View: Aston Villa should move Philippe Coutinho out wide after stat reveal
The countdown to the Premier League returning is very much on and Unai Emery will be working tirelessly behind the scenes to get his Aston Villa side up to speed.
Despite the Villans currently sitting in 12th position in the league, everyone is completely aware that the first half of the campaign was nowhere near the standard required to fulfil the ambitions at Villa Park. Significant money was spent during the summer and it’s now up to Emery to work out what has gone wrong and get his side looking up towards the top half of the table.
The fixtures against Manchester United and Brighton gave us a taste of what to expect under the Spaniard, with both performances demonstrating an aggressive style of play. Considering we’ve only seen a bite-size snippet of what to expect under Emery, it’s hard to predict what’s going to come.
However, what we can do is look at areas of Villa’s game which could well be improved under the Spaniard. One particular part of their game which could be looked at is how much of an impact Villa’s flare players are having on proceedings at the moment.
One aspect, in particular, is the number of times Villa’s attackers look to compete in one v one dribbles. Emery’s side have attempted the seventh-lowest number of dribbles in the Premier League (336) (Wyscout).
However, Villa have one of the highest success rates when it comes to dribbles completed with 55 per cent. It seems the players have the ability to create attacking moments on their own, but they’re just not doing it enough.
Philippe Coutinho is the perfect example of a player who has the ability to take a player on and be successful but is simply not doing it enough. The graph below shows the Brazilian having an excellent dribbling success rate of over 60 per cent, but with the 30-year-old attempting just over four per match.
It’s a similar story when it comes to Leon Bailey, with the attacker amassing a 47 per cent success rate so far in the 2022/23 season.
Coutinho is a player who has seen his abilities underused this season and the Spaniard allowing the Brazilian more freedom in an attacking sense could well see the Villans become far more creative. In his previous three outings, he has taken a player on a total of just four times.
So what is impacting Coutinho’s ability to take a player on and be an attacking threat for Aston Villa? The main issue looks to be the position he is deployed in. The diagram below show his heat maps from the Newcastle defeat and the Brentford victory.
Coutinho managed one attempt at a dribble during both games whilst operating in a more central position which allows him to roam across the front four positions of the pitch.
However, against Leeds United (image below) Coutinho operated on the left flank for the majority of the game and managed to register eight dribbles against the Whites, with six of them being successful.
It was a very similar story against Southampton where he again registered six dribbles whilst playing in a slightly wider position. It could well be an option for Emery to look into when the Premier League restarts.
The Brazilian has endured a tough time at Villa Park and potentially a settled position out wide where he can be given licence to express himself could well be the answer to his patchy form.
In other Aston Villa news, the January transfer window becomes increasingly vital according to Aston Villa women experts after last weekend’s 5-0 loss at ‘Theatre of Dreams’.