Aston Villa’s best players of the season so far according to the statistics

Aston Villa have had an indifferent start to their Premier League campaign - we take a look at how their players have performed according to the statistics

John McGinn of Aston Villa celebrates after scoring their side’s second goal during the Premier League match between Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers

The first few months of the season have been a rollercoaster ride for Aston Villa fans.

An inability to find any consistency in their performances saw Dean Smith lose his job and former Rangers manager Steven Gerrard appointed as new Head Coach.

But regardless of what happens from here on out, those inconsistencies can’t all be put on the shoulders of the man in the dugout.

The players let Smith down this year and there haven’t been many this campaign that you could confidently say have been a standout performer.

However, according to FotMob - a website that takes a deep dive into player performances - there has been one in the claret & blue that has performed at a really high level on a regular basis.

Douglas Luiz.

The Brazilian was unavailable for Smith’s final two games in charge due to injury and his presence was certainly missed in the middle of the park.

In his eight performances this season, Luiz has picked up an average rating of 7.38/10. It’s a score based on over 100 individual statistics provided by Opta which cover everything from duels won to misplaced passes. So, in short, the 23-year-old is having a really good campaign and could be a key performer for Gerrard as we progress through the remainder of the season.

The worrying thing for Villa is that only one other player has scored over seven so far this season - which kind of shows why the team find themselves in the position they are to date.

John McGinn is the man in question with an average of 7.19, though that has dipped dramatically in recent weeks with his personal performances tailing off parallel to those of the team’s.

Currently, the worst performer is Anwar El-Ghazi who finds himself with a rough looking 6.37, closely followed by Marvelous Nakamba (6.41).

A couple of other interesting things to note.

Tyrone Mings, who has found himself under increased scrutiny this year and was even dropped by Smith in the defeat against West Ham United, finds himself topping a couple of important columns.

Villa’s captain has the most clearances on the pitch by a way when he’s on the field. He on average makes 4.2 a game which is a lot more than those nearest to him Ezri Konsa (2.7) & Axel Tuanzebe (1.7).

It’s those three, which may or may not come as a surprise, that have the most accurate passes per game - in that order too.

Mings (36.1), Konsa (29.2) & Tuanzebe (28.9) lead the Villans, though it could just show how much time the ball spends in that area of the field - which isn’t great.

Up the other end and it’s Ollie Watkins and Emi Buendia dominanting across the board.

Watkins has the most successful dribbles (1.7) per match and shots on target (1.1), though he has also missed the most big chances so far this season (3).

And Buendia, who has struggled for the most part, actually finds himself with the most key passes (1.7) and big chances created (2).

If you want to check out Aston Villa’s statistics in more details, you can do so via the FotMob site here.

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