Alejandro Garnacho is Unai Emery's next rehabilitation project. This is where he fits at Aston Villa

Unai Emery's penchant for rehabilitating flailing, once prodigious talents now extends to Alejandro Garnacho.

Multiple sources familiar with how the Aston Villa manager works say the same thing: he enjoys, even relishes, the challenges of using his coaching methods to demystify a player's mind and haul their career out of a nosedive. His coaching serves as a remedy, ridding the player of any baggage he may have -- on or off the field.

Provided he can recalibrate them -- returning them "to their best level", as Emery often puts it -- all the noise encompassing the player's life fades into the background.

In fairness, it does help that Emery's total autonomy at Villa yields a power to sanction signings that recruitment departments might otherwise advise against, or in whom executives would instinctively have reservations after character references.

The Emery factor has led to Villa becoming the restoration club for those who have lost their way. In almost every transfer window under the Spaniard, they have signed a player with a high profile -- sometimes ageing, sometimes young but directionless -- with the primary ambition of "recovering form and confidence", to quote another Emery maxim.

It happened successfully with Marco Asensio and Marcus Rashford in January 2025; less so with Jadon Sancho the next summer. Garnacho will be the third winger with Manchester United heritage and the second to play for both United and Chelsea before heading to the Midlands.

In each case, the situation was complex with Emery wanting to undo any frazzled minds by unlocking them on the pitch. The plus point for Garnacho is he sits in the same category as Rashford and not Sancho. Emery was enamoured by Rashford, just as he is with Garnacho currently. Sancho, on the other hand, was a deadline-day signing upon whom Villa simply took a gamble.

Emery believed that, at his best, Rashford was one of the most threatening attackers in the world. He implored senior figures to push for his acquisition, knowing an optimally functioning Rashford would have been out of Villa's reach. The 28-year-old's time at Villa Park proved short and sweet, even if his form, though improved, was viewed through rose-tinted glasses.

Regardless, Emery struck a chord with Rashford, the player and person. The winger loved his time at Villa, with sources familiar to the situation and granted anonymity to protect relationships telling The Athletic they consider Emery among the best coaches with whom he has worked. When Rashford was forced to miss the last few games of the season with injury, he wanted to be near to the team's dugout, lending his support and continuing his recovery at Bodymoor Heath rather than in Manchester or abroad.

In retrospect, Emery helped simplify Rashford's game again and engender his key strengths -- some of which he may have forgotten or complicated.

Stylistically, Garnacho is comparable.

At his most threatening when brimming with confidence and direct in his attacking, Garnacho is the type of wide forward Emery has historically loved. The manager wanted an attacker who could add pace, verticality and an ability to run off both flanks. Villa lacked all three at various points last season, so the signing of a player who could regularly make runs beyond opposition defences was a priority.

Before a move for Garnacho was mooted, Villa's preference was a winger who would mostly operate from the right. Yet sources close to the club, again speaking on condition of anonymity to protect relationships, noted Emery's most successful signings at Villa have all had the same thread running through them: they are multifaceted. So Garnacho, who has experience playing off the right under Erik ten Hag, is suitably versatile and young enough to remain malleable.

If Emery believes fitting Garnacho into his best position is required to coax out his main qualities, he has shown with Rashford a willingness to alter his system.

Villa usually deploy a variation of a 4-2-3-1 shape, with two No 10s and a right winger. It was discussed that signing a left-winger -- Garnacho's favoured position -- would not be too much of an issue considering John McGinn can tuck in from the other flank and ensure Villa maintain two No 10s, as is Emery's customary structure.

Interestingly, though, Garnacho's positional map last season demonstrates he often started in the inside left channel before drifting wide. Theoretically, this could enable him to work as a left No 10 without altering Villa's system too greatly.

Most of his dribbles/ball carrying, which Emery considers key for a wide forward, came from wide areas.

Garnacho averaged 3.9 take-ons per 90 minutes last season -- a good frequency -- but was offset by a lowly success percentage of just 26 per cent. He was prone to overdribbling or being slightly careless in his end product. Reflected in his dribbling profile, the winger's natural tendency was to drive for the byline.

In his only season at Chelsea, Garnacho was required routinely to overlap or hug the touchline. His off-the-ball runs, detailed below, show the Argentina international is effective at being on the end of crosses at the back post.

His shot selection was quite average, however. Over the previous three Premier League campaigns, his xG per shot was just 0.09, with just 30 per cent of them on target -- seven per cent of which were converted.

This suggests that, with improved, more incisive finishing complementing his inclination to find a way in at the back post, Emery could refine Garnacho into a more reliable source of goals.

With Rashford, Emery acknowledged he needed to make tactical changes to ensure the attacker received and ran with the ball in the inside-left channel.

Consequently, the left-back behind Rashford, instead of holding high width as they had previously, started to invert inside the pitch, dragging the opposition's right-winger into central areas and opening up one-v-one opportunities for Rashford.

This may be repeated with Garnacho in light of his preference to stay wide and drive to the byline.

Villa are undergoing a transitional period, underlined by the outgoings of Morgan Rogers and Youri Tielemans, Emery's two chief creators. Garnacho will have a burden of responsibility to compensate for their loss with greater output, putting up attacking numbers that have long been in line with his potential yet have rarely materialised.

He is Emery's next rehabilitation project and someone who will need to repay that faith -- not only for the team's sake, but also his.

Kaynak: The New York Times. Telif hakkı kaynak yayına aittir; buradaki metin özet/atıftır.

Orijinal haber: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7474482/2026/07/30/alejandro-garnacho-aston-villa-unai-emery-analysis/