Douglas Luiz admits Boubacar Kamara prior to Manchester City vs. Aston Villa.
Boubacar Kamara, a “amazing” teammate at Aston Villa, has garnered praise from Douglas Luiz for allowing him greater freedom to express himself on the pitch.
In what has been a remarkable season for Villa under Unai Emery so far, the Brazilian midfielder has started all 14 of their Premier League games.
Luiz has started seven of those games in a more defensive midfield role and eight of those games as a pure central midfielder, according to WhoScored.
All of Villa’s league games have seen Kamara start except one; the draw against Bournemouth last week was due to suspension.
The two played excellent centre midfield together in their most recent league game, a thrilling 2-1 victory away at Tottenham.
In addition to setting a team record with a 94.1% pass completion percentage, Luiz assisted Pau Torres’ goal. His 66 touches were unmatched.
With a career-high 89% pass accuracy rate so far this season, the midfielder ranks among the best in the Premier League.
With three fouls, a career-high, Kamara continued to do the grunt work against the Spurs while maintaining a smooth play with 46 passes.
As Luiz himself stated in an interview with Sky Sports [6 December], there is no doubt that the two complement one another.
“I’ve been playing with Kamara for two years now,” stated Luiz, who signed a £15 million contract in July 2019 after leaving Manchester City.
“He’s an amazing player, and he’s given me a little more leeway to advance and pursue my interests.”
FBref data shows that Luiz has truly matured in the last several months, especially in terms of his passing abilities.
Compared to the previous five seasons, when he completed 35, 39, 43, and 46 passes per 90 minutes in the Premier League, the 25-year-old has completed 59 passes per 90 minutes this season.
With Kamara by his side as a safety net, Luiz is putting up more goals and assists in total per ninety (0.52) than he has in the past.
For further context, that number was as low as 0.17 just two seasons prior, demonstrating the extent to which Emery has been able to make adjustments to maximise his performance.
He should be able to keep improving those numbers as long as he has “incredible” Kamara to lean on.
In other Aston Villa news, a pundit thinks that following some “ugly” recent incidents, a punishment might be in store.
