“Unique. I can be anything.”
Morgan Rogers refuses to be labelled – and while the Aston Villa star is talking about his positional flexibility, rather than boasting about his quality, his confidence is well-placed.
The 23-year-old is third-placed Villa’s top scorer this season during their surprise Premier League title challenge.
And Unai Emery’s side are also third in the league phase of the Europa League, having won five of their six games, before Thursday’s trip to Fenerbahce.
Rogers’ fine form has meant he has been picked ahead of Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham for England, with Three Lions boss Thomas Tuchel clearly a fan.
And regardless of who he is competing against for a spot in England’s XI at this summer’s World Cup, Rogers feels he has an edge.
“I think I’m a bit different to everyone that plays in my position. I like to see myself as someone that can do different things on the pitch,” he said.
“When asked, I can be a number 10, I can be a winger, I can be a striker.
“If you ask me to do it and you give me the instructions to do it, I think I’ve got the capabilities to offer something different to maybe what other people don’t have, which is a nice thing.”
Rogers is expected to be a key member of Tuchel’s squad at the World Cup, with England playing Croatia, Ghana and Panama in the group stage in the USA.
The 12-cap attacker scored his first senior goal in the win over Wales in October, when Bellingham was left out of the squad.
Tuchel argued it was not right for his side to change their structure to accommodate Bellingham, but the pair can play together – and the England boss will need both at the World Cup.
“It’s the pinnacle of football. Everyone growing up as a kid wants to play in the World Cup,” Rogers told BBC Sport’s Betty Glover.
“They want to represent their country and being in the pool of players that could potentially do that is exciting.
“It’s so motivational, especially going into this season.
“I wouldn’t say it’s in the forefront of my mind. I’m thinking about it, you can’t help but know that at the end of the season England are competing in the World Cup to try and win a World Cup.
“You get that excitement, that buzz, as it gets closer. I want to just focus on my performances every week playing here and then see where it takes me, really.”
Rogers joined Villa from Middlesbrough in February 2024 in a deal worth £16m, with all the clauses in the move now triggered.
He spent just under seven months at the Riverside Stadium after moving from Manchester City, having started in West Brom’s academy.
Loans at Lincoln, Bournemouth and Blackpool came while at Etihad Stadium, but he failed to make a senior City appearance.
Yet it was from the other side of Manchester where Rogers gained further inspiration.
“The person I grew up watching was Cristiano Ronaldo,” he said. “The way he was in the Premier League the first time around and how no-one had ever seen it before. I liked the idea of that freedom he played with.
“So it’s any players that have that no-care attitude and just keep trying and keep going again and keep going.
“I think people like [Paul] Pogba, Yaya Toure, there’s a few taller midfielders that have a lot of ability and a lot of running power.
“So those are players that are kind of similar to me, that I can kind of watch and look at about how they play. I don’t think I’ve got their ability, by the way.”
Rogers has had the most shots for Villa in the Premier League (45) and is out-performing his expected goals (4.24) by almost three.
But while he has been in superb recent form, he had a slow start to the season – by his own admission – and was jeered by Villa fans during the 1-0 win over Bologna in September.
Villa failed to win their opening five league season, with Rogers struggling to make an impact, and he credits Emery with turning his campaign around.
“Looking back at it now, I can see how he’s a genius,” Rogers said, having made his 100th Villa appearance in Sunday’s 1-0 defeat by Everton.
“There were probably times in that [Bologna] game where I was thinking ‘it’s not my game, I’m not playing well, it’s not working for me, maybe it’s just easier for me to just see my number up and walk off’.
“I’d never experienced anything like that in my career before and [Emery] knew. He wanted to see how I reacted, how I went through it – and it was actually really positive.
“I had a conversation with him the day after the game and he explained to me how proud he was of how I kept going, how I never gave up.
“That was a massive moment for me in the season and changed the way I look at things and how I approach everything.”
Originally published at BBC Sport
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