What Aston Villa can expect from Donyell Malen as expert gives lowdown on £20m forward
Donyell Malen could make his Aston Villa debut this evening against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.
The Netherlands international joined the club in a deal worth around £20m plus add-ons earlier this week and he was in attendance at Goodison Park to watch his new teammates win 1-0 against Everton on Wednesday. Our Claret & Blue podcast caught up with the BVB Podcast to get the lowdown on Malen...
"It’s been a mixed bag and it's been a complicated few years with Malen," Carver from the BVB Podcast said. "He started at the Arsenal youth academy and then he tried to go back to the Netherlands and PSV to get some confidence, to get plenty of goal contributions, which if you look at his stats across the board, he was phenomenal there. Dortmund originally brought him in as the Jadon Sancho replacement and quickly found out that Malen was not the type.
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"Malen’s got some things on Sancho, but for the most part, Sancho has a lot of qualities that Malen doesn't have. But Malen is very, very fast. Of course, with his pace he can be utilised well by Emery. Diaby left Villa and Bailey has been struggling this season.
"One of the issues he [Malen] has had is that we haven’t found a home for him in terms of his position. But it's an interesting saga here because I know he was also kind of using Dortmund as almost like a stepping stone to get into the likes of Premier League for a 'bigger club'.
"We made it to the final of the Champions League, but we just lost the Bundesliga title a couple seasons ago on the last day. But we've been very inconsistent too and I think you've seen that in the line-ups. I think that's why you see him getting moved around a lot.
"He has taken on a bunch of different roles in that front line. In his first season he did bag a few goals, but he struggled to bring himself up to the level of the Bundesliga. It's not a huge step up, but it is a step up if you know compared to the Dutch league and he just wasn't seeming so sure of himself.
"The way he can get these snap shots off so quick and with such power and venom is really, really impressive. I have not seen a player like that in quite a while that can just put that much force behind a strike and often off balance or just not in the greatest angle either. Somehow he's finding the back of the net, but that's whenever he is on his day and he's fit and focused.
"He could take a little period to settle in the Premier League from the Bundesliga. I think we even saw that when he came from PSV. He came up with goals when we needed it and he was our top goalscorer last year. I encourage any Villa fan to watch his goal catalogue - you're going to see lots of different goals.
"He has been missing at times or inconsistent, but just for some reason, when the spring hits, that man is on fire. I don't know if that's some sort of like black magic or whatever, but for whatever reason he is really finding his form whenever the year starts to turn.
"At 13 goals as a winger is decent, but as a top goal scorer doesn't seem that great for Dortmund. I think Dortmund ever since we sold Erling Haaland, we haven't really found that striker that's really kind of just like taking control as the head scoring figure in the club."
