The emergence of Jacob Ramsey last season helped many Villa fans forget about the trauma of losing Jack Grealish, arguably the greatest ever product of Aston Villa’s youth academy, to Manchester City for £100m. 

The players brought in to replace Jack Grealish didn’t quite live up to expectations. Emi Buendia did not begin to shine until the latter stages of the season; Leon Bailey was beset by constant injuries; and Danny Ings, while ending the season level with Watkins for Premier League goal contributions, had an inconsistent debut campaign for the Villans. 

With Grealish having joined the club at 9 years old as a local lad, it is perhaps fitting that the player to replace his promise in the Villa squad was Jacob Ramsey. Born in Birmingham and joining Aston Villa at age 6, Ramsey is Villa through-and-through. Now aged 21, he has just enjoyed a breakout season with his boyhood club, scoring 6 goals and assisting one in 35 Premier League appearances. He finished as the club’s third-top scorer, one ahead of Philippe Coutinho, although of course he only arrived in January. 

Credit must be given to Dean Smith, who led Villa back to the Premier League in 2019, for giving Ramsey his chance in the first team. Smith handed Ramsey 22 appearances in the 2020/21 season, and while the youngster failed to register any goals or assists, his potential was there to see. The following season, he scored his first senior goal under Smith in a 3-1 loss to Arsenal, the third match in a run of 5 consecutive defeats that ultimately led to Smith’s dismissal. Due to Smith’s role in nurturing Ramsey, there was a cruel irony in that his next goal would come in Smith’s first match in charge of Norwich, against his former club. Now under the tutelage of midfield legend and personal hero Steven Gerrard, Ramsey went on to reach 5 goals and one assist in 21 games, having scored only one in his previous 14. 

It is clear to see that Gerrard rates Ramsey, stating that he is a “top talent” who will become a “terrific player” following Ramsey’s first brace for the club in a 3-3 draw against Leeds United. Likewise, Ramsey has expressed his delight at working under Gerrard, his awe clear when telling how he “grew up watching him and [now] he’s my gaffer”. 

Considering Ramsey’s clear progress under Gerrard and the latter’s apparent belief in the youngster, the question coming into the new season is how can we expect to see Aston Villa’s midfield line up in the 2022/23 season?

How will Aston Villa’s midfield look in 2022/23?

Villa spent the majority of last season playing with a midfield trio of Jacob Ramsey, John McGinn and Douglas Luiz. Despite impressing Gerrard under his few matches, Marvellous Nakamba was sidelined by injury and made few appearances following his recovery, meaning the three midfield mainstays were rarely threatened by competition for their places in the starting lineup. 

Player recruitment has begun swiftly at Villa Park, however, with Gerrard’s recruitment team having captured one of Europe’s leading young midfield talents, Boubacar Kamara, on a free transfer from Marseille. A defensive midfielder with 3 caps for the France National team, the 22 year-old’s signing has been labelled as a “major, major coup” by Philippe Auclair on the Guardian Weekly Football Podcast, citing the player as “one of the great hopes of French football”.

Considering Villa’s poor defensive record last season, a player with Kamara’s profile must be in Gerrard’s first-team plans from matchday one of the upcoming season. Sitting in front of the centre-back pairing, the hope will be for him to add defensive solidity and allow Lucas Digne and Matty Cash to get forward when possible from the full-back positions. 

Assuming that Aston Villa will line up in the same formation this season, that leaves 2 spots for 3 midfielders: Ramsey, McGinn and Douglas Luiz. 

Luiz, who is entering the final 12 months of his contract, has been the subject of interest from Jose Mourinho’s Roma, with a potential fee of €30m being rumoured. It remains to be seen whether an official offer is forthcoming, and how the Villa hierarchy would react. Having been deployed largely in a defensive midfield role, Luiz has been decent if not outstanding, but there is a belief that he is not being used to his best potential, further up the pitch, where we have seen that he is capable of the occasional long-range strike. With the arrival of Kamara, will Gerrard and the Board risk rejecting offers this summer and losing him on a free transfer next year in order to get the best out of him in a more offensive role? This would be a significant financial bet, one which would also mean relegating either Ramsey or McGinn to a place on the bench. 

John McGinn received similar overtures from Steven Gerrard as Ramsey when he took over at Villa Park. Following Villa’s 2-0 win at Norwich, he went as far to say that “I love John McGinn, I love the person, the character, the player”. Starting every match under Gerrard that he was available for last season, it is hard to see McGinn dropping to the bench, with his consistently high work-rate setting the bar for his teammates. 

Unleashing John McGinn’s attacking ability

Similarly to Douglas Luiz, the belief among fans is that McGinn has too been throttled by not being permitted a more attacking role. At international level, McGinn has netted 13 times in 48 caps for Scotland, compared to 15 goals in 141 Villa appearances. While it is fair to say that many of these goals came against fairly weak opposition (a hattrick against San Marino and a brace each against Kazakhstan and the Faroe Islands), there is evidence that McGinn could excel for Villa with more attacking licence. With Kamara setting the tempo of the game behind him, perhaps we will see such a McGinn this season. 

All three players have a case for starting alongside Kamara next season, but under the current setup only two can, and it is hard to see any changes to the formation that would see one of Watkins, Coutinho or Ings/Buendia miss out. 

Heading into the new season, consistency is going to be key, something that was sorely lacking throughout the last campaign. Smith was swiftly punished for this, despite being a fan favourite, and despite promising signs under Gerrard, his Aston Villa team has also been guilty of inconsistency. A three-game winning run that saw Villa score nine and concede zero was immediately followed by 4 consecutive defeats in which they shipped nine goals. 

Jacob Ramsey is a wonderful talent, and it would be cruel to halt his development by limiting his minutes, but the question must be asked as to whether Gerrard will prioritise his progress ahead of that of the team. This is not to cast any blame at the youngster’s feet for Villa’s inconsistency, however there is always a risk when handing starting spots to younger, rawer players. 

John McGinn is an exemplary dynamo with the potential to provide more in the way of goals, and it would not be surprising to see Gerrard maintain his trust in the Scotsman. 

Should the mooted interest in Douglas Luiz be true, it would make financial sense for Villa to offload the player while they can gain a sizable transfer-fee for him, while solving a selection headache for Gerrard. However, Gerrard is keen to keep competition for starting spots high. Diego Carlos was signed from Sevilla, with the centre-back joining Mings, Konza, Chambers and Hause in the race for a space in the starting XI. 

The signing of Kamara, the promise of Ramsey, the industry of McGinn and the contract situation of Luiz puts the spotlight firmly on the Villa midfield going into next season. Time will tell how they each fit into Gerrard’s plans.