Dan Bardell: Best Aston Villa football I’ve ever seen from Unai Emery in Manchester United win
We’re delighted to welcome The Athletic’s Dan Bardell as our exclusive Aston Villa columnist each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the club…
Unai Emery’s tactics in his first game in charge brought about some of the best Aston Villa football Dan Bardell has ever seen to beat Manchester United.
The Villans “blew them away” 3-1 at Villa Park, helped by early goals from Leon Bailey and Lucas Digne, in the kind of display which felt a million miles off in the dying days of the Steven Gerrard reign.
The home fans had seen a similarly improved performance in the 4-0 win over Brentford under Aaron Danks on 23 October, in the first game after the previous manager was sacked, but Bardell believes the two wins cannot be compared in terms of the tactics and the game plan.
Speaking exclusively to Villa News he said: “If you look at the two games I think they were very, very different.
“In both games they got off to a fast start attacking the Holte End, and any game of football is changed if you score an early goal, it really helps especially if you score two.
“It gave Villa a great platform, but although that was a good display against Brentford I think what they did was quite basic, but it worked.
“What they did against Manchester United was some of the best football I’ve ever seen at Villa Park and I’ve been going a long time.
“I’ve never sat there and been so fascinated by a tactical set-up, and the fact that he’d only been there for three or four days, I just thought it was absolutely incredible.
“The way that they played, you could see there was a massive difference to what we’ve seen previously. You could see how well-drilled they were, every player knew exactly what they should be doing.
“It was very fluid, with a certain set up on the ball and a very different one off the ball. The plans were changing as they were going through and Emery was almost conducting on the sideline.
“He didn’t sit down for the whole game and was in constant communication with his players.
“Over the years I’ve lamented, ‘Why can’t Villa get players in space? Why can’t they play a style of football that’s dangerous coming forward?’
“But all the rotations and the things he had worked on, you could see he had a set plan for that Manchester United game and we blew them away.
“I think even the most ardent Man United fan would struggle to say Villa didn’t deserve to win that game.
“Watching players pick the ball up in space was so refreshing and no player was below a 7/10 on the day. The manager used his substitutions so slow the game down and impact the game.
“I just thought it was so impressive especially for having so little time on the training ground, it was just a really enjoyable day.”
If the win against United was a sign of things to come from the Emery era then it will be a managerial appointment the club has got spot on.
The fanbase have been deprived of much to shout about all season but it was a totally different matter against Erik ten Hag’s side in the Spaniard’s first match.
If that is how much he can get out of his players within days of arrival there has to be high hopes for what he can do given the World Cup break to work with the squad, so optimism has returned for now.
In other Aston Villa news, Leon Bailey fumes at officials after Lisandro Martinez clash.