Aston Villa's Amadou Onana to face Everton: Unai Emery says midfielder can reach high level after summer transfer

Amadou Onana has already matched his best Premier League scoring season for Everton by getting the opening goal in each of Aston Villa’s two wins so far. He has the chance to make it three against his former club at Villa Park on Saturday.

Onana’s £50m summer switch was an intriguing one. Sean Dyche called it “a business decision” due to Everton’s financial situation. But for Villa to break their transfer record suggested they saw much more in him than he had shown at Goodison Park.

Former Everton player Michael Ball summed up the mood among Everton supporters when describing the move as an example of the “wrong team at the wrong time” – even claiming Tim Iroegbunam, signed from Villa, has already shown more than Onana did.

But there is a recognition too that this is a player with so much natural ability that the prospect of the now-23-year-old midfielder eventually putting all of the parts together – perhaps finding the right team at the right time – makes him too tantalising to ignore.

“We signed Amadou Onana because he is young and has big potential,” Unai Emery tells Sky Sports. “We believe in his potential.” The Villa boss will also believe that he is a coach capable of coaxing far more from a young player who is still learning the game.

It has been a major adjustment for Onana. During the international window, the Belgium international spoke of the long days, the lengthy training sessions, the tactical detail that he has had to take on board, something for which Emery has long been notorious.

Interestingly, while Dyche was talking in his pre-match press conference of giving Iroegbunam space before loading him with too much information, Emery was at Villa’s training ground telling Sky Sports of the work that needs to be done to help Onana.

Onana can get to a ‘high level’

Even after their summer tour of the United States, it is a process that has only just begun. The difference between the player Onana is right now and the one Emery thinks he can be is vast. “The gap is at the beginning big, bigger than we analysed,” he says.

“But we are confident to increase his level in this gap to get to the level where we can think of him as a very good player in the future. He is [already] a very good player but we think he can improve and get to a high level as a player and help us a lot in this way.”

Perhaps it should not be a surprise that the adjustment is significant. Onana has left the team that played the most long balls in the Premier League last season for one that played among the fewest, only 25 more than short-passing experts Manchester City.

While away with Belgium, he said: “Here we play more on possession. You usually stay on the ball a lot longer. Sean Dyche wanted to see more direct football. Long balls. A lot of second balls. In the national team, I get the ball more. It suits me a little bit better.”

Onana’s pass-completion rate of 93.3 per cent with Villa is up from 84.9 per cent. It is a crude statistic, early days indeed, but it hints at his ability to keep possession, and while his goals have attracted attention, he has shown he can take care of the ball.

Potential to partner Kamara

Emery does not see Onana as a direct replacement for Brazil international Douglas Luiz, who has left for Juventus. “We added two players with the similar characteristics to Douglas,” he says. “Youri Tielemans last year and Ross Barkley this year.”

Instead, he argues that Onana has “more or less similar characteristics” to Boubacar Kamara, the fan-favourite midfielder currently out through injury. “We want two similar players in each position or players with the versatility to play different positions.”

Onana can do both because Emery insists that the two could also line up alongside each other. “They can play together, Kamara and Onana. If we were thinking he could not play with Kamara, maybe it would not have been very easy to sign him,” he explains.

“But we are thinking with Kamara, with Ama, with Barkley and with Tielemans, they can play [in any combination of] two players or we could even play with three of them together in our structure that we have. Of course, we signed Enzo Barrenechea as well.

“He is a young player who could develop well himself, improving and becoming important for us. We decided to let him to go on loan and in the future we want to add him and for him to join us, playing in our structure as well as an important player.”

Everton test for Emery

That is for the future. More immediately, there is Everton at home. Victory against Onana’s former club on Saturday evening, a first of the season in front of their own supporters at Villa Park, would be sure to move Emery’s side back into the top four.

The style of the two teams may be different but Dyche has Emery’s respect. “Last year, they came here to play in the Carabao Cup and they beat us. They won and they deserved to win. I know the coach, I know the players. They are very competitive.

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“They are coming here needing points. They are going to play focusing 100 per cent on their characteristics as a team with the players, with the style that they have. But I respect them a lot. We have to try to focus ourselves as well on our game plan.

“We have won two matches but it is not enough. We have to continue improving.” It is a message for everyone ahead of this match. But it is a message relevant to their record signing, in particular. Onana is a talent. Emery wants him to be so much more.

Watch Aston Villa vs Everton live on Sky Sports Premier League from 5pm on Saturday; kick-off 5.30pm. Stream with NOW.