Unai Emery: Morgan Rogers ready to make an impact at Aston Villa

The deadline day signing from Middlesbrough will be on the bench for Saturday’s Premier League match at Bramall Lane, his chances of a top flight debut increased by Nicolo Zaniolo becoming the latest Villa player struck down by injury.

Halesowen-born Rogers is the first English player ever signed by Emery and the boss believes the 21-year-old will need time to adapt to Villa’s style.

But he will also give him chances to make an impression as Emery said: “He is ready to play. He was playing a lot of matches for Middlesbrough and producing consistently good performances.

“Now he has to adapt quickly to our ideas, our style and our rules.

“But he is intelligent and he is a good player so I think he is going to be quick to adapt.

“Of course he is in the squad for Saturday and as he is in the squad he could play.

“He won’t be in the starting eleven but he could get minutes and try to get confidence and a good feeling with the team.”

Emery had spent more than one billion euros on players before making Rogers the 165th signing of his managerial career.

The boss joked: “One day last year you asked me, you are not signing English players? Well, here!

“The club was following him, and he played against us with Middlesbrough.

“We analysed him and I think for a lot of things – he’s young, his potential is big, he’s from Birmingham – we added one player in the squad who can play as a number eight, a No.10 or sometimes as a striker. His skills will be important for us.”

Zaniolo will miss the trip to Sheffield after complaining of pain during Friday’s training session. Villa were already without Jhon Duran with a hamstring issue.