Marco Asensio interview: Aston Villa playmaker on adding experience, playing as a No 10 and why Unai Emery is so good | Football News

After drawing gasps of admiration for his skills shown on debut against Tottenham, a series of near misses against Ipswich and an introduction to the intensity of the Premier League against Liverpool, Marco Asensio had his big moment against Chelsea.

Aston Villa’s loan signing scored both goals in a come-from-behind win and showed why he has the quality to elevate this ambitious club to new heights under Unai Emery in the coming months. Importantly, this serial winner is eager to embrace the challenge.

“I am happy,” Asensio tells Sky Sports. “Happy to join the project, be with my team-mates and staff, and grateful to be able to give a lot of joy to the fans as well. I want to be able to help us achieve the goals that we have, collectively, as a team and a club.”

It is a different responsibility that the Spain international has at Villa. His career began at Mallorca and took in a loan spell at Espanyol but for the best part of a decade this is a player who has been surrounded by stars at Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain.

Asensio names Cristiano Ronaldo as the most famous name in his phone and his goal in the 2016 UEFA Super Cup as his favourite strike – not bad when there is also one in a Champions League final to choose from. Now, he is ready to embrace a leadership role.

“Sometimes it comes with age,” he explains. “I have always been the youngest in the teams and now it is up to me, being the veteran, to assume that role. But I have always liked responsibility. I have always been in teams where there is a lot of pressure.

“I am used to playing for teams where every game is important, every three points matters and every game can be the difference in a title race. I have come here to take responsible and lead, alongside the other great players who are already in the team.”

Emery has been chasing Asensio’s signature for a while, getting his man at the third attempt. In part, the 29-year-old playmaker has been persuaded by the promise of being utilised in his favoured role, something not often forthcoming in Madrid or in Paris.

There, he was frequently used from the right, cutting inside on his left foot. But Asensio sees himself as a No 10. It is there that Emery has encouraged him to believe there will be opportunities, even shifting Morgan Rogers to the right wing to accommodate him.

Why was this so important to Asensio? “Well, in the end, it is my most natural position, obviously,” he explains. “Those of you who have seen me from the outside, you have seen me play more from the left or from the right, with that freedom to come inside.

“But this is my natural position, where I started out at Mallorca, when I signed for Madrid. It has been one of my personal goals to play in that position because I believe it will help me reach my maximum level in terms of goals, assists and helping the team.

“It has been the key factor, an important one when it comes to coming here. The coach and staff also feel the same way in terms of what I can offer in that position. For me, that is the most important thing because that is where I can achieve my full potential.”

The relationship between Asensio and Emery is fascinating given their obvious desire to work together. “Unai has been an important piece for me to be here.” What makes it so intriguing is that, on the face of it, there would seem some potential there for problems.

Asensio is a tremendous talent, oozing creativity in that left foot, but while his attitude has not been questioned, tracking back does not necessarily come naturally to him. He had his moments at PSG but Luis Enrique seemed to think he was ill-suited to pressing.

Off-the-ball work is non-negotiable under Emery, a coach who has built his reputation on being organised. Asensio once claimed to have learned how to play without the ball at Espanyol but that was almost a decade ago. He has been playing in dominant teams.

Asensio acknowledges the logic behind the observation but offers a counterpoint of his own. “Yes, but also in many phases at Real Madrid, for example, we were a team that also liked to wait, we liked to play without the ball, we liked the transitions,” he argues.

“In the end, they are just styles. Every game is different. I think Unai’s style, when it comes to defending and attacking, fits perfectly with my characteristics. When it comes to defending with a lower block, that does not mean we do not want to dominate.

“There are many phases of the game that we want to dominate. If it is with the ball, all the better. But you also have to comply with the defensive aspects of the game because if you have a good defensive basis then those attacking qualities can always come out.”

He is even talking like Emery. Maybe it is those long video sessions. This particular conversation was initially scheduled to take place earlier in the afternoon but one of those now famous analysis meetings was added the diary and the plans were hastily changed.

“Yes, he goes into a bit more detail,” acknowledges Asensio. But it is welcome. “He likes to analyse our games a lot. How is the opponent? What can we improve on? What situations in our game are good and what situations need to be strengthened?

“He is a coach with a lot of experience. He has been in big clubs, won titles. He helps show us the best way to win. He always gives us the tools so that we can use them on the pitch, whoever is the opponent. I think that is important. Not all coaches have that.”

The son of a Spanish father who grew up in Germany and a Dutch mother – he is even named after the great Marco van Basten – perhaps Asensio was always destined to take his talents around the continent. “I wanted to try to experience life outside Spain.”

But Aston Villa? As the new song being enjoyed on the Holte End goes, Asensio won the league in Spain then went to Paris and did the same. There is no doubting his capacity to conjure magic but bringing silverware to the second city really would be a neat trick.

He is not ruling it out. “I have already won everything at club level with Real Madrid. In Paris, I also had the opportunity to win titles.” So, what exactly is it that drives him on now? “This is a new goal, an ambitious project with a coach who wants to win,” he adds.

“He has that mentality and the players have it too so I am really looking forward to what is left of this season because I believe there are lots of important challenges ahead for Aston Villa and we can feel that the support of the fans is there to help us achieve it.

“It is incredible how they support us and encourage us. If you put that all together, the club, coach, players and fans, we believe that we can aspire towards achieving the maximum this year in the Premier League, the Champions League and the FA Cup.”

With Asensio around, there could be more big moments to come.