As Aston Villa announce Ian Maatsen as their second signing of the summer transfer window, Alex Keble analyses what the former Chelsea defender will bring to Unai Emery's side.
Player analysis: Ian Maatsen (Aston Villa)
Maatsen had a 2023/24 season of sliding doors moments.
A successful loan spell playing Championship football at Burnley gave him the opportunity to move permanently to Turf Moor, a chance that many thought he should have taken.
But an impressive pre-season in 2023, particularly during the Summer Series in the USA, suddenly pushed Maatsen to the fringes of Chelsea's first team, only for those minutes to evaporate once the Premier League season got under way.
It looked like a wasted season was on the cards, until Borussia Dortmund surprised everyone with a January loan deal.
By May, Maatsen was playing in the UEFA Champions League final, topping an outstanding six months in Germany and leading directly to a move to the fourth-best team in the Premier League.
It’s a very good fit. Villa’s style of football under Emery suggest Maatsen’s best attributes - his speed and attacking verve - can come to the fore.
Maatsen has matured significantly
“He is a player in our squad, a great kid, the quality to play in different positions,” Mauricio Pochettino said in December 2023. “It’s about giving him time. He came from Burnley to play. To perform in Chelsea, with all respect, is not the same, and the competition is different.”
The then-Chelsea manager’s comments last winter summed up the situation. Maatsen was excellent playing left-back in the Championship, where he scored four goals and assisted six more for Vincent Kompany’s Burnley, but Pochettino just didn’t trust him at Premier League level.
The concern was that Maatsen, perhaps too versatile for his own good, wasn’t a natural fit in any one spot, and that his favourite position - left-back - required more strength, height, and defensive sturdiness than Maatsen could offer.
Dortmund did not agree. Maatsen played every single minute of the Champions League knockout stages, scoring in the 4-2 victory over Atletico Madrid in the quarter-final and maturing into a big-game player by dominating in both legs of the semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain.
His opponent in those two matches was Kylian Mbappe - and Dortmund kept clean sheets in both. It was final evidence that Maatsen is now an elite player.
Maatsen’s output close to the best in Europe
It isn’t difficult to get your head around Maatsen’s profile. He is a forward-flying, straight-lined left-back keen to beat his man and crash into the final third.
He excels at timing his runs perfectly to get on the ball at high speed, ready to take on the defence and burst into the penalty area.
That often means hugging the left touchline and entering an attack late in the move, taking advantage of space that opens up when the left winger drifts inside.
This fits how Villa play, but it also tells us what kind of left-back we should be comparing Maatsen to.
Andrew Robertson and Destiny Udogie, two of the best left-backs in the Premier League, are attacking players first and foremost, and Maatsen’s Bundesliga numbers compare favourably to both on a number of metrics.
Maatsen v Robertson and Udogie 2023/24
| Stat/90 | Robertson | Udogie | Maatsen |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Goals/ assists |
0.27 | 0.19 | 0.29 |
| Touches | 91.1 | 66.7 | 86.9 |
| Prog. carries | 3.35 | 3.12 | 2.93 |
|
Tackles/ interceptions |
3.35 | 3.12 | 3.07 |
Widening this to some of Europe’s best attacking left-backs, Maatsen is again competitive, most notably in his sheer involvement in the matches, and his goal contributions.
Here's how he compares to Bayer Leverkusen's Alex Grimaldo, Bayern Munich's Alphonso Davies and Real Madrid's Ferland Mendy
Maatsen v Europe's best left-backs 2023/24
| Stat/90 | Grimaldo | Davies | Mendy | Maatsen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goals/assists | 0.74 | 0.31 | 0.00 | 0.29 |
| Touches | 79.8 | 84.5 | 73.8 | 86.9 |
| Key passes | 2.52 | 1.62 | 0.58 | 0.57 |
| Crosses | 6.54 | 1.35 | 0.26 | 1.86 |
| Prog. carries | 2.49 | 5.28 | 0.99 | 2.93 |
One obvious area for improvement is his chance creation, with the final delivery arguably needing some work.
In this regard Maatsen can still look a little raw, although there is reason to believe Villa’s tactical style will help him reach higher numbers.
Emery’s tactics a better fit for Maatsen than Maresca
Maatsen’s big error in the Champions League final sums up why Chelsea were happy to cash in.
He played a sloppy pass straight to Jude Bellingham, who took the gift and assisted Vinicius Junior to score Real Madrid's second goal.
That kind of mistake in possession is simply unacceptable to managers like Enzo Maresca, whose focus on dominating the ball and slowly breaking teams down makes it essential that every player is accurate in their simple distribution.
By contrast, Emery focuses on fast transitions, looking to draw the opposition press in order to spin behind it and run at speed into the final third.
Maatsen is exactly the kind of player Emery wants streaming forward on the left, occupying the width as the left winger comes into the No 10 position.
He also represents a big upgrade on Alex Moreno and Lucas Digne, neither of whom are as heavily involved in a match or confident at taking on their opposite number.
“I think left-back is my best position,” Maatsen told The Guardian earlier this year. “I play free and don’t think about anything. When I see space to go forward, I take it.”
That is an attitude Guardiola-type Maresca would see as inherently risky, but an attitude Emery - and Villa fans - will love.
