The making of 'maverick' Morgan Rogers

Twelve months ago, Morgan Rogers was a squad player for Middlesbrough. Fast forward 12 months, the forward – now at Aston Villa – is in the form of his life.

In the last two weeks alone, he has made his Champions League debut against Young Boys, produced two assists in a 3-1 comeback win over Wolves, got his first Premier League goal of the season at Ipswich and then played 90 minutes in a historic European win over Bayern Munich.

In fact, Rogers has started every single Premier League and Champions League match under Unai Emery this season. He has become as ever-present Emiliano Martinez at one end of the pitch and Ollie Watkins at the other. Some Villa fans even claim he has been the club’s best player this season.

After all, Rogers is easy on the eye in this Villa team, mainly due to his work rate with and without the ball. His sheer strength and drive in terms of running ability has gained plenty of plaudits this season.

Rogers ranks highly among Premier League players when it comes to carrying the ball great distances, taking Emery’s Villa higher up the pitch and into more dangerous areas.

These skills were best seen when Rogers put in an impressive display against Arsenal in the second game of this season. Footage showed the normally defensively resolute Thomas Partey and Declan Rice falling at the feet of the Villa forward.

“The way he was brushing people away, it was like watching Jonah Lomu,” said Jamie Redknapp that day.

These skills were first noticed when Rogers was just four years old, when the now-Villa star was first spotted – somewhat ironically – by a former Birmingham City player.

Accompanied by his father Howar, the toddler was taken to a training session in the Midlands town of Halesowen run by ex-Blues midfielder Paul Tait, who made 140 appearances for the blue side of Birmingham.

“As soon as I saw him, you just know that this particular child has just got something different,” Tait tells Sky Sports. “He was just different from the rest, a fantastic little player, way beyond his years from a very, very young age.

“He was playing in his own age group to start with, but it was ridiculous, he was getting nothing from it. We would play small-sided games to get the kids to score goals – and you just couldn’t get the ball off him.

“I started to move him up to play against the bigger children – so when he was five or six, I was playing him against 10 or 11-year-olds. It sounds like a dumb thing, but I wanted to see how he’d get on. And he tore them to shreds.”

Tait was so impressed that he offered Rogers to West Brom’s academy – the Rogers family are all die-hard Baggies fans. “Even though I’m a Birmingham supporter, at the time I thought West Brom would look after players better,” Tait adds.

“They had one look at him and couldn’t believe how good he was. They were going: ‘Oh my God, how do we stop him going to Villa? They seem to snap up everyone in this area.’

“But he stuck with it, he stuck with the belief that West Brom would be best for his development in his early future in football.”

‘He was different to the other Man City players’

Rogers stayed with boyhood club West Brom – going on to make one FA Cup appearance for the club in 2019 – but was then pinched by Manchester City after starring in the Baggies’ FA Youth Cup run to the semi-finals.

Rogers’ strength, frame and power also stood out in one of the best academies in the world, which normally produce a different type of footballer.

“I always felt he was a little bit different to the players in the Man City system. He’s a maverick,” says Brian Barry-Murphy, City’s former Elite Development Squad coach.

“He’s definitely different because he can get the ball and run really quickly, directly and carry the ball big distances.

“That is what set him aside from the rest of the players who had come through the Man City system from a very young age – who were a lot of technical players who could play in tight spaces and play combination passes.

“Morgan has the ability to receive, turn and run with the ball and really affect opponents. How he moves is really efficient and his size is under-estimated.

“He’s always been big for his age, but now among senior professionals he looks big. That ability to create and score goals with those attributes was always a standout.”

Part of his development at City was through a ‘loan map’ in the EFL. It started out at Lincoln, where he worked under Michael Appleton and played in an attack which also included on-loan Nottingham Forest winger Brennan Johnson. Rogers scored six times on the way to taking the Imps to the play-off final, where they lost to Blackpool at Wembley.

“We were not the biggest team and I remember there were a couple of games where we were thinking about the opposition and who to pick up,” Appleton tells Sky Sports.

“And he just said, ‘Put me on their biggest player. I will do the job.’ He genuinely meant it. He had so much belief.

“He actually likes the contact. He enjoys people being really tight to him and he can then use his physical frame to roll them on the inside or the outside.”

But not all the loan spells were successful. In fact, Lincoln was the best in terms of output for Rogers.

His next move was a loan to Championship promotion Bournemouth, where Rogers rarely played under Scott Parker in the 2021-22 season.

In a recent interview, Rogers admitted to experiencing loneliness at the south coast club – which is unlike him as coaches describe him as an “outgoing character” – and his season-long loan move was cut short halfway through.

He went back to City until the end of 2022 and then had another go at the Championship with Blackpool to reunite with Appleton, who was sacked two weeks after Rogers joined. It was not until his permanent move to Middlesbrough, which sparked a £15m switch to Aston Villa within six months, where Rogers got back to playing at his potential.

“Seeing Morgan doing what he’s doing, it’s hard to believe it. I always thought he would do really well, but he really struggled at Bournemouth, really struggled at Blackpool and at Middlesbrough he did ok,” says Barry-Murphy.

“But there was always this feeling of: ‘he’s a lot better than what he’s showing’. Now you’re actually seeing that potential, so it shows you have to be patient.”

Room for improvement in finishing

What also stands out with Rogers in Villa colours is his work off the ball to accompany the tenacity he possesses in possession.

The youngster is in the top 10 Premier League players for pressures this season and sits in the top percentiles for off-the-ball intensity.

“He has the ability to run with the ball but he also has that capacity to be extremely disruptive and dynamic out of possession, which is what you’re seeing him flourish under Unai Emery now,” says Barry-Murphy.

“From my experience, a lot of the players in the Man City academy dominate the ball every single game. So the defensive side needs a lot of work based on how little practice they have of it.

“He showed he had the physical capacity to excel at that. And it was always going to be a case of finding the right coach for him and finding the right set of circumstances to display that. And now you’re seeing that.”

But there are, of course, areas for improvement. While he is excellent statistically, the numbers that matter could come across as a little dry for Rogers. After all, he has goal contributions in just two out of his eight Villa appearances this season.

“I believe he has this unique ability to arrive into the final situation more than any other player based on what he could do physically – but I felt his finishing was inconsistent, like any young player,” says Barry-Murphy.

“He can score some amazing goals and be spectacular, but consistency in those finishing actions isn’t at the same level as his build-up work.

“And I hope and imagine the same things now will be in his mind: that he’s creating all these assists for other players and he’s arriving in situations where he can score goals, but working on that finishing action will start to add another dimension in his game.”

That being said, Rogers is not the finished product. He is currently the England Under-21s key player, meaning a senior Three Lions call-up is surely not too far away either.

Up next is the visit of Manchester United to Villa Park. Given Arsenal and Bayern Munich have struggled to contain this 22-year-old, Erik ten Hag may have another problem on his hands.