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Alysson gives Unai Emery a major selection dilemma ahead of Manchester City
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- Alysson gives Unai Emery a major selection dilemma ahead of Manchester City
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Aston Villa and Alysson won in the Champions League against Viking.
I thought Alysson was absolutely sensational against Viking, and while there were some really good performances throughout the Aston Villa team, he was comfortably my man of the match. Every time he got the ball, particularly in the second half, you felt something was going to happen, and I don't think their left-back will have enjoyed too many evenings less than the one he had at Villa Park.
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We've seen little bits of what Alysson can do before, and I've been impressed by the impact he's made at different stages this season, but I thought this was the first time we've really seen everything come together in one performance. He's so quick, he's strong, his feet are incredibly sharp and he can go either way, which makes him a really difficult player for defenders to deal with. He's predominantly left-footed, but he's more than happy to go on the outside, and I think that unpredictability is one of his biggest strengths.
There were times when he was just running at his defender and causing absolute havoc, and I thought virtually everything good Villa did in an attacking sense involved him at some point. We played some lovely football throughout the evening, including a couple of moves that deserved goals, and Alysson was heavily involved in those as well. He's not just somebody who wants to get the ball and run in a straight line, because there's plenty of ability there in terms of his close control and how he combines with the players around him.
I know the goal has officially gone down as an own goal, but I'm quite happy to give it to Alyyson because he's the one who's made it happen. We've had quite a few deflections go our way recently, but you don't get those things without putting yourself in dangerous positions and being prepared to have a go, and I think that's another positive about the way Villa are playing at the moment. We're getting into areas where we're asking questions of defenders, and Alyyson did that consistently against Viking.
The really interesting thing with him is how his first season at the club probably helped prepare him for what we're seeing now, even though he wasn't able to play anywhere near as much football as he would have wanted because of injuries.
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I've spoken before about how Emery can take his time integrating players, and I think Alysson is quite an interesting example of that because although he wasn't playing regularly, he was still spending time around the first-team environment and getting to understand what was expected of him. He would have been involved in all those meetings, sitting through the video analysis and learning the different tactical responsibilities that Emery demands from his players, and when he was fit enough to train, he would have been working on those things as well.
It's almost as though he was learning in the background last season, and now that he's getting opportunities to play, we're starting to see the benefits of that. I think if he'd managed to stay fit, we'd probably have seen a lot more of him earlier, but the important thing now is that he's getting minutes and beginning to build some momentum.
He's scored against Nottingham Forest, he's now started two games in a row and I thought the performance against Viking was a really big step forward for him. He started against Newcastle at the weekend and came off at half-time, but I didn't necessarily see that as anything to do with his ability or what he was offering the team. He'd been booked, the game was developing in a way where there was a danger of him getting another yellow card, and Emery made a decision.
If that had affected his confidence at all, there certainly wasn't any evidence of it against Viking because he played with so much freedom and belief in what he was doing. He was taking defenders on, using his strength, showing his quick feet and generally making himself an absolute nuisance throughout the game.
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It's also worth looking at the way he fitted into the system because having two genuine wide players allowed him to stay in areas where he could really attack his full-back. There wasn't the same expectation for him to keep moving inside and operating as another number 10, and I thought that suited him brilliantly. He was able to receive the ball, get himself facing the defender and use all those attributes that make him such an exciting player to watch.
The question now is whether he's done enough to start against Manchester City on Saturday, and I think he's given Emery a genuine decision to make. We know Manzambi wasn't involved against Viking, and there are different combinations available depending on how Emery wants to approach City, but Alysson couldn't really have done much more to put himself into contention.
I could certainly see a situation where McGinn plays on the left, Manzambi operates centrally and Alyyson starts on the right, although there are obviously other ways Emery could set the team up. The encouraging thing is that we've now got competition for places in those attacking positions, and there aren't too many players who can consider themselves automatic selections.
Even if Alysson doesn't start, I don't think that should take anything away from what he's doing because we've seen how important the players coming off the bench can be under Emery. Mbaye had a massive influence on the game against Newcastle in the closing stages, and somebody with Alysson's pace and directness could be a really useful option if Saturday's game begins to open up.
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I think the biggest thing for me is that we're starting to learn what sort of player we've got, and that's one of the most enjoyable aspects of watching this Villa team at the moment. We've brought in a lot of new players, and there are still things we're discovering about them because we simply haven't had the same amount of time watching them that we had with the previous group.
Alysson looks like somebody who can become a really important player for us if he stays fit, and I thought his performance against Viking was a brilliant example of why Villa were so keen to bring him to the club.
He's exciting, he's unpredictable and he's fun to watch, and after what he produced on Wednesday night, I'd be very surprised if Emery wasn't giving serious consideration to starting him against Manchester City.
