The Basics
Age: 26
Club: Arsenal
Nation: Scotland
Position: Left-back
Footed: Left
Under contract until: 2026
Born in the Isle of Man, Tierney moved to Scotland at 10 months old and grew up supporting Celtic, whom he joined at age seven.
After breaking through at the Glasgow club, he won the Scottish Premiership’s Young Player of the Year award in three consecutive seasons between 2017 and 2019, before moving to Unai Emery’s Arsenal for a reported £25million.
Tierney was a regular for Arsenal until the 2022/23 season, when the arrival of Oleksandr Zinchenko pushed him down the pecking order. He started just six Premier League games this campaign.
The defender has played 37 games for Scotland, scoring once.
The Links
Sam Dean of The Telegraph reported in early May that Villa were “weighing up” a move for Tierney, and Tom Roddy of Times Sport recently claimed Villa have a “strong interest” in the defender.
The Scouting Report
Strengths
Tierney is a well-rounded full-back, bringing defensive solidity, athleticism, creativity, and versatility.
He is trustworthy as a defender, generally making correct decisions and being in the right place.
The full-back shows awareness in checking his shoulders for runners and filling gaps in the penalty area when his team is defending their box. He holds the line to let opponents drift offside rather than panicking and retreating.
When defending one on one, Tierney closes down wingers in a controlled and effective way, making it difficult for them to hit the cross they want. He doesn’t fall for fakes and stays in position.
He ranks in the 74th percentile for percentage of dribblers tackled compared to full-backs in the Premier League since 2019.
His positioning cuts off dangerous passing angles and forces opponents to take the longer route around the outside.
Tierney is also happy to go on the front foot when the situation calls for it, pushing up onto wingers or even full-backs to force them to play backwards.
The Scot has the pace to allow him to stay with runners into the penalty area or recover to beat them to the pass if they do get behind him. His burst means he can reach loose balls before his opponent.
In possession, Tierney brings plenty to the table as well. He is capable of driving forward from deep and turning defence into attack using his speed and passing ability. The defender ranks in the 76th percentile for progressive carries.
He is an accurate passer and trusts himself to fire them into smaller windows. Tierney can play door-opening balls behind the defence or into the penalty area, ranking in the 74th percentile for assists.
Tierney can be trusted to receive the ball in tight quarters and doesn’t panic in those moments.
Another strength of Tierney’s is his trust in both feet. He is comfortable using his right foot and this feeds into his positional flexibility.
At times he has been deployed as a right-back or a centre-back, mainly for Scotland as they find ways to get Tierney and fellow left-back Andrew Robertson into the team.
As Zinchenko has under Mikel Arteta, Tierney often moves into a central midfield position when Arsenal are in the final third, but he is just as confident hugging the touchline, overlapping the winger in front of him or hanging back and offering for a safe pass.
Weaknesses
It’s difficult to pick many holes in Tierney’s game. The biggest criticism might be that while he’s good at most aspects of full-back play, he isn’t great any anything.
The most obvious weakness Tierney has is aerial ability. Over his Premier League career, he ranks in just the 8th percentile for aerial duel win rate. While he has played at centre-back, this casts doubt over how effective he can be.
His conservative defensive style could be accused of being too passive at times. Tierney ranks in the 28thpercentile for tackles, the 21st percentile for interceptions and the 38th percentile for blocks across his time in his Premier League.
Injury history must be a genuine concern with Tierney, who has struggled to stay healthy for full seasons at a time. He’s had knee, ankle, shoulder, hip, calf, and groin injuries at different times.
Fit With Villa
Left-back wouldn’t appear to be a need for Villa, with Alex Moreno and Lucas Digne already in the squad.
There’s been some speculation that Digne could move on this summer, though. He is reportedly the club’s highest earner and isn’t the preferred starter anymore.
Tierney would act as a ‘safer’ version of Moreno, who is more prone to bombing forward. Emery likes one of his full-backs to stay back and fill in as a third centre-back when his team are attacking, and this is something Tierney could offer.
He would also provide right-back cover in a pinch.
His previous experience with Emery should ease the transition if Tierney makes the move to Villa Park.
If he were to arrive, Tierney wouldn’t be a guaranteed starter, so from that standpoint there’s some question to how realistic this transfer is. Would he want to move from being a backup at Arsenal to potentially a rotational player at Villa?
Similar Players
The 10 closest statistical comparisons to Tierney, according to FBREF, are:
- Emerson
- Hamari Traoré
- Theo Hernández
- Giovanni Di Lorenzo
- Arkadiusz Reca
- Jules Koundé
- Davide Calabria
- Ben White
- Oleksandr Zinchenko
- Joël Veltman
Traoré and Veltman could provide a similar skillset to Tierney but on the right side. Both are free agents after leaving Rennes and Brighton respectively.
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