Morgan Rogers: ‘It is mad to know where I’ve got to in a short space of time’

Aston Villa’s physical forward has gone from the Championship to the Champions League in seven months

The season may be in its infancy but Morgan Rogers already has quite the showreel. His performance against Arsenal a week ago led to clips of him wringing Declan Rice inside out and putting Thomas Partey on all fours going viral. With a telling smile and victory secured Mikel Arteta was able to acknowledge the suffering Rogers caused his players. Pundits and punters were left eulogising about Rogers’s robustness and running power. “It has been a bit mad,” the Aston Villa forward says of the fallout. “I am a terrible loser, sore loser, everything, so my initial reaction coming off the pitch was disappointment and then the buzz I felt from my teammates, media and family after the game made me think: ‘Maybe I did better than I thought.’ It was a weird spot to be in that evening.”

Analysing the game, Jamie Redknapp compared Rogers to “Jonah Lomu in his prime” while admiring footage of him brushing off Gabriel Martinelli, gobbling up ground and beckoning Partey to tackle him, only for Rogers to ease him aside before sending a shot narrowly wide. The exciting thing for Villa is that, after half an hour in Rogers’ company, it is clear he believes there is much more to come. “I’ve had to work on my confidence … so thinking that I can be the best player on the pitch at any given time or day, no matter who is playing. Of course, there are world-class players in every game we play, even just on my team. But ‘Why not me?’ is the mindset I’ve adopted, especially this year. ‘Why can’t I be the best player on the pitch today and show what I’m about as well?’”

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