Unai Emery has challenged in-form Aston Villa star Morgan Rogers to score at least 20 goals this season.
Rogers shone in his first full campaign at Villa Park and even earned senior recognition in England. The versatile forward has already provided four assists and scored his fifth goal of the season in the victory over former club Manchester City on Saturday.
Last season, the 22-year-old scored twenty goals (ten goals and ten assists) in all competitions. However, only four of those came in the Premier League with Villa after spending the first half of the season with Middlesbrough in the Championship. But boss Emery says these are the minimum numbers he wants from him this season, despite now playing in the top flight and the Champions League.
He said: “Collectively and individually we will need his numbers. I am very demanding towards him. Morgan is very important to us. I need his performance every match we play. He is young and his potential is to try to achieve those numbers in the present or the future.
'Of course it is my demand that he gets it. We need players in the attacking third to get into double figures – 10 (goals)-10 (assists), 11-11 hopefully. Morgan, after speaking to me, has the challenge of understanding it.
“Of course I also need Leon Bailey, John McGinn and Jacob Ramsey for those numbers. We will need these individually, because collectively we can be close to our goal if they reach it. He has a lot of responsibility in my idea and style and I try to push him a lot. I am very happy with him, but I want more from him.”
Villa have not won at Newcastle since 2005 and have conceded NINE on their last two visits. But Emery, who has no further injury concerns and is likely to opt for Jhon Duran over Ollie Watkins again, said: “It's news to motivate us more. We respect them enormously. Last year we lost 5-1 and the year before that we lost 4-0.
“They were favorites to be in the top seven at the start of the season. We respect them. We will have to play a full game – mentally, tactically, individually.
“They finished strong in the last games. I think they are in good shape.”
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