The progress that Aston Villa has made since the arrival of Unai Emery has been nothing short of remarkable.
Even with their recent mini-injury crisis, the results have shown no signs of taking a turn for the worse, with Villa winning all of their last three.
From now until the end of the season, the squad will face the challenge of balancing European action with their Premier League duties, with a top-four finish arguably being the priority.
However, Villa have a player in the pipeline who’s already played in the Champions League this season and could end up replacing Matty Cash in the near future.
Matty Cash’s 23/24 season
Polish right-back Cash has featured heavily this season for Villa, operating in his usual right-back role as well as a further forward right midfielder at times.
The 26-year-old has played in 24 Premier League matches this campaign, playing 36 times across all competitions. In fairness to Cash, he’s already shown a significant attacking improvement in the last year, picking up six goal contributions already while only registering one all last season.
However, FBref’s 23/24 Premier League scouting report suggests that Cash is actually performing at an extremely average level when compared to his positional peers in the league.
Passes into final third
2.65
Bottom 60%
Key passes
0.56
Bottom 63%
Shot-creating actions
1.74
Bottom 56%
Tackles won
1.23
Bottom 60%
Interceptions
0.87
Bottom 60%
With that in mind, Emery has shown a desire to improve and strengthen the position, even dipping into the transfer market in January to sign a potential long-term replacement.
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In truth, it’s a very small sample size, and of course, like any developing player, they’re far from the finished product, but he can certainly become Cash’s replacement in the not-so-distant future if he continues to improve and impress.
