How Unai Emery outclassed the treble-winners
“First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they attack you. Then you win”. This quote describes perfectly Unai’s Emery second managerial period in England so far. The Spaniard who left from Arsenal being the laughing stock from the media (his accent was one of the main reasons…) has returned to the island to prove his worth and until now he’s doing great. However Villa’s yesterday win against the team which few months ago won the treble (City) and against a manager (Pep) who hadn’t been able to win so far (1st win in 14 games), is set to be the caping stone of his second time in the Premier League so far. Let’s find out how he managed it.
Formations
Aston Villa lined up in their usual 4–2–2–2 assymetrical. The assymetry lies in the position of Leon Bailey who moved more in the right side of the pitch.
However when they pushed the opponents in the 2/3 of the pitch the assymetry ceased to exist as Lucas Digne moved up on the left flank, to create a more balanced 3–2–4–1. Tielemans and McGinn played as attacking midfielders.
On the other side City lined up in their classic 3–2–4–1 with Akanji playing in the hybrid role of a CDM when in possession and an LCB when out of possession. Rico Lewis and Julian Alvarez were City’s AMs, who lacked the prescence of Rodri, Doku, Grealish and De Bryune.
Find the AMs and Digne
Mostly this was Villa’s plan when they built up from the back.
After luring the opponent to come and press, the villagers kept their two AMs high in the pitch in order to drop on right timing to pick up a clipped ball from the defenders. Here we need to say that the late arrivings from City’s players (especially on 1st half) on their markers, played a crucial role for Villa to be able to progress this way.
Also another way which Villa tried to break the press was through clipped balls from Dibu Martinez to Lucas Digne.
Martinez had impressive stats with the ball on his feet as from his 36 passes in total, 34 of them were accurate. Also 11/10 were beyond his own third..Top class
Futhermore the midfield duo consisted from Boubacar Kamara and Douglas Luiz had a great game too, with the Frenchman having succeeded in 49/53 passes with 4/4 successfull dribbles.
4–2 on the build up and Dibu’s crucial role
The Citizen’s average PPDA number is 9.66 this year. In yesterday’s match they ended up the 1st half having 13.5…Significant difference, don’t you think? For this reason they pressed more aggressively in the 2nd half (we’ll see later how) making villager’s life much more difficult. But what tweak did Emery use to overcome the problem?
As you can see Villa tried to stretch their opponents in order to find space to exploit. Watch closely the big gap between the two CDMs but also the huge distances between City’s front line. In order to take advantage of the empty space, they deployed Martinez as the 4th man between the defending trio. We talked above about Dibu’s ability with the feet.
With 3 passes they reached the opponent’s penalty area
Keeping this direct style of play and by attempting through passes Villa succeeded to score. Crazy run from Bailey who finished the game with 1 goal, 3/5 shots, 4/5 dribbles and having 7 touches in the opponent’s penalty area, but mostly being the main attacking threat of the villagers.
What City did?
City tried to build up by utilising Ederson. The problem was that they constantly made bad choices. It was obvious that the calming presence of Rodri was missing, from miles away.
Citizens didn’t have clear mind and as a result they were forced to many mistakes, especially in the first 3rd.
When they circulated the ball well, their main target was one of the two AMs as you can see above and after that to take advantage of the empty space left from the opposition behind.
When they reached the progressive phase they tried to play vertical although it wasn’t the easiest thing to do (keep reading to find out why).
To manage it they searched for 3rd man combinations in the centre of the pitch and then attack through the flanks
Here are City’s only 2 shots…yeah the unique ones from the whole game. The thing is that their huge chance came from an individual action from Phil Phoden. It was obvious that besides Rodri on the midfield, City lacked the individual attacking threat from Jeremy Doku.
Villagers oop
In order to beat the 3 times Champions in a row you have to scratch your ceiling and Villa succeeded it by playing excellently in both phases of the game.
When they pressed high they did it in a 4–1–3–2 and tried to cut the pitch in half, in order to shrink the space. Kamara stayed in a lower position as a lone CDM in front of the defensive line, in order to support the press in wider areas and collect free balls around his zone.
Villa set traps on the wings and tried to be numerical superior in order to win the ball back.
It was very important to stay focus through the whole game and don’t let City find any way to create superiorities.
When they defended in mid block, they stayed compact and didn’t let any space to the opposition in order to progress.
The goal of the medfield line was to protect the centre of the field and the half spaces. So they congested that area and by keeping their defensive line high, they made it almost impossible to the opposition to find space.
City’s tweaks in 2nd half to turn it around
City found it really difficult to progress and even when they did it, they couldn’t penetrate the opponent. So in order for Pep to find a solution he made 2 changes. At first he moved Bernardo from the flanks in the centre, in order to help with the ball progression. Also he gave Walker more freedom to move through the right flank and he commanded both of his AMs to empty the centre and overload the wide regions. By doing this he wanted to stretch the opposition and create space to exploit.
Watch out the timing Lewis starts to drifting inside
Although they improved in ball progression they lacked verticality in their game and they couldn’t threaten the opponent. Villa’s press also made it really difficult.
But Villa’s biggest hit was to remove City’s medfielders from the game and don’t let them touching the ball. Lewis in 70' of play had 15 touches with the ball, while on 20' Kovacic and Nunes had 14 touches each one. Alvarez had 25 touches with 1/4 successfull dribbles. Also John Stones attempted 38 passes and only 6 of them were forward.
City without the ball
City set up in a 4–1–3–2 when out of possession. Akanji stepped up when needed in order to close down space to the opponent. Also Stones supported the medfielders when needed in pressing.
City’s players weren’t decisive in their defensive actions and this resulted on their poor PPDA number in the first half. Even when they pressed more aggressively in the start of 2nd half (7.6 from 45–60), subsequently they lost ground (19.5 from 60–75) and Villa dominated.
When they defended in a low block Stones was falling back to create a 5 men defensive line in order to be +1 to the opposition’s attackers.
Conclusion
To sum up Villa deserved this win 100%. I can’t remember the last time that the xG difference was so big against the Citizens (2.73–0.50) or when they only made 2 shots in a whole game. Villa were almost perfect without the ball and when they were in possession they put City in a low block many times. They were more focused and showed more hunger to win this game (53%-44% duels win rate). On the other hand Pep’s side goes through a tough period. They have important abscences and they don’t perform on their standards (winless on their last 4 PL games). I’m waiting to see how Pep will turn things around AGAIN. Until then we should give our credits to Mr. Unai Emery!
