With Ross Barkley's spell at Aston Villa looking likely to meet an end at the start of June, many replacements have been spoke about amongst Villa supporters. But do they have the final piece of the puzzle hiding in their ranks?
This season has been quite the breakout season for the young Villa star Jacob Ramsey as he has made his first Aston Villa start, first Premier League start and has picked up an impressive first assist for the Claret and Blue outfit. When looking at the intriguing case that is Jacob Ramsey we first must look into the stats compared to Ross Barkley's who is his direct competitor for the attacking midfielder role. This season Ramsey has played 471 minutes of Premier League football compared to Ross Barkley's 1,434, given these amounts we must times Ramsey's minutes played by 3 to get a more fair understanding of Ramsey's numbers.
When it comes to passes Ramsey would have 501 compared to Barkley's 682 which at first sight may sound a bit underwhelming but when you look at it given Ramsey's having his first season and often plays off of the bench it's a lot more impressive.
Now let's take a wider look into all of the statistics in both the team having possession and how hard they work for the team without possession:
These stats give a good indicator that Ramsey may just be ready for the step up to the starting 11 of a consistent basis; and whilst Barkley does outweigh him in the 'in possession' stats, that is highly expected due to the vast amount of more starts he has received then Ramsey meaning he is more familiar in the teams passages of play and has longer to adapt to the games speed and his role in the game.
One impressive performance that showed the creativity of Jacob Ramsey and what he can offer to this Villa side is the Away from home trip to Newcastle where Jacob Ramsey played 59 minutes. In this limited time Jacob Ramsey managed 87% of his passes to be accurate, he made two key passes which was the second most in the side and he managed to complete a beautiful back post cross on to the feet of John McGinn. Another impressive performance from the 19 year old attacking midfielder is the Leeds game where Aston Villa held onto a lead for 86 minutes as the Midfielder helped to boss the midfield with an impressive 6 defensive actions, winning 6 duels, making 4 long balls, providing 1 key pass and drawing two fouls from the opposition. Finally he also had a what some would say game changing cameo against Fulham as his introduction saw him bring a bulldog like energy to the Aston Villa midfield as the Villans went on to score 3 goals for a sensational comeback. In the midfielders 16 minutes he managed to muster up 4 defensive actions, 2 duels won and 8 successful passes.
One final stat on the young Englishman that I felt was interesting, is that in his limited 471 minutes Jacob Ramsey has managed to draw 2 red cards from the opposition which is not only the highest in the Villa squad but it is also the joint highest in the Premier League and as many as Grealish has in the last two seasons, this shows his willingness to take players on which, apart from Jack Grealish, has been a weakness in the recent Aston Villa playing squad.
All in all, I see Ramsey to be having an impressive debut campaign and believe that if Aston Villa would like to focus on other areas to improve this summer, that Jacob Ramsey having improved game time would be a smart decision from Dean Smith and his backroom staff and they could soon see the youngster become one of their most valuable assets.
What are your thoughts on young Jacob Ramsey?
@AVFC__Alex
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