Aston Villa have seen a significant number of new players make their way to the Midlands club since they appointed Steven Gerrard as their manager back in November.
Out of those players, the one that we feel has been the best of the bunch is one that came rather early on in Gerrard’s reign – Lucas Digne.
Back in the previous January transfer window, just a couple of months after Gerrard arrived at Villa Park, the club secured a deal to sign the left-back from their fellow Premier League side, Everton, for a reported fee of £25m.
Since then, the Frenchman has gone on to become Villa’s first-choice left-back by making 23 appearances for the club across all competitions.
In those appearances, the 29-year-old has scored one goal and delivered four assists.
To further highlight his importance to Gerrard, Digne is now the only outfield member of the Villa squad to play every minute of league action this season.
In those appearances, the full-back has made eight successful tackles, 27 successful pressures, 16 blocks and 16 clearances, putting him in the top three for each statistic at Villa.
This shows just how much of a key figure he is for Gerrard and what a great bit of business it was from the club to bring him to Villa Park in the first place.
Even though Villa have had a tough start to their campaign by losing four of their six league games, it’s safe to say that things could well have been worse for them had they not had Digne in their squad.
Hailed as an “exceptional” player by Jamie Redknapp in the past, the former Everton star has undoubtedly been a big success for the Villans due to his talent and reliability, which puts him in the frame to be seen as Gerrard’s best signing for the club, in our view.
