Aston Villa have undoubtedly been one of the best performing clubs in the Premier League since Unai Emery arrived at Villa Park. And one player that exemplifies that turn around in form more than most is winger Leon Bailey.
Once considered a flop after his €32m move from Bayer Leverkusen, Bailey has established himself as a crucial member of Emery’s squad and sits second only to Ollie Watkins for goals and assists in the Premier League this season.
The fascinating thing about Bailey’s transformation under Emery is that it has largely come about due to the Jamaican forward’s role at Aston Villa changing. Where he was once a winger, the 26-year-old talent is now more like a second striker and seems to be thriving in his new role.
This is evident when we consider the way Bailey is setting up goals this season. While the forward’s assists per 90 have shot up compared to last season, the way he’s creating goals has notably changed.
For example, Bailey is making far fewer crosses into the penalty area this season. But his key passes, through balls and passes into the penalty box have all shot up quite considerably compared to the previous campaign.
In other words, Bailey has stopped swinging crosses into the box like a winger and is performing cutbacks and passes into the box like a more traditional attacking midfielder or No.10. And as a result, he’s second in Villa’s squad for assists in the Premier League this season.
This change in his style of play is also clear when we look at how he’s now scoring goals for Aston Villa.
Like his assist stats, Bailey’s goals per 90 have shot up this season from 0.18 goals per 90 to 0.57 goals per 90. And that’s largely due to him playing like more of a second striker.
The interesting thing is that while his shots per 90 have risen slightly, the real breakthrough has been his accuracy in front of goal, where we’ve seen his shots on target jump from 27.5% last season to 35.9% this time around.
This is due to Bailey getting into far clearer goal-scoring situations for Villa this season. Which we can see from the fact that not only has his touches of the ball in the penalty box per game risen by a massive 61% compared to last season but the average distance of his shots this season are 6.4 feet closer to the opposing goal than they were when he first joined Villa.
Of course, this has all been a part of Emery’s plans at Villa. The Spanish tactician revealed in February that when he first joined the club his initial hope was to play Bailey as a second striker, but consistency clearly got in the way.
The player himself also admitted in a recent interview that Emery was pretty up front about Bailey needing to improve his game and it’s clear that some minor tweaks to the forward’s style of play and the trust of his manager has had a huge impact this season.
So, while Bailey may still be starting out wide for Villa week in, week out, he’s obviously now playing like the kind of second striker that Emery had hoped he’d one day become. And as a result, the player and the club itself are hitting new heights this season.