Morgan Rogers of Aston Villa celebrates scoring his team's second goal during the Premier League match between Aston Villa and Manchester City
Flying... Morgan Rogers celebrates his goal against Manchester City
The irony was there for all to see… a struggling Manchester City and another one-time Etihad prospect come back to haunt them after being shown the door by Pep Guardiola.
Cole Palmer has snatched most of the headlines in this respect, but now Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers is not far behind after playing a key role in City’s latest setback - a 2-1 defeat at Villa Park on Saturday.
Rogers, recruited by Villa a year ago for an initial £8m from Middlesbrough after being sold by Pep just seven months earlier, was City’s chief tormentor. He played in Jhon Duran for Villa’s opener and then bagged the second himself to further enhance his credentials as one of the best young performers in the top flight.
It is a display that has prompted plenty of comment - on his emergence, his potential and on how City got it so wrong again with a talented youngster.
Here is what has been said about Rogers, the Halesowen-born West Brom academy product threatening to be the Premier League’s next big thing…
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Unai Emery, Aston Villa manager
Collectively and individually we have targets. We will need his numbers and, more or less, he is getting it. I am very demanding with Morgan because he is very important for us, but I need his performance every match we are playing with different objectives.
Sometimes playing number 10, sometimes playing on the left-hand side, defensively, offensively, sometimes assists, sometimes scoring goals and getting in the box.
He has a lot of responsibility in my eyes and with my style. I am trying to push him a lot. I am happy with him, but I want more from him.
The Times, Charlotte Duncker
If things had worked out differently for Morgan Rogers, the 22-year-old would have been leaving Villa Park on Saturday afternoon on the losing side, part of a squad going through a period of crisis.
But instead of a miserable trip back up the M6 to Manchester he was the one inflicting more hurt on his former team with a man-of-the-match display which helped to earn Aston Villa a 2-1 win against Manchester City.
It was the sort of attacking display from the new England international that Pep Guardiola would have loved to have seen from one of his players, as they struggled to find a way through. Rogers had said before the match that he had an added incentive to perform well, to show City, who he joined in 2019 before leaving in 2023 having not made a first-team appearance, how far he has come. It is fair to say he did just that, capping a superb display with the second goal to inflict a ninth defeat in 12 games on his old club.
Pep Guardiola, Manchester City manager
Do you know what happened? Some players were in a team who won the treble and the quadruple. It's about the right tempo and the right time that can give a chance.
Everybody knows how good Morgan is, and a lot of players who we loan or sell are, but he was in that age where at that moment we had players that allowed us to create more success in the history of our club. When they arrive they are two or three years younger, while there is Kevin (De Bruyne) in their prime and Bernardo (Silva) and Riyad (Mahrez) and Leroy (Sane) and Raheem (Sterling), and sometimes it's difficult. It's the only reason why (we sold him)..
With this situation right now, of course, these players would be with us, but it was in the right moment. I'm happy for him because he's a lovely guy and he exploded into a top class player. England have another exceptional player.
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Sam Wallace, The Telegraph
City’s Premier League defeats once felt collectable, strange anomalies in the great sweep of their history, but now they run plentiful and each with its own theme. This time it was Morgan Rogers, the former City player, now Villa attacker, who assisted the first and scored the second. He carried the ball past more than one City challenge with a delicacy of touch and a puncher’s physique. On this afternoon Rogers looked like the future, and many of City’s players the past.
City signed Rogers in 2019 in that difficult developmental period between academy and Premier League first-teamer and sold him to Middlesbrough four years later after three loans and not a single City senior appearance. Like his former City stable-mate Cole Palmer, the 22-year-old Rogers, a West Bromwich Albion academy boy, looks like he might be one of the best players in the Premier League for quite some time to come.
Adam Bate, Sky Sports analyst
It was perhaps the most eye-catching performance this reporter has seen in the flesh all season, bullying the reigning champions with his strength, running away from them with his speed and punishing them with his skill. He was outstanding against his old club.
He set up Jhon Duran's opener and then scored the second himself. He has five goals and three assists in the Premier League this season but that only hints at his role under Unai Emery.
Rogers, 22, ranks among the top 10 players in the Premier League for completed dribbles and through-balls, but what is particularly interesting is his outsized importance to Emery against what might be regarded as the toughest opposition.
He completed five dribbles against City, having also done the same against Arsenal. Rogers has not done that more than twice in any of his appearances this season against teams other than last season's top two. Villa use him to get up the pitch in these games.
There have been some suggestions that Rogers has looked tired at times this season and that would be understandable. This was the first time in a month that he has been playing at the weekend having not also appeared for Villa in a midweek game too.
Interestingly, four of Rogers' five Premier League goals this season have come in games where he has not played a game in the previous midweek. When he is full of energy, there is simply no stopping him - as Guardiola and Manchester City found out.
Rogers on Rogers and why he left Man City
I felt like it was time for me to go and play first-team football somewhere. To go and express myself, to go and challenge myself against grown men in a tough division, to compete for games every weekend.
It was massive for me. It's not for everyone. Everyone's path is completely different, but for me, it was definitely what was needed. I felt like I needed that next step. I played a lot of my games there. Learned a lot about myself.
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