Mikel Arteta leaned back in his chair and gave a knowing smile.
He nodded when asked, after Arsenal’s fine-margins victory, about the “running threat” of Aston Villa.
“When you lose the ball and you counter-press, they break that press,” Arteta said on Saturday evening. “They are dangerous. They have a lot of legs, can carry the ball, have runners between centre-backs and full-backs. They have a threat. They make us suffer in open spaces. (John) McGinn and (Morgan) Rogers are good at holding the ball up and turning your press.”
Rogers was Villa’s best player on the day, delivering a performance in their 2-0 defeat that gave broader recognition of his talents and his increasing USP (unique selling point) of long and commanding ball carries.
“The scary thing is how young Morgan is, how powerful he is and if he keeps playing like that, I’m sure he will have a stellar season,” said McGinn. “I know the England manager (Lee Carsley, in interim charge for the September internationals after Gareth Southgate stepped down following Euro 2024) was here, and if he continues to play like that, he’ll be back to watch him.”
The 22-year-old Rogers characterises Villa’s preferred methods of attack under manager Unai Emery — a cohort of vertical dribblers designed to drive into the spaces left by Villa’s carefully-baiting build-up structure, which attracts opponents into pressing in high areas.
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Only five of the 19 other Premier League teams completed more take-ons last season than Villa. Before signing him in last season’s winter window, Rogers’ proclivity to drive forward, shrug off and, in some cases, swat away defenders was his standout trait in Emery’s view.
“He’s playing fantastic,” Emery says of the West Midlands native, who joined from Middlesbrough of the second-tier Championship. “He is getting more confident, he’s giving us more tactical ways with how we can connect with him inside (the pitch), on the outside and the next step is getting him in the box. He’s hungry to increase his level.”
Emery moved Rogers centrally in pre-season, asking him to operate as a second, deeper forward behind Ollie Watkins instead of a left No 10. This enables Rogers to stay in areas more conducive to attacking via turnovers and not be too deep, having tracked the opposition’s full-back. Over the past 12 months, he ranks in the top six per cent of attacking midfielders across Europe’s top five leagues for successful take-ons (54.8 per cent).
The manager has put Rogers into an area that engenders his attributes, with choreographed patterns of play ending with the England youth international driving forward.
Often, Villa will play down their left with McGinn — the side’s other No 10 — holding the ball up, before offloading to the closest central midfielder. This generates a sweeping, diagonal move which switches the play to Rogers or Leon Bailey, another key ball carrier for Emery.
Here, on the opening weekend of this season, Watkins makes a decoy run to take a West Ham defender away and vacate the space for Rogers to drive into and then shoot.
“His best attribute is when he’s got the ball in the No 10 position and he’s driving,” said Ash Belgrave, Rogers’ brother and individual coach. “He’s closer to the goal, he’s not wide, not isolated, and he’s inside the pitch. He can play passes to the left-back outside of him, the striker, or drift centrally and switch to Bailey on the opposite side.
“Morgan gets fouled when he’s got the ball and defenders have got to pull him back. If you watched him for Middlesbrough, they used to do this goal kick where they cleared the space in the middle and he’d get the ball and drive, with the opposition tugging his shirt. There’s definitely improvement in terms of being similar to McGinn, who gets his body into the defender and pushes people off.”
Even though Villa averaged the seventh-highest possession rate (53.1 per cent) in the Premier League last season, Emery is intent on manufacturing transition-based scenarios, averaging 3.2 direct attacks per 90 minutes, the fifth-highest in the league. This, naturally, relies on the runs of Rogers, Bailey and, when fit, Jacob Ramsey, plus McGinn’s hold-up play, as Arteta and Belgrave both referenced.
Tactically, Emery always wants his side to have the ball in deep areas, baiting opposition forwards into pressing before directly attacking the space that pressing vacates. Consequently, it makes sense for Emery to comprise an attack of dribblers that punish open spaces and progressive central midfielders, such as Youri Tielemans, who can play passes into them.
Interestingly, in his post-match press conference after Saturday’s loss, Emery alluded to Villa’s build-up structure changing from last season.
Then, Villa preferred to build in a back three, with the right-back tucking in and width supplied by the left-back and Bailey. But to create a shape that puts his forward players, such as Bailey, Ramsey and Rogers in bigger spaces to transition, Villa now have their back four spread, with two deep central midfielders in Amadou Onana and Tielemans. This invites pressure when Villa are passing in their defensive third, owing to opposition midfielders being inclined to lock onto Onana and Tielemans.
Crucially, however, this fashions more space for Villa’s No 10s.
In the example below, Tielemans takes out five Arsenal players, with Rogers between the lines.
Despite Tielemans being inside his box, his pass is quick enough to bypass half of Arsenal’s outfield players, with Ramsey making a third-man run ahead of Ben White. Bailey, who serves as a wide forward under Emery, has stayed high.
Arsenal’s pressing system aimed to force Villa down one side of the pitch. They targeted Matty Cash, knowing he would receive possession against the touchline. Emery, though, kept his No 10s high, leaving Tielemans as the out ball.
Note both Tielemans and Rogers here pointing to where Cash’s next pass should go:
Cash manages to find Tielemans, who switches the ball to McGinn; in a matter of seconds, Villa have turned a dangerous Arsenal press into a dangerous transition for them.
McGinn often serves as a pressure valve, either holding the ball and offloading…
…or, failing that, winning a free kick so his side can reset.
Arsenal’s increasing difficulty in stopping Villa’s transitions adjusted their shape. Jurrien Timber, who had spent the early stages of the game inverting from left-back to overload central midfield while being an extra body to counter-press, was pushed back.
The visitors would lose possession in midfield — as Thomas Partey did in the instance below — with Villa stationing players in conducive positions to break quickly.
Watkins would look to stretch, while Bailey and either McGinn or Ramsey — whichever one was higher — ran in the channels between Arsenal’s centre-backs and full-backs.
With Arsenal’s midfield regularly pulled out of shape, Rogers would prove the spare player. Here, he checks his shoulder before receiving, realising he can take the ball on the half-turn.
Rogers’ acceleration means he is now driving at Arsenal’s defence and Partey is occupied with McGinn’s run. This leaves Declan Rice, later booked for a foul on Rogers, scrambling to get back.
Rogers changes direction and leaves Rice with his back to him, unable to see the ball or steady himself.
The attack results in Rogers driving inside the box and forcing a save from David Raya.
Villa scored seven goals from counter-attacks last season. It was the joint-fourth highest (ironically along with Arsenal), though Villa now appear better equipped.
With the summer addition of Onana, Rogers’ acute development and Ramsey’s return to full fitness, Villa have runners who can attack open spaces, supplemented by McGinn’s hold-up play. Tellingly, Onana was given licence to break forward against Arsenal, with Tielemans anchoring the midfield.
Composure is fundamental for Villa’s runners. The early phases of an attack have to be precise, such is its precariousness, with any loose actions resulting in a high-quality chance for the opposition. Onana and Tielemans have shown early indications they are a press-resistant pairing.
Onana’s ability to break beyond midfield became evident, making third-man runs and leading transitions.
Having initially pressed Onana here, Martin Odegaard cannot match the Belgium international for speed, and Villa are able to play through Arsenal’s pressure.
Emery is tweaking a few subtle in-possession principles to embolden Villa’s cohort of runners, with and without the ball.
It may be the next stage of this team’s evolution, built for speed, directness and ensuring an opponent’s press — which started causing issues towards the end of last season — is turned into a key method of attack.
