'Grow up' - Aston Villa boss Unai Emery's brutally honest reaction to sarcastic Morgan Rogers cheers

Unai Emery has revealed he decided to play Morgan Rogers for 90 minutes in Aston Villa’s 1-0 victory over Bologna to expose him to the harsh realities of his poor form, hoping it can act as a learning curve.

Villa finally recorded their first win of the new season at the seventh time of asking, claiming maximum points to kick off the league phase of the Europa League. But it was still a lacklustre performance for much of the game and Rogers, a shadow of his former self, was by far the worst culprit.

Rogers was arguably Villa’s best player last season and he was often eulogised as such by the Villa Park faithful. However, that certainly hasn’t been the case so far in 2024/25, as Rogers has failed to impress in any of his seven outings. It appears the England international relies on confidence, and that’s on the floor at the moment.

Villa fans sarcastically cheer Rogers

There have been some truly awful Villa performances so far this term, and some terrible individual displays to go with them, but Rogers’ show against Bologna was right up there with the worst. When at his best, Rogers can dribble past anyone with his physicality, pace and quick feet. But all of those attributes appeared to evaporate on Thursday night, as he gave the ball away time and time again.

Rogers has been pivotal in Emery’s structure due to his ability to turn away from midfielders and progress up the field, however he could hardly control the ball against Bologna, let alone advance into dangerous areas. In total, Rogers was dispossessed on six occasions and merely 10 of his 24 attempted passes were accurate. To make matters worse, he only won four of his 13 ground duels.

It got to the point where fans were genuinely wondering if Rogers was giving the ball away on purpose. It was like he was running through treacle every time he received possession. So much so, that there were loud sarcastic cheers from all around the stadium when he completed a relatively simple pass late on in the game. That moment, very harsh indeed, rather summed up his evening.

Emery responds to Rogers jeers

In most instances when a player is struggling as much as Rogers was, he would be hooked by his manager. But Emery, fully aware of how badly Rogers was faring, revealed to Birmingham World that he decided to keep him on for the rest of the game to teach him a handy lesson.

Keeping a player on with dwindling confidence may not seem like the most productive idea, but Emery believes it’s important for Rogers - and others suffering similar - to experience the lows as well as the highs.

“The fans, they have to show their emotions, and we have to accept it,” Emery told Birmingham World. “Sometimes we are successful and sometimes we are not, and sometimes they are proud of us and sometimes not. But we have to be there always, ready to accept it.

“Morgan, he’s young. He needs time as well to get more experiences. Today I kept him on the field for 90 minutes because I wanted his reaction, how he was accepting everything happened on the field, and he did it.

“He didn’t play well and didn’t be clinical in the attacking third to do the last assist, but I wanted to keep him firstly because, he’s always doing his task, he’s always working for the team, he’s always working fantastic.

“But he was not today being clinical offensively. He needs to take experiences like today, not playing very well, the crowd as well not being happy with him and he has to get these experiences and grow up through it,” Emery concluded.