Leon Goretzka and the Midfield Villa Still Needed

At 31, after eight years at Bayern Munich, Leon Goretzka looks very different from the younger midfielders Villa have added this summer. That may be exactly why the move makes sense.

By Nico Valenti

Villa’s midfield rebuild had been moving in one direction. Johan Manzambi arrived at 20, João Gomes at 25, while Boubacar Kamara is returning to the centre of the side after injury. Much of the summer has been about reducing age, adding athleticism and rebuilding the areas vacated by Youri Tielemans and Morgan Rogers with players whose best years should still be ahead of them. Leon Goretzka does not fit that pattern, but that is part of the appeal.

He is 31, has spent the last eight seasons at Bayern Munich and arrives with more than 300 appearances for one of Europe’s most demanding clubs already behind him. On the surface, Goretzka can look like the sort of signing Villa have spent much of the summer moving away from: older, expensive in salary terms and unlikely to retain much resale value. Look at the midfield Emery actually has available, though, and the logic becomes clearer. Villa have accumulated energy and potential, but in doing so they have also lost some of the experience, timing and physical presence that previously gave the midfield a different sort of balance.

Goretzka is not a replacement for Tielemans, nor is he merely cover for Onana. His is a midfielder who has spent most of his career moving between phases rather than controlling only one of them. Bayern used him across the midfield line, from deeper positions to more advanced roles, although his best football has generally come as an eight rather than a conventional six.

He is at his most useful once the first line of the build-up has already been completed, when the pitch begins to open and the spaces between midfield and attack become more important than the first pass out.

That distinction could fit Villa neatly. Kamara can begin possessions deeper, Gomes can step towards the ball and deal with pressure through contact, while Manzambi can receive, turn and carry. Goretzka can operate one line ahead, occupying a midfielder, attacking the space around the box and giving Villa a stronger presence in the second phase of attacks.

The run that arrives after the pass

Goretzka’s best football has never been built around one spectacular technical quality. He is not the passer Tielemans was, not the dribbler Manzambi may become and not the pure ball-winner Villa hoped Palhinha might be. His game has instead been shaped by timing: when to leave the midfield line, when to attack the box and when to use his size to turn an ordinary phase of possession into something more dangerous.

At 1.89 metres, he gives Villa a physical presence they have lacked at times, particularly with Onana unavailable. The comparison should not be pushed too far because Onana is younger, covers ground differently and is more comfortable carrying the ball from deeper areas.

Goretzka’s movement is usually more selective. He tends to advance once the attack has already drawn defenders towards the ball, looking for the space that appears behind them rather than trying to break the first line himself.

That could suit the squad Emery is assembling. Imagine Garnacho receiving wide on the left while Ruggeri moves around him. The opposition full-back has to deal with the first action, one centre-back becomes occupied by the striker and the nearest midfielder begins sliding across.

Goretzka’s movement does not have to be towards the ball. His value can come from arriving into the space created by everybody else. If the attack reaches the byline, he can appear around the penalty spot; if possession is recycled towards the edge of the area, he is already in position for the second phase.

Villa have not always had enough of that kind of movement. Their possession can travel smoothly into the final third before reaching a point where too many players are waiting for the next pass rather than attacking the space around it. Goretzka has spent much of his career doing the opposite, joining attacks after they have already started and becoming an extra body in areas the opposition has only just vacated.

The more interesting question is how much running Villa should now ask him to do. The Goretzka of Bayern’s 2020 treble-winning side could cover enormous areas, press aggressively and still appear inside the penalty box. He has played a great deal of football since then, and Villa would be foolish to recruit the memory of that player rather than the 31-year-old who exists now. Emery does not necessarily need the old version anyway. A narrower role may actually suit the current squad better, with Kamara underneath him and Goretzka given licence to concentrate on the spaces ahead rather than spending the game racing back to protect the centre.

Alongside Gomes, Villa could become physically difficult to play through, although the partnership would require some discipline because both midfielders are naturally drawn towards the action. In a three, Goretzka could sit between the two, experienced enough to recognise when Manzambi has gone forward while still capable of becoming the extra runner when the attack develops on the opposite side.

The relationship with Kamara looks particularly natural because Kamara is at his best when the game remains in front of him, allowing him to move possession quickly and protect the centre if it breaks down. Goretzka can play ahead of that security without needing to become the main organiser.

The same logic could change Villa’s attacking numbers without forcing Emery to sacrifice a nominal attacking midfielder. In a 4-2-3-1, Goretzka can begin beside Kamara and still arrive as a fourth or fifth player around the box once possession settles. In a 4-3-3, he can become the right or left-sided eight depending on where Villa want the extra runner. If Wan-Bissaka stays deeper at right-back, for example, Goretzka can advance more freely into that channel without Villa losing all of their protection underneath the ball, while Ruggeri or Maatsen moving from the opposite side would give Emery another way of creating asymmetry without losing control.

A midfield of Gomes, Kamara and Goretzka would produce yet another picture. Kamara holds, Gomes applies pressure higher and Goretzka arrives into the spaces ahead. It would not offer the same passing range Tielemans gave Villa, but it could make the centre more difficult to play through and improve the response to second balls, particularly in games where the first phase of possession becomes messy.

That may matter more often in the Premier League than a neat tactical board suggests. Villa will not always be able to build cleanly from Suzuki through midfield, especially against teams willing to press man-to-man. Goretzka’s height and experience give him value when the first pass travels longer. He can compete aerially, position himself around the second contact and help turn an untidy clearance into another possession. The action is less glamorous than a line-breaking pass, but it can be just as important in getting Villa up the pitch.

Why Villa changed the solution

The failed pursuit of Palhinha provides useful context because the two players should not be treated as substitutes just because one conversation followed the other. Palhinha would have given Villa a specialist defensive midfielder, someone whose first instinct is to protect the centre and attack loose balls before they become transitions. Goretzka is not that player, so if he arrives Emery will have to distribute the defensive responsibility differently, most likely through Kamara and Gomes. What Goretzka offers instead is flexibility between the middle and final thirds.

Villa’s summer has contained several adjustments of that kind. Manzambi does not reproduce Rogers or Tielemans. Ruggeri is not simply another Digne. Wan-Bissaka does not duplicate Cash. The club have repeatedly added players whose profiles alter the options around them rather than recreating the previous version of the side, and Goretzka fits the same pattern from the opposite end of the age curve.

Manzambi and Gomes arrive with room to develop. Goretzka arrives with very little that Emery needs to teach him about elite-level football. Eight seasons at Bayern have exposed him to the rhythms of Champions League knockout football, title races and the pressure that comes with being expected to win almost every week. Villa have lost a considerable amount of that kind of experience during one summer. Tielemans understood how to slow difficult matches down, Digne knew the rhythms of European football, while other senior departures have removed players accustomed to dealing with the strain of a long season.

A completely youthful rebuild creates its own problems when the schedule reaches February and a European tie sits three days away from an important league fixture. Goretzka has lived in that environment for years, and the free-transfer structure changes the risk attached to the move. Villa are not committing a major fee to a 31-year-old and hoping to recover it later. The financial commitment will sit mainly in salary and signing terms, which makes the calculation very different from the ones attached to Manzambi or Gomes.

If Goretzka gives Emery two strong seasons, helps manage the period before Onana returns and allows Manzambi to develop without carrying too much responsibility too early, the deal can work without becoming a long-term cornerstone of the squad. He does not need to start every match or recreate his 2020 peak, and he certainly does not need to replace Tielemans’ passing or Onana’s physical range on his own. Villa already have other players for those things.

The danger is obvious. Age catches every midfielder eventually, and the Premier League is not an especially forgiving place to discover that a player can no longer cover the spaces he once did. The final stage of his Bayern career still showed a player capable of contributing at a high level rather than one being carried by reputation alone.

In a summer dominated by departures and younger replacements, that may be the part of squad building Villa had not yet addressed. Gomes can win the ball, Manzambi can grow into the spaces left by Rogers and Tielemans, while Kamara can restore some of the control at the base of midfield. Goretzka adds something less fashionable but immediately recognisable: a midfielder who has spent a decade understanding where the next phase of an attack is likely to appear, and who still has the size and timing to get there.

For Villa, the attraction is not really about what Goretzka once was at Bayern. It is about whether the parts of his game that remain can make a young, newly assembled midfield work a little more quickly.