These are heady days for Aston Villa fans.
Their team currently sits eighth in the Premier League.
On their return to Europe’s premier competition, they are through to the last 16 of the Champions League after a top-eight finish in the table (thereby avoiding the play-off round).
They also advanced to the fifth round of the FA Cup after a deserved 2-1 win against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.
While the contributions made by their attacking players, most notably Ollie Watkins, Morgan Rogers, and Jhon Durán, have been vital to their run of success, plenty of others have also contributed.
One of those is Jacob Ramsey, who emerged from the academy in 2020 and has become a key member of the Aston Villa squad.
Whilst injuries have blighted Ramsey’s career, meaning he has not started as many games as he and others would have liked him to, there is no doubting his overall quality.
This was evident in abundance during their FA Cup victory against Tottenham, with Ramsey opening the scoring and being instrumental in everything that Unai Emery’s team did well on the day.
The performance reminded those watching what he offers when in top form.
This tactical analysis will delve into Jacob Ramsey style of play in greater detail to identify the various ways in which the 23-year-old Englishman fits into Unai Emery’s tactics and why he could be a key player for Aston Villa as the campaign progresses.
Jacob Ramsey Statistics
Via our friends at Xgstat, you can see all of Jacob Ramsey’s stats at Aston Villa for the 2024/2025 Premier League season below.
Jacob Ramsey Touch Map
Jacob Ramsey Attacking Threat
Jacob Ramsey’s style of play is that of an attacking midfielder by trade.
Ramsey is often deployed in the areas closest to the opposing goal, where he is tasked with creating a nuisance for them to deal with.
The 23-year-old has always done well at this, largely due to his ability to operate in a multitude of mindsets, as this section of Jacob Ramsey’s scout report will show.
During Emery’s time at the club, Aston Villa was recognised for its reliance on positional rotation and structural flexibility.
These tactics have been facilitated by the players they have had in their ranks.
The former Arsenal head coach integrates players who can naturally transition between roles as he seeks to give Aston Villa a dynamic appearance whenever they are in possession.
There is no doubt when watching Jacob Ramsey that he matches that profile, as he possesses the energy to burn and the individual intelligence needed to make decisions when multiple options are available to him.
This has proven especially useful when facing teams that are not the most solid defensively, as was the case against Tottenham in a league outing earlier in the campaign.
As can be seen, Ramsey has faced right-back Pedro Porro and knows that, despite his offensive threats, the Tottenham player is not at his most comfortable self when on the back foot.
Therefore, Jacob Ramsey can use his sharp feet to fashion a goalscoring opportunity, which came here when he initially shaped to drag the ball inside before taking it towards the goal line and cutting it back towards the middle.
This decisiveness enabled the 23-year-old to thrive whenever he found himself in these one-on-one situations, and at times, Porro and Tottenham simply couldn’t live with him.
Whilst nothing came of his effort on this occasion, with the cutback dissecting Watkins and Rogers inside the goal area, there is no doubt that this is where Ramsey is at his best when deployed higher up the field.
However, as mentioned, Emery does not want players who can only fit into a single game plan; instead, he needs those who can adapt to different circumstances as they emerge.
Given this, it has been just as common to see Ramsey sheathing those quick feet and instead focusing on holding the ball up in promising areas, slowing play down when asked to do so, and creating gaps for those in his vicinity to use to their advantage.
This has been especially evident whenever they have come up against teams who have tried to be more robust defensively, with the Champions League trip to Monaco one example of that.
As can be seen, the side from the principality opted to prioritise making life difficult for Aston Villa and shutting down their attacking threats whenever they could, with their compact backline designed to do just that.
However, with Jacob Ramsey in the team and looking to attract defenders towards him, The Villans found a way to penetrate this rearguard action, with him being instantly closed down here by right-back Vanderson and then setting up Durán inside him and in space to attempt an overhead kick.
His individual strength, a key quality in Jacob Ramsey’s style of play, enables the Englishman to thrive in this role.
It has been common to see him keeping opponents at bay and not allowing the ball to be dislodged from his feet whenever he is tested, as Vanderson sought to do here.
While this chance again might not have come to anything, his individual qualities are clear to see, and it is apparent why he has become such an integral part of the Aston Villa squad.
If there is one thing that Jacob Ramsey needs to work on, it is his goal conversion rate.
Despite having 18 shots, the 23-year-old has scored just two times so far this season.
Whilst it is important to remember that each situation is different, some observations can be made about those times when he has found himself through on goal.
One of those is Ramsey’s tendency to take more touches than he needs and almost to second-guess himself, as he did here against Liverpool.
At this stage, he has once again deployed his sharp direction change to win a 1v1 duel with Trent Alexander-Arnold and manoeuvred his way into a position from which he has a clear sight of the goal.
However, rather than getting the ball out of his feet quickly here and trying his luck, he ends up holding onto the ball for another few seconds before attempting to get the shot away.
This gave Ryan Gravenberch time to track back across and block the effort, which the former Bayern Munich player successfully does here.
As a result, the chance was squandered.
This is not the first time he has made this mistake and failed to capitalise on situations like this.
It should be noted that there have been times when he has been more decisive and has come close to adding to his seasonal goal tally, such as the aforementioned league match against Tottenham, the cup meeting between the two on Sunday, and in some Champions League outings, so he is capable of doing so.
With Jacob Ramsey already averaging 3.43 touches inside the penalty area per outing this season, it can be expected that he will continue to find himself in these positions as the matches go on.
Therefore, the Villa Academy graduate will have opportunities to fine-tune this aspect of his game, and he needs to do so to realise his true potential.
Jacob Ramsey Connecting Play
The 23-year-old has played a key role in Aston Villa’s fortunes this season, not only inside the final third.
He is also known for operating in other areas of the field.
This was especially evident against Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend, with him playing behind the main attacking line at times and focusing on shifting the ball into their path during transitions.
This again allows Jacob Ramsey to demonstrate his wide-ranging skillset.
The need for him to have that ability to drop back at times is mainly down to Emery’s tactical demands.
Previous analysis pieces have made it clear that Jacob Ramsey’s style of play depends on forwards filling holes between opposing ranks and wingers running forward to fill holes left by opposing defenders moving out of line.
As this situation indicates, Ramsey thrives on build-up play.
He always wants to be involved, making him a perfect fit for Emery’s game plan.
Here, he has dropped into a hole in front of the Wolves defenders to receive a pass from Boubacar Kamara, knowing that doing so would attract the attention of those opponents closest to him.
Sure enough, the temptation to close him down proved too much for Matt Doherty and Nélson Semedo to ignore, which created this imbalance in the Wolves’ defensive shape.
As a result, Lucas Digne, who had made a typical attacking run from left-back, now has time and space to get up the pitch and into the area they had vacated, giving his team a way to progress the ball up the field.
None of this would have happened without Jacob Ramsey’s initial movement towards the ball, and this is a perfect example of him playing a crucial role while sometimes going under the radar.
Therefore, whilst the likes of Watkins and Rogers have been the standout names for much of the campaign, there is so much that Ramsey’s likes have done well, making the whole Aston Villa package function.
That theme continues when looking at Jacob Ramsey’s passing range.
His 87.9% accuracy means that this is another way his team has benefited.
As can be seen here, it enables Aston Villa to identify weak points in their opponent’s defensive structure and exploit them.
Ramsey receives the ball from Youri Tielemans before instantly feeding it into Watkins’ path.
From the latter’s point of view, he knows that the pass will come if he runs behind the defensive line here.
73.9% of Jacob Ramsey’s passes into the penalty area find their intended target.
Add to that the speed and precision that he has consistently demonstrated, and it is perhaps unsurprising that Watkins successfully tees up Rogers here, who then sends the ball towards the Bournemouth goal.
It is not only that that needs to be mentioned here, though.
Ramsey has also proven useful in these situations because he can control the tempo of games whenever the ball is at his feet.
This comes through his capability to make both one-touch passes, which allow Aston Villa to get behind their opponents much quicker and to hold onto the ball for a few additional seconds if no passing option is immediately available to him.
This link reinforces the previous point in this Jacob Ramsey’s scout report about the Villa Academy graduate’s adaptability in various situations.
He can get on the front foot and hold the ball up to allow others to join him.
On this occasion, his decision to make a quicker pass was correct, with it allowing The Villans to have the chance to find the back of the net.
It might not have worked out on this occasion, with Rogers failing to find the target.
Still, it is yet another indication of why Ramsey is just as useful when asked to connect the play from deeper areas and the impact he has when positioned among the forward line.
The theme of controlling the flow of matches from further back continues when we consider Ramsey’s ability to dribble and pass the ball.
Jacob Ramsey’s 66.7% dribble success rate at the time of writing was another of his strengths in the field.
It is most common to see him drop back to receive the ball, and the opposing side has opted not to close him down like the Wolves did earlier.
When Bournemouth visited Villa Park, they favoured a defensive approach, sitting back and vacating the territory in front of them.
This meant that chances to dribble forward often presented themselves.
Ramsey knows that making a pass from his current position increases the chance of the ball going astray.
The young Englishman, therefore, decides to retain it for as long as possible, taking it deep into the final third before releasing it into Watkins’ path and allowing the striker to have a shot at goal.
This also shows that Ramsey can fulfil another role in Unai Emery’s formations: the box-to-box role.
With Aston Villa often deploying a midfield three, there is always a need for a defensive midfielder, a creative player who can feed the ball into the forwards’ path, and a box-to-box player who can connect everything.
Jacob Ramsey would ordinarily occupy the playmaker role higher up the field, but he is capable of drifting between the lines if needed.
This further highlights just how wide-ranging Jacob Ramsey’s skillset is and how much he brings to Aston Villa tactics.
It further cements the sense that the 23-year-old is someone they will come to rely on even more as the games come thick and fast and rotation becomes vital.
Jacob Ramsey Positional Versatility
While much of this analysis has focused on his ability to set up shots on goal or move the ball around the field in transition, more of Jacob Ramsey’s style of play still needs to be explored.
As the campaign continues, it has become abundantly clear that Emery has been tweaking aspects of Ramsey’s play to help him become the player so many know he can be.
These, too, have proven vital in allowing him to contribute to the team’s success.
The first alteration is to use Ramsey in a wing role, which is not his most familiar position but one that he has taken well.
Emery does not limit his involvement in matters inside the pitch but instead looks to use his tendency to get the ball onto his right foot to give the opposing backline something different to manage.
In this case, that strategy worked well for Aston Villa.
Ramsey helped stretch the pitch horizontally and once again enticed Wolves duo Doherty and Semedo into closing him down.
This then opened up space for him to cut back inside once Tielemans had passed him the ball.
Ramsey held them and André off as he made an inverted run into the territory that had been left unguarded.
While the Villa Academy graduate will never be an archetypal winger, his desire to be involved in the game will lead him to naturally move away from the wing when he can.
This gives Aston Villa a distinct dynamic whenever they have possession of the ball.
Therefore, the young Englishman now offers something else that will benefit Unai Emery’s tactics as they seek different ways to create space and operate with the element of surprise.
Ramsey offers not only horizontal positional shifts but also the ability to move vertically, which is just as evident.
It has already been mentioned that Jacob Ramsey can play the box-to-box role if needed, but he has also been known to stay back and become the defensive midfielder at times, as was the case in this situation against Celtic.
While this does mean he isn’t acting as a focal point higher up the pitch, it does not hinder his ability to show what he can do.
Several elements of Jacob Ramsey’s skills can still be used.
In this case, his spatial awareness and passing accuracy stood out.
The 23-year-old got on the ball and instantly looked for a way to break through the Glasgow team’s congested midfield setup.
Another thing to note about this is that it is another demonstration of Emery’s rotational desires.
Digne once again moves forward as Ramsey drops back, which offers the latter the passing option he is looking for.
Whilst seeing him in areas such as this is not the most familiar sight for fans, it is something that Jacob is working on and is succeeding at, with him winning 58.3% of his defensive duels and making 2.16 interceptions per game.
Therefore, it shows once again how he is always looking to add new dimensions to his game and become a much more well-rounded player.
Jacob Ramsey Touch Map 2024/2025
That ability to move between different areas of the pitch is highlighted clearly when examining Ramsey’s touch map for the season so far, which indicates where he has gained possession and has looked to assist his team whenever they have been in possession.
It perhaps comes as no surprise that most of his touches have come down the left-hand side, where he usually plays.
However, his registration of touches in several different channels once again highlights how the Villa Academy graduate is far from a one-track player and is capable of moving to wherever he can contribute to defensive, build-up, or offensive situations.
At the same time, the vertical depth of his touches demonstrates how much he has evolved from an attacking midfielder into someone who can operate in any role and across any area of the pitch.
This has developed since Emery took charge of the team, and it shows how Jacob Ramsey is quickly becoming the ideal player for his brand of football.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this player analysis has taken a closer look at midfielder Jacob Ramsey’s style of play, highlighting the different areas in which he contributes to Aston Villa’s tactics and the many ways in which the 23-year-old is becoming a dependable member of The Villans’ squad.
As our Jacob Ramsey analysis has indicated, there is a lot to like about the young Englishman.
The Villa Academy graduate undoubtedly matches many of Unai Emery’s expectations, offering dynamic movement, intelligent passing, and an offensive threat from different areas of the field.
The key question surrounding him will always be his fitness.
Injuries are one of the main reasons he has not started more games this season.
If Jacob Ramsey can stay fit and stave off those concerns, he could be a dependable player for his hometown club as they seek to balance the differing demands that league, cup and Europe all bring.
