89% massively grateful to ‘Incredible’ Aston Villa friend for releasing him Villa News -Report

Boubacar Kamara, a “amazing” teammate at Aston Villa, has garnered praise from Douglas Luiz for allowing him greater freedom to express himself on the field.

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 Who Scored.

Kamara has started all but one of Villa’s league games, meanwhile, the exception being the draw with Bournemouth last week due to suspension.

In their most recent league outing together – the gripping 2-1 win at Tottenham – the pair linked up in central midfield to great effect.

Luiz assisted Pau Torres’ goal and registered a team-high 94.1% pass-completion rate, while his 66 touches went unmatched [Who Scored

The midfielder’s overall pass-completion rate this term is at a career-high 89%, placing him among the best in the Premier League in that regard.

Kamara did more of the dirty work against Spurs, with his three fouls a joint-high, while he kept playing ticking along nicely with his 46 passes.

There is no doubt that the pair get the better out of each other, as Luiz himself said in an interview with Sky Sports [6 December].

“It is two years now that I have been playing with Kamara,” said Luiz, who joined from Manchester City in a £15million deal in July 2019.

“He’s an incredible player and he has given me a bit more freedom to get forward and do the things that I like.”

Luiz really has come into his own in recent months, particularly with regards to his passing ability, as highlighted by FBref data.

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 nett, 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.