One Aston Villa new signing is still expected to make improvement despite his fine form in his new team so far. 

Aston Villa have lost almost all their spine players in the transfer window last summer. One of them was Youri Tielemans. The Belgian international was seen as the ideal mastermind in Unai Emery’s midfield, which demands top ball possession trait with composure as well as creativity. 

His replacement was not exactly the direct one but a figure with stronger defensive traits. Joao Gomes was signed from Wolverhampton. He is the one Emery’s hoping to mould into new Tielemans. 

Considering his style of play, such definitely needs more time. Emery is aware of it, despite his positive form so far, as reported by Birmingham mail.

“How Joao is playing, how he’s adapting, how he’s being quick in his understanding of our idea, style and demands is really fantastic, and of course, there is still work to do because he can play as well as being a versatile player for us in our structure.”

The reason?

Emery always demands versatility in his team as such would be necessary to compete well at the top level. In the current squad, Emery has already had a player with a more similar profile to Tielemans, Ross Barkley, plus they also have signed Leon Goretzka on free transfer. 

Yet, such is not enough. Both are already in their early 30s, which means Villa can not just rely on them all the time while Gomes is still 25 years old. He is seen as Tielemans’ long term successor, as Emery explained. 

“When we signed Tielemans, he was one year behind Douglas Luiz, playing in a different position, being versatile, and progressively understanding everything. How Tielemans finished last year in his progression here was really fantastic. The idea we have with Joao is similar, but we need his performance quickly because Tielemans left in the summer, and we replaced him with Joao Gomes.”

Emery does expect Gomes would be able to do well in any roles he is tasked for, as number eight like he does now, as number six like Boubacar Kamara or even as number 10 role in the future. 

The Spanish boss is aware of Gomes and Tielemans’ style of play. Yet, it does not mean the Brazilian does not learn to adapt to it since it is the team’s demand. 

“They (Gomes and Tielemans) are different. So, how they can exploit with our idea, adapting and using their qualities differently, Joao and Tielemans, he has to do the same work, and he has to play more or less with the idea we have like Tielemans was playing – he’s going to do the same.

“Maybe not just the same, but overall yes. He can defend different to Tielemans and he can keep the ball possession or the combinations maybe different to Tielemans, but he must add to us another level as well in different ways to improve the team.”

How Joao Gomes has adapted so far 

So far, Gomes has managed to do quite well in adapting to Villa’s style of play. Despite his difficult start when he was sent off at the opener against Brighton, the former Wolves man has been able to deal with Emery’s challenge and task. 

The Rio de Janeiro-born midfielder has featured in nine games and registered two assists so far. As a player who is well known for his tackles, he has been able to do well. Based on the data in FotMob, Gomes has made 92 % successful passes, with the accurate long balls reaching 66.7 %. He has created four chances in the league so far, one of which was a big chance. His successful dribbles is still 60 % with 203 touches in total, which is still quite low. Yet, he has been going in the right direction. 

The former Flamengo man has been deployed as right back in the Champions League clash versus Viking FK and he did well enough too. Thus, it would not take too long for him to finally take up the role Tielemans left in the near future.