View: How Aston Villa can hurt Crystal Palace in their upcoming Premier League fixture
Aston Villa will be looking to make it two Premier League wins on the bounce as Steven Gerrard takes his side to Selhurst Park to take on Crystal Palace on Saturday.
The Villans picked up a much-needed win against Everton in their last Premier League outing with goals from Emi Buendía and Danny Ings enough for Gerrard’s side to register their three points of the season.
Palace will certainly be a tough test for Villa with Patrick Vieira’s side coming off an impressive point against Premier League heavyweights Liverpool.
The South London side certainly looked like a tough nut to crack for Jurgen Klopp’s men and Gerrard will have to also work out a way of breaking down Palace’s stubborn defence.
One bonus for Gerrard and Villa is the game being away from home, with the impetuous very much on Palace to come out and attack considering they’re at home.
Villa have sometimes struggled to break teams down, despite dominating the play at times.
One area that Gerrard should consider is looking to utilise Matty Cash down the right flank as much as possible.
The image above displays Palace left-back Tyrick Mitchell’s heat map so far from the 2022/23 campaign.
It is clear that the 22-year-old is eager to get forward as much as possible, particularly when Palace operate a three-at-the-back.
However, there is a good chance that Palace will revert back to a less defensive four-at-the-back system on Saturday and if Mitchell continues to foray forward, Cash and Villa’s more forward-thinking midfielders could have plenty of space to exploit.
The two heatmaps above are from Palace’s right-back options Nathaniel Clyne and Joel Ward and when compared to Mitchell’s, they are clearly more conservative in their decision-making.
Gerrard should certainly consider trying to target Palace’s left-flank in the Premier League fixture on Saturday.
From a defensive perspective, the Villa boss should potentially consider sitting deeper in order to negate the threat of Wilfried Zaha, with his pace and finishing ability a key component in Palace’s success.
This is a fixture that Gerrard should seriously consider giving up some control in order to be more defensively solid and hurt the home side on the break.
In other Aston Villa news, the club are back in the market for a defender after Diego Carlos’ injury