From The Athletic
DISSECTING MORGAN ROGERS STUNNING FREE KICK: PERFECT CONTACT, A LOCKED ANKLE, AND RONALDO-LIKE DIP
It was akin to a sand wedge finding its way out of a bunker. Minimal backlift, focusing on immediate height and escaping the Leeds United wall in front.
Ordinarily, the free kick’s placement, which was to the right of the box, would favour a left-footer to whip the ball into the closest corner and the side the goalkeeper tends to leave open.
Perhaps if Lucas Digne and Emiliano Buendia — the free-kick taker and scorer in Aston Villa’s most recent match a fortnight earlier — had not been hooked at half-time, Morgan Rogers would not have been the one who stepped up.
Yet Rogers had spoken privately earlier in the season about cultivating and, crucially, taking more shots. He had accepted that he endured a tough patch — when fans ironically cheered when he made a successful pass or was substituted off — apportioning a chunk of the blame to his decisions on the ball and looseness in possession. Frankly, the 23-year-old needed to sharpen his mind more than anything else.
Rogers’ technique is rarely in question, with one of the very few shortcomings in an increasingly wide-ranging skill set being his decision-making.
While this moment was not in open play, he still required clarity of thought. Rogers opted for an offshoot of the knuckleball technique as the best course of action, or as Matty Cash described it after the 2-1 victory on Sunday, a “little dippy”.
The knuckleball is a difficult and eccentric action, in vogue largely because of Cristiano Ronaldo more than 17 years ago and that oft-replayed free kick for Manchester United against Portsmouth in 2008. Here, however, the key difference was which part of the foot Rogers used.
Rogers’ effort was from a similar area, albeit slightly closer to goal and to the right. This put an even greater emphasis on getting the ball up and down. The England international had been working on adding the technique to his toolkit in training and understood the key ingredients.
Firstly, he had to approach the ball straight, with his hips and upper body leaning to the left. Whereas Buendia struck with his laces, Rogers opened his right boot to strike the ball with a larger surface area.
To ensure sufficient power, the action had to be snappy and with a locked ankle, reducing follow-through. Indeed, the contact was the critical aspect, having to hit the ball dead centre and slightly underneath the usual point to ensure height.
Despite two differing techniques, both Rogers and Buendia achieved the intended result, not only in scoring but producing enough wobble and height to lift the shot over the wall.
Lucas Perri stood stranded and crouched, looking up as the ball travelled towards the goal.
“It wasn’t bad,” Rogers told Sky after, in a rather understated manner. “Emi (Buendia)’s been practising and I’ve tried to practise with him; I’m not as good as him. I’m happy that went in.”
“He had a very good left foot,” said Bob Hickman, a coach at Rogers’ first junior team, Halas Hawks, last year. “He was five and could hit the ball over a full-sized crossbar. It was incredible how he kicked the ball.”
Icy temperatures and rain made conditions arduous. It was stodgy and scrappy and was only peppered with individual quality. There was an inevitability that the contest would be decided by a mistake or one player producing something anomalous to the overall theme.
That turned out to be Rogers. He provided the equaliser immediately after half-time with an incisive run to the near post, then put a pin in an Elland Road atmosphere which seemed to continuously teeter along the precipice of either joy or deep ire.
Rogers wheeled away to his right and towards the away supporters after scoring the free kick, performing his trademark ‘cold’ celebration — not officially, that’s now Cole Palmer’s, even if Rogers was the first to do it when they played together at Manchester City.
On his way back to the centre circle, Rogers made a beeline for set-piece coach Austin MacPhee. Despite being debilitated and in a brace due to a knee injury, the Scot had been working with Rogers on the free-kick technique.
In some ways, Rogers is the paragon of Emery and his staff’s coaching. Firstly, they identified him when he was doing alright, though hardly pulling up trees, at Middlesbrough, before moulding him into a player and a central position that engenders his ball-carrying and ball-striking strengths. Three contracts in two years underline the remarkable progress under Emery’s tutelage.
More intangibly, Emery has hardened Rogers’ mentality. Among the Spaniard’s favourite players, he is also tough with him. He pushes and prods Rogers to never rest or settle, always willing for more.
“Morgan had just won (the Premier League’s) young player of the year, and the lads congratulated him,” Ross Barkley tells The Athletic. “Then the manager gave him a quick clap and said, ‘That’s in the past’. I think that was after the first game of the season. He’s always focused on the next game.”
“He was performing fantastically, even when he wasn’t scoring,” Emery said of Rogers in his post-match press conference. “It has always been his task to focus on the game plan we have. Always, he’s playing well. Today it’s better to be scoring goals, but to me, he’s always the same. His season has been fantastic.”
Emery will invariably turn his attention to the Europa League match against Young Boys on Thursday now, yet this was a win that brought profound satisfaction. Even though Villa “lacked rhythm”, owing to the stop-start nature and a wet yet slow pitch, his players dug in during the second half. This was notable, given the alarming number of duels lost before the break.
So the reaction was pleasing, with Rogers’ in particular emblematic of this. Having conceded the free kick that resulted in Leeds’ goal, he ended up leading the comeback.
“He showed his hunger to score,” said Emery. “Focusing as well on how he can get numbers to help the team. He’s a player who can get numbers. He could get double numbers (digits) scoring and with assists. This year, I think he will get them again.”
