View: Burnley aerial prowess could be major issue for Aston Villa this weekend
Aston Villa’s season is as good as over now with Steven Gerrard and his men simply playing for an improved position in the Premier League table.
Millions of pounds can be the difference between a 15th-placed finish and what is still a very much achievable spot in the top half.
As it stands, Villa are 13th with 40 points and they’ll be going into their trip to Burnley on Saturday knowing that they’re going to have a massive task on their hands to improve on both their position in the standings and their points tally.
Burnley are in stunning form.
Despite controversially sacking Sean Dyche, the Clarets have moved out of the Premier League’s relegation zone and they currently sit 16th after three consecutive wins.
It’s still very possible that Burnley will be relegated but they’ll know that on Saturday if they can extend their winning streak to the detriment of Villa, their chances of survival will increase greatly.
Aston Villa will have to be wary of a lot at Turf Moor but the biggest threat will no doubt be Burnley’s aerial prowess.
According to stats by WhoScored, the Lancashire club wins more aerial duels per game [22.4] than any other team in the Premier League. Aston Villa, on the other hand, rank 14th with 14.3 per game.
Understandably, Burnley also rank highest in the top-flight for long passes per game [71] and lowest for short passes [258]. More interestingly, they rank joint-fourth for crosses per game [20] with title-chasing Manchester City and Liverpool and Europa League semi-finalists West Ham averaging more.
That’s a threat for Aston Villa, who’ve conceded 11 goals from set-pieces this season and regularly concede chances down the flanks.
As per stats by WhoScored, you can see that 17 per cent of the shots Villa concede come from their right side and 18 per cent come from the right – that’s a high number when the 64 per cent that come via the middle is one of the lowest in the league.
It means that basically, Villa concede a lot of chances from out wide while Burnley average a lot of crosses, a lot of long balls and win a lot of headers.
Here you can see their tactics in action against Watford last week when they won 2-1 at Vicarage Road.
As you can see, Burnley have just four players in the six-yard box attacking a corner when they are 1-0 down and chasing the game.
Despite the low number of attackers, Burnley have such confidence in their aerial ability that they simply need to get the right players in the right areas to win aerial balls and bombard goalmouths.
But then the Clarets throw a secret weapon into the mix – a deep-lying attacker arriving late into the box to attack the corner kick.
Ashley Barnes arrives late, bamboozling the Watford defenders who are too preoccupied with those in the perceived danger in the six-yard box.
Fortunately for Watford, Barnes’ bullet header hits the crossbar – but they weren’t so lucky soon after.
From open play, Burnley also play to their strengths and when they get the ball out wide to capable crossers like Charlie Taylor, they start to overload the box.
Jack Cork makes the most of the fact that Watford’s defence are more bothered about the attacking players to charge in from deep and attack the cross.
Even Burnley’s central midfielders are a force to be reckoned with in the air and on this occasion, Cork scores.
Many people look down on Burnley for playing direct football that’s dull, hard to watch and isn’t pleasing on the eye.
But when you really dissect their game, it’s so simply that it’s genius.
They play to their strengths and while opposition teams know those strengths, they still cannot cope because of just how strong they are in the air.
Aston Villa will have a lot of work on their hands just to deal with this threat on Saturday if Gerrard wants to get this team to finish as high as possible.
In other Aston Villa news, Gerrard’s shared the key to Villa signing Philippe Coutinho permanently.