Past the quarter of an hour mark and away to Wycombe Wanderers, young defender Sil Swinkels stood still on the ball.
The 20-year-old hoped to bait Wycombe’s narrow shape into pressing him, in turn freeing up space in the central areas further forward. In that time, only a matter of seconds, Ross Barkley looked over his shoulder to scan his surroundings four times.
Barkley was making his first competitive start since rejoining Aston Villa, a feat notable in itself given how accomplished the early impressions have been. When he plays — albeit across a small sample size — this version of Barkley tends to be Villa’s chief ball-progressor. On Tuesday night at Wycombe, he was also the oldest player in a squad that included nine academy graduates by three years.
Youngsters such as Swinkels would invariably gravitate towards Barkley, capped 33 times by England and an FA Cup and Europa League winner. Earlier on, Barkley gestured for Swinkels to stay relaxed in possession, knowing extra touches would settle a young team and aid control in the opening stages.
A minute later, under near-identical circumstances, Swinkels played straight into Barkley’s feet, despite being sandwiched between two Wycombe shirts. Rather simply, though, Barkley flicked a sharp first-time pass around the corner, wriggling Villa out of a tight situation. He made 76 passes in total, more than eight of Wycombe’s starters combined — showing his metronomic qualities.
Even though they were on holiday, Villa’s triangle of power, manager Unai Emery, president of football operations Monchi and Damian Vidagany, director of football, spent hours every day deciding on the squad’s balance and addressing profit and sustainability fears. Yet the most straightforward outlay was Barkley.
The midfielder Villa’s first signing this summer. The former England international represented a low-cost market opportunity — Villa had little doubt in exercising the £5million ($6.4m) buy-out clause in his contract at Luton Town — but, more importantly, he was the profile of central player Emery loves; confident enough to stay in possession and play forward at the right time.
For example, it is now a common sight to see Barkley with his studs on the ball and rolling it backwards, daring an opponent into tackling. By wanting Villa to become more refined and patient in possession, Barkley, the second iteration, felt stylistically perfect to Emery.
It was the Villa manager who told Monchi and Vidagany to buy Barkley. The 30-year-old wished to return to Villa after spending the 2020-21 Covid-19 impacted campaign on loan and hearing from former team-mates about the depths of detail Emery instils into them.
Barkley’s reputation had been rejuvenated over the previous 12 months, repaying Luton Town’s short-term gamble in signing him as a free agent. From a broader perspective, Barkley became the deep-lying creator, using his ball progression and improved temperament to change the trajectory of his career.
Emery often berates his players for attacking too quickly. It may seem counter-intuitive, yet going forward at pace can be directionless and cause the match to become deeply transitional and chaotic. Due to fatigue, substitutions and the general game state, this tends to materialise in the second-half.
It is why Barkley has been tasked with coming on in the first four of five Premier League matches. In each of them, he has replaced Amadou Onana, an all-round, athletic midfielder who still requires improvement in being more press-resistant and regulating the tempo.
Barkley, now a matured No 6 with his head on a constant swivel, has worked increasingly well when coming on alongside Youri Tielemans, a player of comparable profile. The pair have formed a partnership in the second-half of matches against Leicester City, Everton and Wolves — at a time when each contest was in the balance — managing to bring authority and a stranglehold in Villa’s ability to sustain attacks.
The case in point was the comeback victory against Everton when Barkley replaced Onana at half-time. Villa became more attentive in possession, reducing counter-attacking opportunities and allowing the wide players to stay higher and wider for longer. As a consequence, Villa were successful in pinning Everton’s 4-2-3-1 shape into a back five.
“We have to be intelligent, using each match with the characteristics we need on the pitch,” said Emery in his post-match press conference. “Barkley and Youri Tielemans are similar. They can even play together or with one other midfielder — Onana or (Boubacar) Kamara — but what we needed in the second half was to take time in our build-up.”
Barkley then helped to shift the momentum the following week against Wolves. Jhon Duran has earned the game-changer tag but Barkley’s presence is arguably as effective. After the hour mark of that match, Villa added precision to their play and were less wasteful and far more deft resulting, ultimately, in coming back once more to win.
In light of Villa’s typical malaise in domestic cup competitions, the 2-1 victory at Wycombe followed a similar trend. It was a stodgy affair but perhaps understandably so, with Emery putting together a young, hodge-podge lineup. Gradually as more of the seven debutants were introduced, the onus on Barkley to hold Villa’s shape together grew.
When Onana was replaced by 17-year-old Aidan Borland, set-piece coach Austin MacPhee called over Barkley to stress why he needed to be even more defensively mindful.
Barkley is no longer the young Evertonian who played with no handbrake and had a license to roam. This is the second part of his career: more disciplined, tactically astute and suited to Emery’s ideals.
(Top photo: Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images)
