Who is Matty Cash? Stats, strengths and weaknesses of new Aston Villa recruit


It's been some time coming, but Aston Villa have announced their first new signing of a transfer window that was expected to be another busy one for the club after securing their Premier League survival on the final day of last season.

The new recruit is Matty Cash, who arrives from Nottingham Forest for an initial fee reported to be £14m, potentially risining to £16m with add ons. So, for those that aren't familiar with the player, who is he?

  • Name: Matthew Cash
  • Age: 23 (07/08/1997)
  • Position: Right-back / Right-wing
  • Selling Club: Nottingham Forest
  • Reported Fee: £14-16m


Having only turned 23 last month, Cash has a huge amount of experience from the Championship at such a young age, starting 99 of 129 league appearances.

If you were to only look at his performances from the 2019/20 season you would assume the youngster was an out-and-out right-back, such was the ease with which he took to what was in fact a new role under Sabri Lamouchi.

While Cash had played there a handful of times previously, he was predominantly played on the right wing in previous campaigns, and has even played in central midfield roles. Indeed, only 46 of his 99 league starts have come at right-back, with a further 39 on the right wing, nine in central midfield and five on the left flank.

While Dean Smith has already stated that he hopes Cash can develop into a top full-back, the versatility that the new man offers is likely to have been a big reason behind Villa's interest. The squad is lacking quality on the right wing after all, with Trezeguet and Anwar El Ghazi proving inconsistent to say the least, and the club are also thought to be in the market for a box-to-box midfielder. Cash can conceivably cover both roles whilst primarily providing competition for Frederic Guilbert.


“We are delighted to welcome Matty to Villa and believe we have secured one of England’s brightest young prospects", Dean Smith said.

“He has an excellent playing record for a young player and we believe he will settle in easily and continue his rapid development into a top full-back.”

 
Having been converted from a winger into a defender, Cash naturally fits the bill as a modern day, attacking full-back, and chipped in with solid returns of three goals and five assists last season. The latter tally, along with his figure for key passes per game (1.1), was actually a career high for the youngster, despite moving back into the defence at Forest.

It is, however, his boundless energy and work rate that ensured Cash leaves Forest with the club and the fans' best wishes. A fan favourite for some time now, he earned the club's Player of the Season award having secured the highest WhoScored.com rating of all Forest players (7.20).

In fact, his rating from starts alone at full-back (7.27) was the highest of any player to make at least 20 appearances from said berth in the Championship, ahead of newly promoted Luke Ayling and former Villa target Joe Bryan (both 7.21).

 

 

Moreover, his return of 110 tackles across 42 league appearances last season was bettered by only five players in the division, which should help to allay fears that a relative newcomer to a full-back role will be found out at a higher level. However, there is one area of his game that Dean Smith will hope to help the youngster improve upon.

Indeed, while Cash has improved year-on-year over the past three seasons in terms of his pass accuracy, an average of 70.3 per cent in the previous campaign remains extremely modest. While the youngster was perhaps a little more ambitious with his passing than most of his teammates last season, that doesn't full account for the fact that said pass accuracy was the worst of players to start more than ten times for Forest last season.

With solid if unspectacular figures across the board elsewhere, it is the one glaringly obvious department in which Cash must make another, this time more susbstantial, step up.

Nevertheless, Aston Villa fans have reason to be very pleased with their first addition of the window, albeit at a considerable fee. One thing for sure is that should Cash acclimatise to the Premier League and continue to improve at the rate he has over the past 18 months in particular, that fee will begin to look more and more like a bargain.

Who is Matty Cash? Stats, strengths and weaknesses of new Aston Villa recruit