Unai Emery’s Aston Villa side return to action in the Premier League later today as they take on reigning champions Manchester City at The Etihad.
Both sides head into the match off the back of defeats in the English top-flight and it will be fascinating to see how they respond to their latest setbacks.
Villa were beaten 4-2 by Leicester City on their own turf whilst Pep Guardiola’s men suffered a 1-0 loss to Tottenham Hotspur, thanks to a goal from Harry Kane.
Emery may look to make changes to his side after the disappointing result last time out and it could be time to unleash Jhon Duran for his full debut.
The centre-forward arrived at Villa Park on a permanent deal from MLS outfit Chicago Fire during the January transfer window and made his debut, off the bench, against the Foxes last time out.
He could come in to replace Leon Bailey after the Jamaica international forward failed to impress up front alongside Ollie Watkins in the 4-2 defeat.
As per Sofascore, the ex-Bayer Leverkusen winger recorded a score of 6.5 as he lost 11 of his 14 individual duels and failed with four of his five attempted dribbles, whilst losing possession a whopping 23 times.
Bailey, who has averaged a Sofascore rating of 6.68 across 20 appearances in the Premier League, has one goal and zero assists in his last nine competitive matches for Villa and this does not suggest that he is likely to cause City many problems this evening.
Duran, on the other hand, is somewhat of an unknown quantity as the gem is yet to start a match in England but with that in mind, could catch the Cityzens by surprise with his ability in the final third. Indeed, the likes of Nathan Ake, Manuel Akanji, and Ruben Dias will not be used to defending against him.
The 6 foot 1 Colombian marksman, who was once dubbed a “complete forward” who is an “aerial threat” by talent scout Jacek Kulig, is also coming into 2023 off the back of an impressive year in the MLS with the Fire.
He averaged a Sofascore rating of 6.91 and plundered eight goals and three assists in just 14 MLS starts for his old club throughout 2022, whilst winning 47% of his duels and losing possession 7.1 times per match.
These statistics indicate that the 19-year-old has the potential to be a better option than Bailey if the gem can replicate that form in the Premier League, due to his effectiveness in front of goal and his reliability in possession – not consistently gifting the ball back to the opposition as the 25-year-old did last weekend.
His rawness and youthful enthusiasm, mixed in with the potential surprise he could spring upon the City defence, is why the forward could be an upgrade on the Jamaican attacker, who struggled badly against Leicester.
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