Ranking Aston Villa's squad - a tierlist

It's been a solid 2023 at Aston Villa so far under Unai Emery.

After a quiet January, you could be forgiven for pondering how Villa could move forward - but Emery has truly made the best of his squad who are currently chasing down a place in European competition for next season.

After beating Chelsea (now managerless), it seems like a good time to rank the squad, and assess where we're at right now before we head to Leicester (now managerless).

I used Tiermaker to rank Villa's current squad (from this list which is why some may be missing) using a few benchmarks.

• Best of class: Players in the best form and leading by example.
• Stars: Extremely good players who are picking themselves.
• Solid: Goddamn good players.
• Room for improvement: Good players who can certainly offer more.
• Must improve: Players who haven't really hit the heights expected.
• Bye-Bye?: Not sure they'll be around much longer.
• Unfair to judge: Long-term injuries, players who haven't played a lot, new signings etc.
• There's also some extras at the end. Mainly young players!

Let's get into it.

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Best of class

Writes itself, doesn't it?

Douglas Luiz is fully delivering on his promise and is a powerhouse, even in matches without the might and dynamism of Boubacar Kamara or Jacob Ramsey beside him. He can do a bit of everything, does it with style and is every bit what we wanted him to be back in 2020.

John McGinn. God, what a story. £2.5m, £3m or whatever it cost to bring him in? He's paid it back 100x. He's got his goal (a stunner against Chelsea). Most would've been fairly ok with selling him a few months ago - but not now. He's a multi-skilled wonder who is hitting great form at the right time for the Villa, and has seemingly lost the stodginess that has hampered him for a bit. Well in.

I'm running out of words for Ollie Watkins. He's a record-breaker and a record-matcher (one of a few in this squad, actually) and should be hurt that he isn't a regular in this England squad. He's on fire and will surely break Villa's club record for Premier League goals within the next few seasons. He's turning into a brilliant striker who is capable of scoring after playing his own game of futsal in the opposition half, or by finishing classy moves. A star has been born. Long may it continue.

Stars

A World Cup winner, two players in serious reckoning for an England call-up, and someone who can be a true superstar in midfield. Villa are really healthy in this section right now, considering this is their true spine.

Emi Martinez has his pitfalls, but he makes up for it with his attitude, ability and application. His work-rate as a goalkeeper is enviable, and his attitude only bolsters his pretty formidable ability. More than a safe pair of hands, he is Villa's best goalkeeper in years. I hope he becomes Villa's best goalkeeper of all-time. He's damn close.

Ezri Konsa and Tyrone Mings have been through a lot. Bench spells, poor form and errors - but the pair are back to their best. Mings is 'Mr Villa' - and the team essentially wins and loses based on whether he is up to the task. Thankfully, it is seeming to be that he's stepping up to the plate more often than not. Konsa on the other hand is filling the cliched role of 'Rolls-Royce' centre-back better than anyone else since James Chester.

Boubacar Kamara is the true variable of this group. At the start of the season, he'd be in the top category. Now, you could argue he'd be more 'solid' than star, and drop a category. Either is fair, he's not at his peak. I'd rather a 5/10 Kamara be playing though - and his best is yet to come. I can't wait for that day.

Solid

Ashley Young seems about 25 on the pitch, don't tell anyone his actual age - he's almost 38. Right now, it seems like he could be a serviceable Premier League player for another few years, and he can be a bit more than that sometimes for Villa. His edge and gamesmanship give Villa some grit, and his natural skill has never faded. I wonder if he could beat his 2007 version in a footrace? I reckon it'd be close. Best thing I can say about Young? At 38, he's bang up for a new contract, and is ending his career in style.

Jacob Ramsey is going to be so good. Against Chelsea, and a few others, we haven't really seen that. Too often does room run out for JJ, and so do the ideas - but on his day he can be Villa's difference maker. An England call-up should be in his future, and at his age, it's a source of pride for Villa fans that the Great Barr lad is a regular. All he has to do at 21? Be better than he was last season. Hard to argue that he hasn't been just that.

Alex Moreno and Matty Cash are great Emery full-backs. Moreno must be one of the faster players in the league (and if you don't agree, watch him in a full sprint without the ball - he'll catch up to most). Both are tremendously dynamic, and Moreno has gotten better with each fresh game for Villa. Cash seemed a write-off when Emery joined, and lacked for minutes post-Qatar World Cup, but his eventual return made him undroppable. An injury has curtailed that, for now - but you could see these two move up a rank or two by the close of the season.

Room for improvement

There is no more savvy buy than Calum Chambers - and I almost feel brutally unfair putting him (along with the other two) in this category, but then I remember that isn't a negative category (and truly, all players have room for improvement, right?). I felt he could be a starting centre-half for Villa last season, and maybe even a starting defensive midfielder in the absence of Kamara, but his true role? Saving the day off the bench. However, that makes him a little rusty when he comes on. If he can shake that off, he's the defensive version of Marlon Harewood. Can't knock that at all.

Emi Buendia is my favourite Villa player, and he's seriously unlucky not to have racked up an assist this season. That's suggested by the fact he leads Villa in xAG (expected assisted goals). Bad luck, or underperformance? It's a little bit of both. His goals this season have been important, and his irregular game time under Gerrard clearly stung, but at the end of the day, he is Villa's record buy - can you say he has been best in class? Not yet - but I hope it's coming. I want nothing more for our Angry Little Lad.

A bit of a bizarro signing - Leander Dendoncker has looked both classy and hopeless for Villa. His appearance is usually a sign of on-pitch lockdown for Villa, but his defining moment was a cataclysmic cock-up against Stevenage in the FA Cup.

Chambers and Dendoncker are hard to judge, though. They've been involved only slightly more for Diego Carlos, who has missed most of the season with an injury.

Must improve

For these three, I asked myself the same question as Buendia. Are you getting what you thought you would from them?

The answer? Not really.

Phillipe Coutinho did look to have turned a corner, and I reckon he still will, before his injury. Before the end of the season, he'll surely have a chance to contribute - and he needs to. He's only started 7 games this season, and Emery knows his squad well. If Coutinho is being out-performed, that's arguably a good sign. His stat-line is one of a declining player, and I pray it's an outlier based on this odd season which has been full of change across the board. Coutinho at his best is a true asset, and one that inspires fear in the opposition. We must see that again. I want that.

Lucas Digne is another odd one - but have you got value from him? Arguably more so than this season - but the signing of Moreno in January 2022 would've fixed the same issues and for way cheaper. Digne has supplied a few glorious moments, including his stunning goal against Manchester United to aid in a legendary victory. Those moments, like I said, have been few.

Leon Bailey. Leon. Bailey. Should've been the dynamite punch to help replace the luxe touch of Jack Grealish, but he hasn't been. He fades, then he comes back, than he fades. Sometimes, you see the genius. Other times, you can't see why Anwar El Ghazi isn't at the club while Bailey remains. Bailey's ceiling is way higher, and one hopes he'll hit it at Villa, but he's looking very replaceable. He's a stunning highlight-reel on his day though. It just come around too often. I figure that if Villa get into Europe, that's where he'll shine.

A Villa side where Digne, Coutinho and Bailey are on-top form is a scary one. A Villa side where they aren't? It's this one - and it's still damn good - which isn't great news for them.

Bye-Bye?

A big sorry to Robin Olsen. As a back-up goalkeeper who can star on international duty, he's got one of the best jobs in the game. He'll want more than that, though - but he's never replacing Martinez, and it's hard to argue that Jed Steer can't do the same job. If Steer leaves, Viljami Sinisalo can also do it.

When he's had a chance though, you realise how good Emi Martinez is. He never looks better than when Olsen starts - which is a shame.

Unfair to judge

The almost-final category is one where you can't say a great deal, to be blunt.

Bertrand Traore. He took the number 9 on his return to Villa from loan, and you have to rate that. Hasn't looked neither bad nor good since that return, and that is because he's only racked up 53 minutes since January. There'll surely be more to say by the end of the season.

At the start of the season, Diego Carlos would've been in the top category. He was terrific to watch - and would've been a brick wall alongside either Mings or Konsa. It's a shame he ripped his achilles off at the start of the season, which is why he's down here. He's back on the bench soon, and will need minutes by the close of the season to return to his best - if he can.

Jhon Duran has shown impressive skills and dynamism since joining from Chicago Fire, but now Villa have settled into good form, he's finding chances harder to come by. He's a true team player though, and is clearly enjoying the experience of being in-and-around a Premier League squad. Can make an impact already, and arguably should be in the 'solid' category, but we just haven't seen enough of him.

If Jed Steer wants a life-long Villa contract, give it to him I say. He's one of the reasons we can even talk about having most of these players in the squad - because they wouldn't be here without his Championship heroics. His contract is up, though, and he'll want a true shot at a starting job. He deserves it. He hasn't played this season though, so there's nothing else to say.

Extras

Ever since a traumatic injury, Wesley's career at Villa has been close to a curtain call. That injury was telling as well, he has barely played since - and this is the first season he's crossed 1,000 minutes of football for a club since Ben Mee flew into him on the 1st of Jan, 2020 at Turf Moor. He's got one more season as a Villa player, but without an incredible pre-season it looks like he'll spend it on loan. Good luck big man.

Finn Azaz, Jaden Philogene, Cameron Archer, Tim Iroegbunam and Aaron Ramsey have impressed while on-loan to EFL clubs. Archer's spell at Middlesbrough is making his Preston loan look like child's play, and his next season will be critical for his Villa career - Emery would love him though. Considering Cardiff's position, Philogene has had a decent year as well, and with the fluctuating form of Villa's wingers, he might have an outside shot of pushing them next season. Iroegbunam has enjoyed a big learning curve with QPR, and those minutes will serve him well - time is very much on his side at his age. Azaz is setting League One alight, and will enjoy a chance to show Emery what he can do - but no matter what, he's clearly applied his best - and his best seems pretty good. Aaron Ramsey has every chance of appearing for Villa alongside his brother in coming seasons, and - say it quietly - looks like the successor to Jack Grealish, Boro look extremely classy under Michael Carrick, and he's a good part of that. Any of these could be playing under Emery next season, or none of them. It's Aston Villa ffs.

For Kortney Hause and Keinan Davis, it looks like the end of the road at Villa for them. They have seemingly already been replaced. Both need to be playing football each week, and the Championship is where they can do that. Both have cut it at Premier League level, but only in glimpses. That time may come again, but I don't believe it will be at Villa.

Morgan Sanson has found he has a case of the Jordan Veretout's and is shining outside of Villa Park. For whatever reason, he hasn't performed for Villa - he's barely played as well. He'll likely pick up suitors.

Phew. That's the end of the ranking. Let me know what you thought in the comments below, and try your hand at making one. I'd love to see it. Up the Villa.