Jacob Ramseys absence will hurt Aston Villa he is key to Unai Emerys plan

June 04, 2024

Ezri Konsa leans forward in his chair at Bodymoor Heath and smiles. The Athletic just asked how high his team-mate Jacob Ramsey’s technical ceiling is.

“JJ can be a top, top-class player,” says the Aston Villa defender. “We can already see what he can do. He’s just coming back from injury and scored on the weekend. He brings a lot to the team with his energy and his technical ability. If he remains humble like he is, and focuses on listening, learning and trying to improve his game, he will go all the way to the top.”

Konsa was speaking last Wednesday afternoon, October 4, when the extent of Ramsey’s metatarsal injury was yet to be known.

Ramsey had felt pain during substitute appearances against Chelsea and Brighton & Hove Albion in Villa’s previous two Premier League matches and despite scoring in the latter — a goal that was a microcosm of his positional intelligence, deftness of touch and general aptitude — he remained afflicted, missing the Carabao Cup defeat by Everton sandwiched between those fixtures.

Unai Emery arrived for his press conference previewing Villa’s first Europa Conference League home group game with Zrinjski Mostar the following day half an hour after Konsa. With that, the optimism around Ramsey potentially making his first Villa start since May diminished. There had even been talk of an international senior debut looming.

Emery confirmed the club were awaiting scans, with early forecasts dimming confidence over Ramsey finally kickstarting his campaign, having still been wearing a protective boot in late August. Although his recovery time was unlikely to repeat the two months it took him to come back from a broken metatarsal — sustained in early July playing for England Under-21s in their European Championship triumph — there were concerns over the foot.

Two days later, The Athletic reported Ramsey had suffered a reoccurrence of the same injury.

A timeframe for his return is not known.

The Villa academy graduate has featured in just six per cent of Villa’s match minutes this season, a sharp contrast to the previous term when he started 31 of the 35 Premier League matches he played in. It meant Emery, even with his team in fifth entering this international break, has continued to make do without his first-choice pairing on the left side.

Left-back Alex Moreno suffered a setback after returning from a hamstring injury, similarly training and featuring in squads before being taken out of the first-team environment once more. He has not played a minute this season.

Even though Emery’s coaching has compensated for Ramsey’s absence, the midfielder is one of the head coach’s most influential tools in implementing Villa’s style of play. In short, Ramsey starts when fit and bears a heavy involvement in how this team attacks.

Villa’s lopsided build-up shape often sees their right-back being more conservative in his positioning, forming a back three, as shown above. Simultaneously, the left-back, in this case Lucas Digne, becomes a winger, freed up by Ramsey drifting inside.

As a consequence, his role as the left No 10 requires positional intelligence.

Ramsey is tasked with knowing when to drift inside — between the lines and enabling the trigger for Digne or Moreno to hold width outside him. His position is key in allowing Villa to change shape fluidly.

In the example below from the Brighton game last month, Ramsey moves inwards, receiving the ball in central midfield.

This prompts Digne to overlap behind Brighton’s back line.

Such repeated movements are illustrated in the graphic below, highlighting how effective Ramsey has been in receiving from the left channel over the past two seasons.

“He has pace, technical ability, works hard and he scores goals too,” replied Konsa, when asked about his team-mate’s best strengths. From his 27 games played under Emery, Ramsey has scored six goals and registered seven assists, with the view inside Villa that he still has significant scope for development, having made his Premier League debut in September 2020 when Dean Smith was managing the club.

With Emery’s squad built on changing tempos and a transitional style, Ramsey is a critical ball-carrying vehicle, driving the team upfield and doing so at pace.

Since the start of last season, no Villa player has made more progressive carries (defined as a carry that moves the ball 25 per cent closer to the centre of the opponent’s goal) than Ramsey’s 68. Leon Bailey is next best with 57. Most notably, however, Ramsey’s ball-carrying skills rank in the top three per cent of attacking midfielders from Europe’s top five leagues.

Emery has primarily used captain John McGinn, arguably the player closest stylistically to Ramsey’s drive with the ball, in the left No 10 role. From a defensive viewpoint, they each offer the same energy and enthusiasm to get up and down the pitch.

When the opposition has comfortable possession, Villa often move into “a back six” — as Wolves manager Gary O’Neil negatively inferred — with the left No 10 dropping to full-back.

Recovering into deeper positions puts an onus on Ramsey’s ability to defend one-v-one and track runners, an aspect of his game underpinned by his athleticism. Ramsey’s initial troubles on his return to Premier League play against Chelsea following his international-duty injury came when he sprinted half the pitch in just six seconds to match the run of Axel Disasi.

Ramsey stays with Disasi and leans his body into the Chelsea defender, resulting in a miscued effort at goal.

Ramsey won the second most tackles of any Villa player in the Premier League last season (39), behind Douglas Luiz (42). In advanced areas and through his pressing — angling his body shape to cut off passing lanes and not diving in — Ramsey won 11 tackles in Villa’s attacking third, only Emiliano Buendia (12) had more for the club.

“There are a lot of great English young talents out there but for me, JJ is right at the top,” says Konsa. “His game has been consistent week in, week out when he’s played. The quality is there. He’s got everything that he needs to have to take him to the top.”

Ramsey’s continuing absence is a blow to Emery’s efforts to develop the slickness of play he desires, irrespective of how efficiently Villa are coping without him.

It speaks volumes as to how highly the club and coach rate Ramsey and, moving forward, how crucial he will be to longer-term plans.

GO DEEPER

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(Top photo: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

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