Reigniting the crazy potential of Aston Villa ‘forgotten man’ Donyell Malen

Have a conversation about this season’s personnel and tactics with an Aston Villa supporter and there’s a reasonable chance one player’s name will come up later than it should.

Donyell Malen is sometimes overlooked because of his limited use by Villa after joining the club in January. He is sometimes referred to as a ‘forgotten man’, often by the very people who forget him, just briefly, when they’re mapping out their preferred approach to 2025/26.

The Netherlands international had barely unpacked his bags when he was informed that he and fellow signing Andrés García would not be included in Villa’s squad for the knock-out stage of the Champions League. It was a curious start to life in B6 and it serves as a reminder that footballers are hostages to circumstance.

Villa’s performance in those rounds is beyond question – they reached the quarter-finals and pushed eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain all the way – but vindication of his decision doesn’t change the fact that manager Unai Emery took a big risk by leaving Malen out so soon after signing him.

Omitting two permanent signings but including three loanees was a bold choice and one that undeniably left Emery and Villa with some restorative work to do in their relationship with and deployment of their £21 million January signing.

Consequently, Malen is yet to really find his place at Villa despite some big contributions in his first few months at the club.

With a new season beginning, one of Emery’s most obvious opportunities is to get Malen firing on all cylinders and bringing his best to the team.

The Donyell Malen Villa signed

Malen joined Villa a week before he turned 26 but with a wealth of experience and almost 250 senior appearances under his belt for PSV and Borussia Dortmund.

Like compatriot and Villa teammate Ian Maatsen, he featured in the Champions League final for Dortmund. He’d played more than 50 times in European competitions and was an established member of the senior Netherlands squad.

Malen didn’t have the season he’d have expected after that appearance as a substitute in European football’s biggest club match but it’s long been known that he packs a punch.

In his last full season in Germany’s Bundesliga he scored 3.5 goals above expected for Dortmund and averaged nearly two shots on target per 90 minutes on the pitch.

He was responsible for 3.74 shot-creating actions per 90 minutes in that 2023/24 season – a very decent contribution but one that was way down in a disrupted season that followed. Shot-creating take-ons were a big part of that tally and, unsurprisingly, he hasn’t been able to recapture that scything impact in just 305 Premier League minutes.

It wasn’t for a lack of effort. Malen more or less matched his 2023/24 defensive work on average after joining Villa, at least in terms of tackling, but his strong suit throughout his career has been his effectiveness compared to other similar players in front of goal.

The Donyell Malen Villa need

Malen’s heatmap for that entire Bundesliga season reveals a player who covers an enormous amount of ground and plays primarily from the right but likes to get into the box.

It’s a position where Villa might be looking to strengthen in the transfer market and Malen’s ability to inflict damage in the penalty area might point to a different plan for the 26-year-old.

While his minutes were limited in his first half a season at Villa Park, Malen has averaged more shots on target and produced a higher shot accuracy since joining Villa, not just when compared to his Dortmund performances last season but also when compared to his last full season in Germany.

What Villa need from Malen might be two contradictory changes.

First, to deliver a more rounded game. He’s dangerous in the box but he’ll also need to find his purpose away from goal where his statistics are altogether less impressive.

Second, to spend more time in the box. Emery likes to have players who can wear different hats and Villa need to find a solution to a lack of depth in attacking positions.

However they play from the start of the new Premier League season, the idea of Malen starting in one of those positions and being the primary back-up in the other is a tempting one.

Can Villa get the best out of Malen?

There are areas where Villa can focus to help Malen expand the area of the pitch in which he’s dangerous. They’d benefit hugely from him getting his take-on success rate and progressive carries back up, not least into the attacking third and penalty area – taking Villa into places where they can hurt the opposition.

They need to get Malen into those spaces more often, shifting that heatmap in-field to maximise his strengths.

These are all attributes and improvements benchmarked only against Malen himself. He can fulfil these roles for Villa. He’s done it before and he’s done it at the highest level.

Whether he can do all of the other ugly work of the solo centre-forward, and indeed whether Emery even wants that versatility from him, remains to be seen.

Can he hold the ball up? Can he play with his back to goal and bring Villa’s buzzing attackers into the game? Can he run in behind and be a threat?

As Villa prepare to fly out to the United States for friendly matches against Eintracht Frankfurt, St Louis City and Nashville, we might be about to find out.

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