What Unai Emery is 'always hammering on about' to Aston Villa's Morgan Rogers

Morgan Rogers described Unai Emery as a "genius" after Aston Villa secured their fifth Premier League win of the season against Fulham

Morgan Rogers says Unai Emery has been the perfect manager for him at this stage of his career and he is relishing the opportunity to continue his rapid rise under the Spaniard having gone from the Championship to the Champions League in the space of months.

Aston Villa signed Rogers from Middlesbrough in a deal worth an initial £8m, rising to £15m in add-ons back in January after Emery liked what he saw from the forward when his side played against Boro in the FA Cup third round last season.

Rogers has made great strides at Villa and has enjoyed an excellent start to the campaign, featuring in all eight of the club's Premier League games and both Champions League wins over BSC Young Boys and Bayern Munich. He scored his second goal of the season in Villa's 3-1 win at Fulham on Saturday, which was the club's first league victory in three games after successive draws against Ipswich Town and Manchester United.

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"The manager wasn’t happy and we weren’t happy about those games (against Ipswich and United)," Rogers admitted after full-time at Craven Cottage. "We were in the position where we could have won those games, probably should have won those games, so we were disappointed.

"He [Emery] focused highly on controlling the game because he knew on counter attacks they are dangerous. Their front four are deadly. You saw against Man City the trouble they caused on the counter attack so we knew if our structure, if our play in possession wasn’t right we would get exploited.

"I think that is what we did well. When we lost the ball and were out of possession we did really well to stop their threat. They have been causing loads of teams problems all season.

"The main thing for us today was how we were when we lost the ball and out of possession, knowing they could be deadly. I think we controlled the game really well and that is why we dominated. We starved them of chances and that is why we won."

Rogers added: "He [Emery] is a genius. He breathes the game, he breathes the next game. He senses how the games are going to go and nine times out of 10, or even 10 times out of 10, it goes that way. He knows how the game is going to pan out and knows what we have to do to win the game. If we do it, we will win the game. He is a genius.

"You can see it on the pitch in the way we play. Everyone knows to a tee what we have to do and when we do it, we pull off performances like that. Him, the staff, they are so hard and demanding, physically and mentally but it pays off. On a matchday you can see why he does what he does in the week.

"As long as you stick to the plan, listen to what he is saying and buy into what he is saying, take it in, like I did when I first came. I have come a long way but I know there is still a bit of improvement and he is hammering on about that so yeah, I just want to improve and get better and he is the perfect person for that."

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