Tope A.

Promised a thread on Rogers some time ago, but didnt deliver it. What better time to do it than now tho, after he signed for our beautiful club. Lets get into it. Morgan Rogers has flaws in his game. He definitely isnt a finished product yet. But what makes him special is the fact that in things he is good at, he is amazing at them. In addition to that, his surroundings made his flaws visible even more, and it was very easy to see why, especially if u watched full 90's of Aston Villa last few seasons. In that Aston Villa team, he was practically the only real ball carrier. And players around him werent optimal to get the best out of him, not even close to optimal. Emery likes intensity, team showing character, and having leaders on the pitch at all times. He likes it to a fault, because he would fit players in positions that arent ideal for them to have the best players on the pitch at all times. When you have Mcginn/Buendia/Sancho as your wingers, its not easy to be a creator from midfield areas. These arent your "attack the space" wingers, but more the ones who move inside and occupy advanced midfield areas, while Digne/Maatsen/Cash overlap a lot. So thats the first thing that made Rogers life a bit more difficult than it shouldve been. But it doesnt stop there. Guy in front of him was Watkins. Aldo Watkins is a great runner into space, he is also an enourmous BCM magnet. I cant count how many times have i seen Rogers putting a chance on a plate for him, just for Watkins to miss it like its nothing. Watkins also isnt great at dropping deep and linking up play, cos he is more of a poacher than a creator like Kane or JP ( now his new teammate ). One more thing that didnt help him whatsoever was protection behind him. Emery had Tielemans playing almost every single game. Tielemans is great passer and has a top football IQ as a player, but what he is not, he isnt great transition defender. So, to maximise Rogers, Onana should be playing almost every game. He didnt ofcourse, because he is injury prone ( currently injured again ), so in comes Kamara. Kamara for me is one of the most underrated players in that Villa team. He is one of the cogs that got them that UCL position, and one of the key players in them winning European competition. But that balance in double pivot was far away from being perfect, especially when you expect your No.10 to do so many risky things when carrying the ball and dragging players with him, creating openings for other teammates around him. He didnt have creators around him, or the ball carriers to help him get more isolations. This is why Aston Villa massively overperformed their xG, 2 seasons in a row aswell. At one point in the season, their xG was same as Wolverhampton's, and they were in relegation zone at that time. Doing all that carrying of a team who doesnt create enought is a big task for any player out there, so people have to be a bit more objective on impact Rogers had compared to what could've been if he had right profiles around him. On that note, in comes Chelsea. At Chelsea, Rogers wont be the only ball carrier, and he definitely wont be the only creator. He will have people creating for him, and thats when his xG overperforming will come in handy, given he is a huge threat any time he finds himself around the box. This is exactly what Chelsea was missing. We had Enzo as box crasher, and aldo he isnt as physical, Enzo was really good at it because of his elite level football IQ and reading the space in advance. Not many players have mental capacity to always stay concentrated and make a perfectly timed runs. Thats why it worked. But outside of that game reading, Enzo isnt a guy that will receive the ball, drive past 2-3 players with quick feet and then fire a bolt in opposite corner. That's Roger's bread & butter.