Aston Villa Women: Midfield balance gives Kenza Dali freedom to thrive in attacking third
Aston Villa highlighted their WSL intentions with a well-earned 1-1 draw against Manchester City on Saturday (21 January), and the performance of attacking midfielder Kenza Dali was a joy to watch.
Since her summer move from Everton, Dali has taken to the West Midlands like a duck to water and continued to show her class in a player-of-the-match performance on Saturday.
Having already assisted six goals and netted four goals this season – including a 20-yard screamer last week against Spurs – Dali has been Villa’s most consistent source of creativity and has been a major reason for Rachel Daly’s goal-scoring heroics.
Although renowned for this creativity in the final third, her industrious work in the heart of midfield was something City couldn’t keep up with and was a major reason for the team’s strong showing at The Academy Stadium.
Lining up at the tip of a midfield three including Jordan Nobbs and Lucy Staniforth, Dali was allowed to drift into pockets of space in between City’s midfield and back-four. Whenever able to get on the ball in these areas she was a direct runner and a real attacking threat in the final third.
However, Villa were by no means the team in the ascendency throughout the game, and the French international, alongside her midfield counterparts, were made to suffer for large portions of the game as City exerted their class.
It was this discipline in defence that would have pleased Ward most, as Dali constantly popped up with interceptions at crucial points and was happy to still carry the ball from deep – bringing her teammates out of their low block at the same time.
Speaking after the draw on Sky Sports (Saturday 21 January, 13:41), former Lioness Ellen White detailed how Ward had struck the right note with the balance of her midfield three, which in turn gave the 31-year-old a license to thrill.
She said: “What Jordan and Lucy bring is incredible for Villa, but it then means Dali has that sense of freedom to run with the ball and dribble with the ball, which we saw today and is really exciting.
“It’s something I hope will really continue throughout the rest of the season for Villa.
“A lot of teams will now be looking at what Dali does and how to defend against her, but if you’re defending her then you’ve still got Jordan and Lucy in that midfield, that are going to be a big threat.
“But I think it’s going to be really challenging for a lot of big teams in the WSL to actually combat that and get points out of Villa now.”
The draw against the title-chasing Blues was a real step up in quality from Ward’s side and felt like a coming-of-age performance.
Even though her side beat City 4-3 on the opening day of the season, both encounters saw Villa set up in different ways.
During the seven-goal thriller in September, Ward asked her side to press aggressively from the outset and look to catch City out with their potent attacking options, whereas Saturday was the performance of a team who believed they could go toe-to-toe with City in the middle of the park.
The balance of Nobbs, Staniforth and Dali was of paramount importance to this game plan and bodes well For Aston Villa in future games against the top four this season.
In other Aston Villa news, a 17-year-old academy prospect has signed his first professional contract with the club.