Matteo Ruggeri and the Left Side Emery Is Building

By Nico Valenti

With Lucas Digne expected to leave and the Pervis Estupiñán move having stalled, Aston Villa have turned towards Matteo Ruggeri. The Italian is not the most spectacular full-back on the market, but his education at Atalanta and Atlético Madrid offers Unai Emery something increasingly valuable: a left-sided defender who can change his position without impacting the balance of the team.

Matteo Ruggeri is an interesting answer to a question Aston Villa appeared, only a few weeks ago, to be answering with Pervis Estupiñán. The Ecuador international had been identified as the leading candidate to replace Lucas Digne, personal terms were reported to be broadly in place and the attraction was easy to understand. Estupiñán already knew Unai Emery from Villarreal, knew the Premier League from Brighton and would have brought the sort of acceleration and aggression from left-back that can change the speed of an attack almost on its own. The move then became caught in somebody else’s planning. Milan’s new coach, Ruben Amorim, asked the club to pause the sale while he assessed Estupiñán during pre-season, negotiations lost momentum and Villa began looking elsewhere. Milan have since made the player available again, but the market has moved while they were making up their mind.

Villa are now considerably further down the road with Ruggeri. Atlético Madrid have accepted a package widely reported at €18million plus up to €6million in add-ons, Sky Sports describe Villa as closing in on the deal and Ruggeri was left behind from Atlético’s trip to South Korea while his future was being resolved. At the time of writing the remaining uncertainty has been around the player’s final agreement rather than the clubs finding a price. Lucas Digne, meanwhile, is expected to join Paris Saint-Germain, leaving Ian Maatsen as Villa’s only established specialist on the left.

The switch from Estupiñán to Ruggeri could simply be the consequence of one deal becoming difficult while another became available. Transfer windows are often more prosaic than the tactical explanations attached to them afterwards. Yet the profiles are different enough to make the change worth examining. Estupiñán would have given Villa a very obvious source of forward momentum. Ruggeri is more understated. He advances the attack less by beating a defender than by understanding where he needs to appear after the ball has moved, and less through repeated dribbling than through passing, running and delivery. Villa may have arrived at him through circumstance, but it is not difficult to see why Emery would find the result attractive.

Ruggeri turned 24 in July and has already spent most of his football education inside two of Europe’s more demanding tactical environments. He joined Atalanta at nine, made his senior debut against Liverpool in the Champions League at 18 and, after a loan at Salernitana, developed into Gian Piero Gasperini’s first-choice left wing-back. He made 109 appearances for Atalanta, was part of the side that won the 2024 Europa League and was selected in UEFA’s team of the tournament. Atlético bought him last summer, exposing him to a rather different version of the same fundamental challenge: how to cover an enormous amount of the left side without losing the structure behind you.

That background probably explains Ruggeri better than any position label. Atalanta’s wing-backs are not conventional full-backs who happen to start a little higher. Gasperini’s football continually asks them to recognise when a teammate has occupied the outside lane and disappear inside him, when to arrive beyond an attacking midfielder and when to retreat quickly enough for a back three to become a five. Ruggeri learned the position through movement rather than possession. He is left-footed and comfortable starting as a full-back, wing-back or, when required, on the left of a back three, but the useful part for Villa is the ease with which those jobs can blend during the same possession.

The run after the pass

Ruggeri is not a particularly prolific dribbler. In his final Atalanta season his stronger possession numbers came through progressive passing and involvement rather than carries past opponents, while his off-ball movement stood out far more clearly than his one-against-one attacking. The pattern appears repeatedly in his best football: he gives the ball to the winger, disappears beyond or inside the defender and asks for it back. Against Marseille in Atalanta’s Europa League semi-final in 2024, one of those diagonal movements ended with Ruggeri arriving inside the full-back and scoring with his weaker foot. Similar movements produced another goal against Sporting and became a regular feature of his combinations with Ademola Lookman.

That could become especially useful if Garnacho occupies Villa’s left wing. Garnacho naturally wants the opportunity to receive with a defender in front of him and space in which to attack. A full-back who automatically overlaps every time can actually make that picture worse, bringing another defender towards the same part of the pitch and narrowing the space available for the winger’s first action. Ruggeri is accustomed to something subtler. He can stay underneath the ball while Garnacho isolates his opponent, overlap once the defender has committed, or make the more interesting diagonal run between full-back and centre-back when the winger remains outside.

The final movement is probably the one Emery will find most intriguing. Ruggeri often gives the impression of being a wide player until the attack develops and then appears somewhere much narrower. An underlap can drag the opposition winger backwards, occupy a central midfielder or force the full-back to choose between following Ruggeri and remaining attached to Garnacho. If the defender moves inside, Garnacho gets the touchline. If he stays outside, Ruggeri has entered the half-space without Villa having to place another attacking midfielder there. It is a small positional exchange, but Villa’s attack under Emery has often depended on creating exactly those temporary overloads rather than simply putting more players forward.

Manzambi could become part of the same rotation. If he starts as Villa’s left-sided attacking midfielder and moves towards the ball, Ruggeri can run beyond him; if Manzambi attacks the space between the lines, Ruggeri can remain outside and provide the width. João Gomes underneath them gives Villa another player capable of protecting the move if possession breaks down. The point is less about designing one fixed left-sided pattern than having players comfortable enough to exchange the responsibilities within it.

Ruggeri’s crossing gives those movements an end product. His first few months in Madrid were difficult, but his season changed noticeably after Christmas. By April he had seven assists across competitions, with AS noting the growing precision of his delivery and his ability to cross from several different positions. Four assists arrived across four consecutive Atlético matches during one spell; Alexander Sørloth repeatedly benefited from deliveries after Ruggeri had controlled the ball, looked up and attacked the area with the cross rather than simply putting it into space. By mid-April he had become Atlético’s established left-back and their seventh-highest player for minutes.

Digne’s departure makes that element worth dwelling on. Villa would lose more than a left-back if the Frenchman leaves. Digne has provided a reliable supply of early crosses, set-piece quality and a willingness to make the same supporting run repeatedly even when he does not receive possession. Ruggeri would not reproduce the delivery in precisely the same way, but he does offer continuity in the idea that Villa’s left-back should be capable of creating from wide areas rather than simply moving the ball back inside. His seven assists for Atlético last season suggest the final ball survived the transition from Gasperini to Simeone, even after an uneven start in Spain.

The difference from Maatsen is potentially useful as well. Maatsen’s acceleration and comfort carrying into central spaces can make him look almost like another midfielder once Villa establish possession. Ruggeri is taller at 1.87 metres, more naturally comfortable defending the back post and far less reliant on beating a player with the ball. One does not have to be designated the attacking option and the other the defensive one; the contrast is more about how the attack advances. Maatsen can move Villa forward himself. Ruggeri more often helps the move travel forward and then arrives to continue it. Ruggeri’s aerial numbers at Atalanta were particularly strong for his position, while his one-on-one defending was built around body shape, patience and the reach of his long stride rather than diving into challenges.

Simeone seems to have sharpened that side of his game. Atlético’s Champions League meetings with Barcelona were an extreme test because Ruggeri repeatedly found himself responsible for Lamine Yamal, often with carefully organised support around him. AS described him as increasingly secure in his positioning and conscious of protecting the ball and his defensive zone, even while acknowledging the difficulty he experienced against elite dribblers. The useful lesson was not that Ruggeri suddenly became capable of defending Yamal alone — very few full-backs are — but that he became trusted within a defensive structure where knowing when to delay mattered as much as winning the tackle.

That experience travels quite neatly into Emery’s football. Villa’s full-backs can find themselves very high when an attack ends, leaving large spaces to defend if the first counter-press fails. Ruggeri has spent years in teams where losing the ball with the wing-back advanced is an expected part of the system rather than an emergency. Gasperini asked his defenders to survive aggressive man-to-man situations; Simeone added greater caution and collective protection. The result is a player who has seen both extremes before arriving in England.

Why the Estupiñán detour is revealing

Estupiñán would have produced a different left side. His appeal lies in explosiveness, carrying power and the ability to turn an apparently harmless possession into a transition simply by accelerating past the first opponent. Emery knows those qualities intimately from Villarreal and Villa’s interest progressed far enough for an agreement with the player to be reported. Milan’s intervention prevented the transfer from continuing at the point Villa expected, rather than Villa simply deciding they no longer liked him. Milan have now reversed their position and are again looking for an exit, but Villa’s negotiations with Ruggeri have advanced substantially in the meantime.

It would be easy to interpret Ruggeri as the compromise option. That probably undersells him. A different route to the same position does not necessarily mean a lesser footballer, and Villa’s squad has changed while the left-back search has been unfolding. Garnacho gives Emery another player whose natural instinct is to carry the ball from wide areas. Manzambi adds athletic movement inside. Gomes offers greater security and ball-winning underneath them. In a left side already containing players who want to accelerate possession, a full-back who understands when to move without it may be more complementary than another player whose first instinct is to drive forward himself.

Ruggeri also gives Emery an easier route into a back three without making a substitution. Start him as the left-back alongside Pau Torres and Ezri Konsa and he can remain deeper while the opposite full-back advances, effectively producing a three-man rest defence. Push him higher and the same player becomes the wing-back he was for most of his Atalanta career. Against an opponent with two forwards he can remain closer to Pau; against a narrow midfield he can advance and force the opposition’s right-sided player to defend closer to his own goal. His versatility is less about being able to write three positions next to his name and more about Villa being able to alter the shape during the match without asking Ruggeri to perform something unfamiliar.

None of it makes him an obviously glamorous signing. Atlético themselves appear willing to sell only a year after buying him, particularly after the arrival of Alejandro Grimaldo, and his first months in Madrid were not convincing enough for anybody to pretend the trajectory has been uninterrupted. His recovery from that start may actually be more informative. By the spring he was playing regularly, supplying chances and being trusted in Atlético’s biggest Champions League matches. Seven assists across 47 appearances represented a fairly substantial recovery from a player who had initially looked uncomfortable with the change of league and system.

Perhaps that is where the attraction sits. Villa do not appear to be looking for a left-back who dominates the team’s possession. They need somebody capable of surviving the demands Digne’s departure creates, complementing rather than duplicating Maatsen, and fitting alongside a left winger whose arrival has already changed the geometry of that side of the pitch. Ruggeri is used to providing width without needing constant touches, joining attacks after they have developed and retreating into a deeper defensive role when the game turns the other way.

A month ago Villa seemed likely to solve the position with a player Emery already knew. Milan’s hesitation closed that route long enough for another one to appear. Ruggeri would arrive with less Premier League familiarity than Estupiñán and without the obvious burst that makes the Ecuadorian so easy to notice, but his football may suit the squad Villa are actually assembling rather better than the one they expected to have when the summer began.