watkins as the front five on the ball. Ramsey and Rogers look to play in the central pockets, Digne and Bailey offer the width for the team and Watkins plays through the middle, looking to make runs in behind on both sides.

Ramsey, McGinn and Bailey have been deployed as the wide men so far this campaign, with the latter often being the outlet winger to stretch play. McGinn or Ramsey then provide more creativity in central zones alongside Rogers. All of these wingers are producing good creation numbers, with Ramsey averaging 0.18 assists per 90 minutes this season. McGinn averages 0.2 assists per 90 and Bailey averages 0.17 assists per 90, all more than Rashford’s 0.09 assists per 90.

Bailey. who is often played on the right, has provided 0.25 Expected Assists per 90 minutes this season, more than double Rashford’s 0.12. This shows his preference to create for others, often looking to beat his man one-on-one and deliver crosses into the box. The Jamaican averages 2.86 crosses attempted per 90.

Aston Villa rank sixth in the Premier League when it comes to creating “big chances” with 2.21 created per 90, but their shot volume is relatively poor in comparison. The Villans rank 14th for shots per game (12.5), which starts to paint the picture of what Emery’s side is missing. So is Rashford the answer?

From Rashford’s touch map against Leicester City for Man Utd in November, you can see his preference to receive towards the touchline. He has the ability to drive on the outside towards the byline but also cut inside on his stronger right foot and get shots off.

The England star has averaged 0.37 goals per 90 this season, as well as having a 56.25% shot accuracy. Rashford ranks higher than all of Aston Villa’s wingers in this regard, as both Ramsey and Bailey are only averaging 0.09 goals per 90. The pair also rank much lower on the shot accuracy percentage, with Ramsey recording 30.77% and Bailey 20.83%.

By adding Rashford as a left sided option, Emery would have the choice to switch his dynamics, where he often allows the right-winger to hold the width and the left-winger to drift inside. Instead, Emery could use Rashford as the high and wide winger outlet, having his right-sided player drift centrally instead with the right-back overlapping to provide the width.

With the likes of Matty Cash and new signing Andres Garcia both being more attack-minded fullbacks, this would make a lot of sense. It gives Emery more ability to be tactically versatile, switching the dynamics of his team, where his main creators are and where his higher shot-volume would come from.

By stretching the pitch on the left side using the runs of Rashford and Watkins, it would also bring the best out of Rogers. The 22-year-old does his best work in the left half space as you can see from his touch map against Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Having two willing runners in that left channel would cause defensive schemes to over commit to one side, dropping their line deeper to deal with the runners. In turn, this would make the distances larger between the defensive and midfield lines, especially on the left side of the pitch.

Rogers would be the main beneficiary of this, already averaging 4.1 take-ons per 90 and completing 1.98 of them. The 22-year-old is averaging 3.9 progressive carries per 90 this season, often driving Villa forward and being at the heart of all their attacking work.