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Don't Forget About Brian Madjo as Aston Villa's New Era Takes Shape
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- Don't Forget About Brian Madjo as Aston Villa's New Era Takes Shape
(REUTERS)
Brian Madjo is close to an Aston Villa return
For all the change Aston Villa went through during the summer, there is one thing I keep coming back to when trying to work out what the ceiling of this new team might eventually be. We have started to see Nicolas Jackson settle, Johan Manzambi made a huge impact against Tottenham and some of the new pieces are finally beginning to come together, but there is still one player who hasn't been involved at all.
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Brian Madjo hasn't even played yet.
I think that is easy to forget because so much has happened since pre-season. Madjo was one of the young players we were talking about constantly during the summer and there was a period where it looked as though he might genuinely force his way into Unai Emery's thinking for the start of the campaign. Instead, injury intervened and while Villa have been trying to rebuild their attack without him, he has almost disappeared from the conversation.
That should start to change as he gets closer to being available because I don't think Madjo should simply be regarded as another academy player waiting for the occasional opportunity. What we saw during pre-season suggested Emery was beginning to view him as somebody capable of contributing to the first team, and that distinction is important.
Madjo is still only 17 and obviously there has to be patience around him. Nobody should be expecting him to come back from injury and immediately become one of Villa's most important attacking players, particularly when he has barely begun his senior career, but I think the excitement around him before the injury was justified. There is a physicality to him that makes him look capable of coping with senior football already, but there is also an unpredictability and directness that Villa don't necessarily have in abundance.
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The interesting thing now is the team he will be coming back into.
When we were watching Madjo in pre-season, there was still enormous uncertainty around Villa's attack. Players were coming and going, the squad wasn't finished and it was difficult to know exactly what Emery's forward line would look like once the transfer window closed. We now have a much clearer picture, even if the team itself is still developing.
Jackson has made an encouraging start as the main centre-forward and I think we are already seeing why he could be such a good fit for Emery. Manzambi showed against Tottenham why so many of us were excited about him, producing a goal and an assist while offering the sort of movement and versatility that can knit different parts of the attack together. There are other options Emery hasn't been able to use consistently yet as well, which means the attacking picture still feels incomplete.
Madjo adds another dimension to it.
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The temptation with a player of his age is always to ask where exactly he sits in the pecking order, but I'm not sure that is particularly useful yet. What matters is that Emery has another type of forward available to him, particularly during a period where Villa are about to start playing every few days. Seven games in 22 days during October means opportunities are going to appear for players outside the obvious starting XI, whether that is through rotation, injuries, game state or simply Emery deciding he needs something different.
That is where Madjo becomes really interesting.
There will be matches where Villa need more running in behind, occasions when they need somebody to attack tired defenders and games where Emery may decide that giving a young forward 20 minutes is preferable to asking one of his senior players to complete another 90. There are also cup and European situations where the circumstances of a match could give Madjo the chance to build minutes without carrying the responsibility of having to transform the team immediately.
We have seen Emery do this with young players before. He doesn't tend to hand out minutes simply because somebody is young and talented; there normally has to be a tactical reason for them to be on the pitch and a level of trust built on the training ground first. That can occasionally be frustrating when supporters are excited about an academy player, but it also means that when somebody starts becoming genuinely involved, it is worth paying attention.
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Madjo appeared to be moving in that direction before the injury.
His pre-season performances weren't just encouraging because he scored goals. There was something about the way he imposed himself on games that made him look closer to senior football than you might expect at 17. He wasn't playing like somebody who was simply delighted to be sharing a pitch with first-team footballers. He looked as though he wanted to compete with them.
That is what makes his eventual return one of the more intriguing subplots of Villa's next phase of the season. There is absolutely no need to rush him and the worst thing we could do is place ridiculous expectations on a teenager returning from injury, but equally I don't think we should forget what he was showing before he disappeared from the team.
Villa's summer recruitment was designed to change the age profile of the squad as well as replace the players who left. Manzambi is part of that, Suzuki is part of it and there are several players who could potentially grow considerably under Emery over the next few years. Madjo is at the extreme end of that because he is still so young, but the potential upside is enormous if Villa can develop him correctly.
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The timing of his return could be useful too. One of the things we haven't been able to do so far this season is properly judge Villa's squad depth because Emery hasn't really had the entire group available at once. Some players arrived late, others have been injured and the opening weeks have been so fragmented that we have only seen glimpses of what the complete squad might look like.
October should begin to change that. The schedule is going to demand more players, the new signings will have had additional time working under Emery and some of those who have been unavailable should begin moving back into contention. We are going to learn an awful lot about the depth of this squad during that period.
Madjo is part of that depth, but he is also something slightly more exciting because we don't really know what his limit is yet.
The early weeks of the season have understandably been dominated by the players Villa lost and the new signings attempting to replace them. Slowly, that conversation is beginning to change. Jackson is establishing himself, Manzambi has announced himself and there are signs that a completely different Aston Villa attack is beginning to emerge.
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And one of the most exciting young forwards we watched during the summer hasn't even kicked a ball yet.
That doesn't mean Madjo will walk straight into Emery's team or that we should expect him to transform Villa's season. It simply means that when we assess what this new group might eventually become, we still haven't seen all of it.
For a team that feels as though it is only just beginning to take shape, that is a pretty exciting thought.
