Morgan Rogers: From Manchester City prospect to Pep Guardiola’s tormentor
Rodgers doubled Villa’s lead with a clever low shot and he made City’s defense lapse in the first half before bursting through and unselfishly passing to Jon Dolan. Opening the scoring.
This is the first time Rodgers has scored and assisted in a Premier League game. It was his fourth goal of the season and his eighth in 28 league appearances for Villa.
Those aren’t a lot of numbers, but it was another game in a series where Rodgers put up numbers that went beyond the box office numbers.
He clearly has the trust of head coach Unai Emery, who has started every league game this season, with both players and coach believing he is capable of more.
“I try to thrive in big games and I want to show what I’m capable of,” Rodgers told TNT Sports after City’s win.
“Sometimes I do difficult things and then try to find that quality and stay calm. I’ve wasted some chances this season where I wanted to score goals.”
Emery added: “His performance today was very good and he was very important. Through him we were able to get back the performance because he linked the forwards with the midfielders and the wingers. Today he did a great job in the second half, linking up with the forwards and Goal.”
“He has to add goals to his numbers and today he was fantastic.”
Aside from his ice-cold goal and assist numbers, Rodgers was almost irresistible against Manchester City. He scored just minutes after hitting the post after some great individual performances.
Shortly after the goal, he denied Ollie Watkins with a lovely through ball, but the striker failed to make it 3-0 as he fired at the goalkeeper.
Against Manchester City, he had four shots on goal, attempted five dribbles, completed three, and touched the ball six times in the opposition penalty area. He tops Villa’s list in all these metrics.
Granted, this was all against City’s lack of defensive confidence, but Rodgers made the veteran internationals look like a 40-plus team – and not a good one at that.
