Aston Villa have admired Juventus players for some time.
As well as USMNT international Weston McKennie, the club has tracked the progress of Samuel Iling-Junior, an England youth international who left Chelsea for Turin and was gradually making his presence felt.
He has a European Under-19 Championship winner’s medal and this summer, Emery required a player who held width. The 20-year-old — playing at left wing-back within Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri’s 3-5-2 system — matched the profile.
Iling-Junior’s data pool is relatively small. He made 27 appearances last season, starting six times and was used as a substitute in 20 of the 34 matchday squads he was included in. He did, however, play successive 90 minutes in the final two games of the season.
From a Villa perspective, it was fitting that Iling-Junior flourished on his Champions League debut in October 2022 alongside McKennie, who scored after five minutes against Benfica.
Iling-Junior is cut from more traditional winger cloth, with his involvement in McKennie’s goal emblematic. Controlling on his favoured boot, jinking one way before opening his rangy stride, he drove towards the touchline and crossed.
Another star for the future of English football? 💫
Former Chelsea youngster Samuel Iling-Junior set up Juventus’ second goal tonight with some brilliant play down the left-flank… 😎#UCL pic.twitter.com/jZyefFaqT5
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) October 25, 2022
While Iling-Junior is confident in driving off either foot, it is little wonder he cites Leroy Sane as a player he enjoys watching. “He’s quite similar to me,” said Iling-Junior in an interview with The Athletic last year. “Sane is left-footed and plays on the left.”
Though they were separate transactions, no one can deny Villa’s agreement to sell Douglas Luiz to Juventus, with Iling-Junior and Enzo Barrenechea moving in the opposite direction, did not aid their efforts to meet profit and sustainability (PSR) requirements.
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Juventus have paid around €50million for Douglas Luiz and recouped €22m for Iling-Junior and Barrenechea. In return, Villa co-owner Nassef Sawiris is part of the Agnelli family’s partners council called ‘Exor’ — Andrea Agnelli is Juventus’s chairman — a group of successful business leaders aiming to “share ideas for potential new business opportunities”.
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Iling-Junior, in his words, is a “Highbury boy”. He was raised in Islington, north London and grew up on the Market Road pitches in the borough and 1.5 miles away from Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium. His parents held jobs as a nurse and a computer engineer and at the age of seven, playing for junior side Clissold Rangers, Chelsea spotted him.
Quickly among their most precocious talents — alongside Jamal Musiala and Levi Colwill — the winger would travel to Chelsea’s Surrey training ground via train and at the age of 16, was promoted to the club’s under-19s.
He did not see a pathway at Chelsea, which prompted a career reconsideration, rejecting a scholarship and opting to move to Italy. Iling-Junior had to adapt both culturally and from a footballing standpoint, attending the college attached to Juventus’s training ground and taking intensive Italian-language courses.
Integrating into Juventus’s ‘Next Gen’ — essentially an under-23s side — in Serie C, a pathway had opened up. It brought increased exposure to adult football, competing in a tactically disciplined league with less possession and thus less rope for wasteful decision-making.
“In Serie C, you don’t get many chances, you get one chance, one goal,” he said. “And that’s how it is in men’s football. It’s knowing how to take your chances.”
His education at Chelsea remains tangible, however. A back three would be deployed in the academy, with Iling-Junior at left wing-back and Colwill, akin to the more wisened heads of Alex Sandro or Danilo at Juventus, the left central defender behind him. “He didn’t like it when I’d go off and dribble because he liked to overlap,” Iling-Junior said.
Such schooling became pertinent when the England Under-21 international stepped up to Juventus’s first team in May 2022. As the traditional school of thought goes, Iling-Junior became defensively sounder in Italy, used at wing-back and with a greater emphasis on tactical discipline and reliability in one-v-one situations.
Despite a smaller sample size offering mitigation, Iling-Junior ranked in the top five per cent of full-backs/wing-backs from Europe’s top five leagues for tackles made in the middle third (1.22 per 90 minutes).
This was largely due to the 20-year-old being tasked with staying high in possession and upon turnovers, applying pressure on the opposing full-back.
At 6ft tall (182cm), Iling-Junior carries a physical and athletic robustness, with a rangy stride and high knees when sprinting. He is adept in recovering quickly into shape, cajoled by the experience of either Alex Sandro or Danilo behind him, to form a back five.
Last season, Iling-Junior ranked in the 95th percentile of full/wing-backs for ball recoveries (7.40).
This draws parallels with Emery’s principles, with Villa settling into a back five when the opposition has comfortable possession.
Going forward, Iling-Junior is primarily used as a ball-carrying vehicle. This chimes with Emery’s remit of a wide player or No 10, enabling Villa to transition quickly from deep areas through ball carriers. Last season, he was in the top five per cent of full/wing-backs for carries into the penalty area.
This can be explained by the positions Iling-Junior takes up on transitions. In the example below, he has already begun creeping forward before possession is regained.
A powerful and direct runner, the high positions Iling-Junior occupies influence his ability to crash the box, invariably making runs towards the back post.
Similar to Villa, Juventus station five players — three defenders and a double pivot — behind the ball, giving licence for Iling-Junior to attack the box or cross regularly.
Only five per cent of full/wing-backs delivered more crosses per 90 minutes into the penalty area last season.
Iling-Junior has shown early indications of intelligent tactical understanding when operating centrally.
Rotations form a significant part of Allegri’s attack, with Iling-Junior recognising the triggers of when to move inside the pitch.
A familiar pattern was when the ball shifted towards the left, with the former Chelsea graduate drifting into central areas as Federico Chiesa held width.
Here, the ball is played to Adrien Rabiot and Iling-Junior has his back to play, occupying Sassuolo’s closest central defender.
This creates a triangular rotation with Rabiot, Iling-Junior and Chiesa combining.
The circumstances conspiring to bring Barrenechea to Villa Park were more unsystematic. As part of the cross-player transactions, talks for a second player to join from Juventus moved towards the Argentinan after it became clear a deal for McKennie would be protracted, especially against the backdrop of a June 30 deadline.
Barrenechea spent last season at Frosinone, a newly-promoted side who would ultimately return to Serie B immediately, finishing 18th. The 23-year-old made 36 appearances and, keenly, was deployed in a midfield pivot within a 3-4-2-1 shape, bearing resemblance to Allegri’s Juventus and Villa’s box midfield in possession.
Typically, Barrenechea operates as the more conservative of the midfield pair, displaying metronomic tendencies — in the 76th percentile for passes attempted (60.93) and 93rd percentile for touches in the defensive third, particularly impressive in a low-possession team — and an ability to play through midfield, crucial to an Emery midfielder.
This notion is evidenced by the drop-off in Barrenechea’s passing data, depending on the different areas of the pitch. He rated among the top 27 per cent of midfielders for passes into the final third (5.12 per 90) but performed in the bottom nine per cent for passes into the penalty area, suggesting he is more inclined to feed balls into the No 10s and from deep positions, rather than playing the final telling pass himself.
A large part of Barrenechea’s ball progression is his raking diagonal switches of play. He was often the sole No 6 when building in deep areas for Juventus’ under-23s, due to his press-resistance and passing range. He could generate attacks from the defensive third and received the ball under pressure.
Below, he takes the ball between two forwards, with team-mates ahead of play but notably high up the pitch.
Receiving on the half turn, Barrenechea controls before playing a diagonal pass to a team-mate running in behind.
A similar scenario transpires, with Barrenechea once more receiving from Juventus’s backline.
Press resistance is a pre-requisite for Emery’s defensive anchor and in Boubacar Kamara’s absence, who is recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. Barrenechea is willing to play in tight areas and on the half turn, evading pressure and passing through the lines.
A sign of the 23-year-old’s bravery is demonstrated below, calling for the ball in a congested area.
As pressure converges, Barrenechea’s first touch takes him away from players behind, offering a greater number of options forward.
Barrenechea is an interception-based midfielder, inclined to block passes via screening rather than make crunching tackles. In a struggling team, he remained combative, providing defensive protection and ranked in the top 25 per cent of Europe’s midfielders for passes blocked (1.12 per 90).
Villa’s deals for Iling-Junior and Barrenechea may not have materialised in the traditional sense due to PSR. But this is an unconventional window, where balancing the books is equally critical to strengthening the squad.
In Iling-Junior, Villa have signed a player they long admired and while the same cannot be said for Barrenechea, he is sufficiently pliable to elevate his levels under Emery. Both add depth, variation and a youthful injection to a side that has had to tailor its summer plans.
(Top photo: Iling-Junior and Barrenchea have moved to Villa from Serie A. Getty Images)
