Rogers:Chilled Tuchel has made a good impression

Midfielder reflects on Villa rise under demanding Emery

- RICHARD JOLLY

A manager imported at considerable expense tends to be demanding, his high standards and attention to detail rendering him a perfectionist. So Morgan Rogers can testify. The Aston Villa attacking midfielder is a rookie at international level, but 14 months under Unai Emery could serve as a fine grounding for his time playing for Thomas Tuchel and England.

Emery has enabled a footballer who was relegated from the Championship two years ago to score a Champions League hattrick this season. He has taken Rogers to levels few envisaged; certainly not Manchester City when they sold him in 2023. He has done it, a grateful Rogers grins, by always wanting more.

“Never a moment’s rest,” he said. “When you probably least expect it is where he’ll catch you out, telling you about yourself. For me personally, I wouldn’t change it. It's what you need sometimes, when you’ve had a few good games, sometimes you might not be as at it, that 1 per cent. He will make sure that 1 per cent is nipped in the bud straight away. He always drags the best out of you.

“Probably when you first come into the dressing room you don’t take it the best way, you don’t know how to handle it. You come in the changing room really happy, and then he’ll just have a go at you about something.

“I can think of the best games I’ve had, and he’ll come up to me and batter me for one little thing I did in the 20th minute... I go home annoyed, and I’d thought I’d played pretty well. That’s how he is.”