View: Aston Villa to surely go back to basics under Unai Emery
A new era is set to get underway at Aston Villa as Unai Emery looks to make a positive impression on his return to the Premier League.
This job will be like no other for the 50-year-old manager who has taken charge of some of Europe’s biggest clubs. PSG and Arsenal are then notable names on his impressive CV which includes multiple victories in the Europa League.
Something has to change at Villa Park, with this team clearly stacked with quality and needing to be propelled in the right direction up the Premier League table. Steven Gerrard’s side were slow and one-dimensional in possession and often far too narrow in attack.
Under Gerrard Villa have swapped between three formations this season, with a narrower diamond system as his preferred way of playing.
From the picture above, the former Villa boss really struggled to nail down a chosen formation, and ultimately the inconsistency in system was also displayed on the pitch in the performances.
In Villa’s 4-3-1-2 they were far too rigid in attack. A narrow formation requires the full-backs to provide the width and that wasn’t occurring enough under Gerrard. Villa have set up in this formation four times so far this season and are averaging a goal a game. However, they’ve conceded on average 1.75 goals per game (Wyscout).
The numbers are almost identical for when Villa operate in a 4-2-3-1 system, with just four goals scored. However, the 4-3-3 system is where they have been most vulnerable, with 13 goals conceded.
The image above is Villareal’s average formation from the past year, with Emery opting to use a 4-4-2 system almost all the time at the LaLiga side. Firstly, this should hopefully provide some much-needed consistency for Villa’s players to buy into, but also give his side a good balance between defence and attack.
This system can often be referred to as simple or basic and that’s perhaps what is required to start getting back-to-back wins out of this underperforming group of players.
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