Noel Whelan says Gerrard wants ‘inconsistent’ Buendia to ‘exit’

Emiliano Buendia has been in fine form of late, contributing three goals in his last four Premier League appearances, but his debut season has been mixed.

The 25-year-old has scored three goals with six assists in 33 league games, creating 44 chances, making 39/63 successful dribbles and hitting the target with 30% of his shots, but he’s gone long periods without much goal output.

Buendia scored just one league goal between August 2021 and January 2022, scored just one league goal between January and May, failed to make an assist in his first seven outings and failed to make an assists between early-January and early-March.

The Argentine international has been substituted on or substituted off 29 times in his 33 league outings, so he’s not indispensable under Steven Gerrard just yet. And with Villa signing Philippe Coutinho on a permanent deal, Noel Whelan believes Buendia could be shown the exit door.

He told Football Insider: “That points to Buendia’s exit, for me. He’s not really hit the heights that everyone expected from him after coming into Aston Villa. He was supposed to be the Grealish replacement.

“When you look at the fact that Gerrard went out and got Coutinho straight away – it points to maybe he doesn’t quite trust Buendia. He’s not been consistent enough, and it could be that Gerrard is more than willing to let him go this summer if the price is right.”

Buendia’s upturn in form during the tail-end of the season will give Gerrard hope for 2022/23. Coutinho may start ahead of the 25-year-old in games where Villa line up in a 4-3-1-2 formation, but Buendia is still worth keeping.

Being able to operate through the middle in Gerrard’s system means he has more of a future at Villa Park than Leon Bailey and