What can ‘warrior’ Sanson bring to Villa’s push for Europe?

Aston Villa have been one of the surprise stories of the Premier League season so far, with Dean Smiths side currently in 9th place in the table. With a couple of games in hand on most teams, the Villans are extremely well placed to challenge for a European spot, sitting just three points off West Ham United in 5th place at the moment. Their resurgence in this campaign, after they escaped relegation on the final day of last season, has been credited to their recruitment in the summer, when a number of high-quality, proven players were brought in to improve every area of Villas squad. This has led to a general improvement in Villas football, with the attack not solely dependent on captain Jack Grealish anymore, while the defence has also performed much better with the likes of Matty Cash at right-back and Emiliano Martinez in goal helping immensely. Villa have thus made a move to further consolidate their squad in the January window  with Conor Hourihane departing on loan to Swansea City, there was a need to bring in cover for the midfield, and the Clarets have done just that with the signing of Morgan Sanson from Olympique Marseille.

The French midfielder arrives at Villa Park for a fee potentially rising to £15.5m, and has considerable experience in the French top-flight, as well as in Europe, having reached the Europa League final with Marseille in 2018, only to be beaten by Atletico Madrid. This scout report will take a look at Sansons profile and characteristics, and how he can fit into Villas midfield and tactics.

Playing and statistical profile

Morgan Sanson is a 26-year-old central midfielder, standing 6 ft tall, and is primarily right-footed. He has largely been used as part of a three-man midfield for Marseille this season, as either of the two flanking midfielders, but has also played as an attacking midfielder on occasion. His heatmap for this season so far will help us understand the areas of the pitch where he has been most involved.

As we can see, the Frenchman has often drifted out to the flanks, both on the left and right, and this sort of movement and positioning could come in handy for Villa as well, to provide support to the likes of Grealish, as well as defensive cover.

Before diving into an analysis of his tendencies on the pitch, it is important to take a look at some statistics to get an idea of where Sanson has been in comparison to other Ligue 1 midfielders. We have only considered central midfielders who have played at least 600 minutes in the league so far this season in order to have an accurate and appropriate comparison. All stats in this piece are taken from Wyscout.

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