Morgan Rogers on Aston Villa, Unai Emery and pressure: ‘I don’t play football to be boring, to be safe’
By Jacob Tanswell
May 28, 2026 11:00 am
It looked like the simplest of goals. In reality, it was among Aston Villa’s most important in a generation.
Morgan Rogers’ poke at the near post put Villa 3-0 up against Freiburg last week and killed off the contest. Half an hour later, they were crowned Europa League champions.
If you flick through Rogers’ strikes — he and Emiliano Buendia have essentially been tussling for goal of the season — his is a growing catalogue of excellent, thunderous hits. The goal in the final could not be classed in the same category, yet it was the type of finish in which he will take the most pleasure.
In his manager’s relentless quest for the 23-year-old to increase “his numbers,” Unai Emery had demanded Rogers find better ways to score easier goals. “I have to understand and be realistic that those long-range goals are not going to happen all the time,” says Rogers. “I like to score easier goals, and that’s something I need to learn to do more of.
“I need to get in the box more and be instinctive. That’s where most of the goals you will get as an attacker come from, but it is nice when those long-rangers do go in. And there was a period in the season when they were all flying in.
“The manager’s heavy on me getting into the area, the six-yard box, and arriving at the right time. I look at Ollie (Watkins) because he’s just naturally good at it. You might not always score. It might not always go in. But if you keep arriving, the probability is going to be on your side.”
Rogers is talking to The Athletic precisely a week before Villa’s shot at European glory. In some ways, his desire for easier goals proved prescient. So, too, was his determination to show that he belongs on the brightest and biggest stages.
“The Nottingham Forest semi-final was the best performance from start to finish we’ve produced since I’ve been here,” he says. “We probably took one eye off the ball in the league game between the two legs (a 2-1 home defeat against Tottenham Hotspur). But after losing the first leg, it was all people could think about. We wanted to play that game straight away.
“It’d be a shame for me to be nervous in the final and let it get to me considering everything we’ve done to get to where we are. Football comes with pressure. Games come with pressure, and there’s no bigger one than the final, but the excitement of what could happen outweighs that.”
Rogers was speaking from the debut screening of ‘The Inevitable’, a short film from sports brand Puma documenting his career path. This, in itself, is representative of Rogers’ extraordinary rise. His startling progress on the pitch has made him a commercial entity, with fame and publicity coming as a by-product. His deal with Puma is lucrative and, while he is selective with the partnerships in which he engages, he is not short of offers.
“I haven’t seen it yet,” smiles Rogers at the start of the night. “The family are involved in it, so it will be a really nice moment.”
The film starts in Halesowen, West Midlands, the town where Rogers grew up. A young actor plays him as a boy, before his three brothers join the real Rogers for a kickabout in a park.
Then, to Rogers’ surprise, several good luck videos pop up on the large screen, wishing him well for the World Cup. Alongside messages from his friends and family there are contributions from Adam Lallana, his good friend Brennan Johnson, Alan Shearer, Neco Williams and Curtis Jones, all outlining the impact of which Rogers is capable at the summer tournament in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
Club-mates John McGinn, Ezri Konsa and Tyrone Mings all pay tribute to the man Rogers has become, specifically citing his humility and desire to learn. The tributes are testament to the impression he has made over recent seasons, and the impact he would maintain in Istanbul a week later.
Rogers is considered by those close to Emery to be Villa’s best player. That was emphasised throughout the season, with Emery telling journalists that Villa were “lucky to have” the England international. His 10 Premier League goals were worth 14 points to his side.
In truth, the rest of the Premier League and clubs in Europe echo that sentiment. He has several admirers and will be one of the leading players to watch in this transfer window. Rogers’ summer, despite a long, physically taxing campaign, could only make his story more compelling.
Rogers smiles when The Athletic begins the interview by asking if he is tired. After all, the game at Manchester City on the Premier League’s last afternoon was the first league fixture he had not started since January 2025.
In Europe’s top five leagues since the start of the 2024-25 campaign, only three players — Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk and the Real Madrid pair Federico Valverde and Aurelien Tchouameni — have racked up more minutes than Rogers.
“I kind of embrace it,” he says. “It’s just one of those things; you just carry on playing. You don’t really think about it too much. Some games are mentally harder than others and it takes its toll, physically, when the games have such a short turnaround. But I just try and give my all for the team.
“I’m not always going to be perfect. I’m not always going to have the most energy. But the manager trusts me to show my best and I do as much as I can. I know I’m not always going be 100 per cent, but as long as I can give something to the team in a positive aspect, that’s all I care about.”
No manager has used Rogers’ skillset so perfectly as Emery. When Rogers was at Middlesbrough enjoying a promising, though not entirely smooth, first six months of the 2023-24 season, Emery identified a proficient ball-carrier who was multi-functional. Coaches who have worked with him retain the view Rogers can play anywhere from central midfield to up front, provided he is put in positions that harness his best attributes.
Those qualities are unique and very specific, which can contribute to him being misprofiled pretty easily. On loan at Bournemouth in the 2021-22 campaign, then head coach Scott Parker sent him back to parent club Manchester City after only one league start. In his substitute appearances, Rogers would frequently be deployed at left wing-back. At Blackpool, he would sometimes operate as the focal point up front.
Rogers is able to take the ball off both feet and boasts a powerful, 6ft 2in frame. Emery agreed that, with fine-tuning, he had all the critical facets to become elite. Yet his subsequent progress was still sharp. In retrospect, was there a watershed moment?
“Probably the Arsenal game at the start of last season was the big one for me,” Rogers reflects. “I was playing against some of the best players in the world and Arsenal were competing for the title. They were players I watched on television when I was in the Championship or in League One. Being able to match them toe-to-toe, physically, with and without the ball, I just got that feeling: ‘Yeah, I can do this’.
“I had been at Villa for six months and I did OK when I first came into the team, but you need that one moment; that one feeling on the pitch of when you know you can compete at that level. The step up is actually a big jump, and it can take a while. But that was the game where I felt like I deserved to be here.”
The then Middlesbrough head coach Michael Carrick laid the foundations for Rogers’ development by playing him centrally, and the two still share a good relationship. But it was not until Rogers worked under Emery that his strengths were properly interpreted.
“Wherever I play on the pitch, he still wants me to be me, which is the most important thing,” he says. “There are more preferred positions I like playing in, depending on the opposition and game, but the fact I’m still allowed to be me gives me more confidence to play in the areas I might be more uncomfortable with, because I don’t have to change who I am or be someone else.”
Rogers laughs when The Athletic relays the common school of thought among several sources close to the Villa manager that he and Pau Torres are “Emery’s favourite sons”. This does not mean he is any less demanding with them, however.
Ross Barkley recalled one example from around this time last year, when Rogers won the Premier League’s young player of the season. “The manager gave a quick clap and said: ‘Right, that’s in the past’.”
“We have a really close relationship,” Rogers says of the Spaniard. “It’s difficult in that he always wants to push and challenge me on the pitch and in front of the players, but he wants the best for me. He wants me to learn to adapt, to be the best version of myself, and that’s all he cares about.
“His drive to be the best version of himself comes across on to us, and we always have to show why we deserve to be where we are and to keep pushing. As long as you’re on the same page and trying to listen and develop, he’ll put his trust and his time into you and will give back what you give to him. It’s a very good working relationship, even if some days are harder than others.”
It has been the most tumultuous season of Unai Emery's tenure - and one that has ended in European success. This is how it unfolded
Rogers credits Emery for playing him through a rough patch of form at the start of the season, which culminated in ironic cheers from the Villa support after he made a successful pass against Bologna. Afterwards, he confided in those close to him that his end product had fallen well below his own standards. Interestingly, he also felt he needed to shoot more in the final third — a feeling that would swiftly be proved correct.
There was a sense that, possibly at a bigger club and under a different manager, Rogers would have been taken out of the firing line. Emery saw the bigger picture, though, believing this brief period of adversity would stand him in good stead.
“I know people might moan and be frustrated when I lose the ball — just keeping it is not my game,” Rogers says. “It never has been. It never will be. I don’t play football to be boring, to be safe. Other players are better than me at that, and that’s why they’re playing different positions. They have different qualities — I have qualities to unlock defences, to score goals and to create goals. That’s my task.
“If that was safe to do so, then everyone would be able to do it. Defences are trying to stop you from doing it, so you have to be creative. You have to try things and be expressive. When you’re in good form, everything comes off and works. When you’re not, it doesn’t.
“That’s the harsh reality of football. But I don’t really care if it doesn’t work. It’s just about working on my craft and working on what I know makes me who I am. The manager and my team-mates believe in me — that’s the most important thing.”
The sight of Rogers gallivanting into open space, shrugging off opposition midfielders as they desperately scramble back into position, is one of the most captivating images from the 2025-26 season. It showcases his drive, power and obvious talent. As Rogers rightly points out, those scenarios were what led to his breakout performance against Arsenal in August 2024.
Given the impact he made, opponents have become more clued up since. They have analysed his strengths and now try to limit him receiving the ball on the half turn.
“Yeah, of course,” says Rogers when asked if he feels he now has a target on his back. “Now it’s down to me to combat that and show why I’m the player I am, and that I’ve got more strings to my bow than just being able to run in a straight line down the middle of the pitch, which isn’t realistic in games. Especially in these days of video analysis.
“So that’s down to me to show I can challenge other ways and hurt opposition in different ways, which I’ve done well at times. It’s still something to improve on. I do think that aspect is only going to get better as I get older and more mature.”
The evening ends with well wishes to Rogers who, after a short holiday, will fly to the U.S. for the World Cup at the start of June. Family and friends plan to be there.
England manager Thomas Tuchel has so far demonstrated immense faith — England’s best performances under the German have come with Rogers in the No 10 spot — with good friend Jude Bellingham his likely rival for the position. Importantly, the former West Bromwich Albion academy graduate still has a strong claim to start on the left if Bellingham is picked as the central attacking midfielder, with Rogers at his most dangerous when drifting inside the pitch.
With Phil Foden and Cole Palmer not selected, Rogers is battling for arguably the most competitive spot in football. That serves as evidence of his quality, but equally the astonishing progress made in his two and a half years at Villa.
“That’s another exciting topic,” Rogers adds. “To be in the conversation with those players is something I’d never really dreamed of eight months ago. To be in competition with those players and to train with them, for me, is an honour.
“But I’m looking forward to the World Cup. I want to compete against the best and I also want to play with them. I’m proud and honoured to be here… I’m really looking forward to it.”
