Sam Stone

Fri 10 February 2023 8:16, UK

Aston Villa are looking to get back to winning ways this weekend as they make the daunting trip to the Etihad to face Manchester City.

The Premier League champions have endured a tough run of late, but they still possess some of the best players in the world and could cause the Villans all sorts of problems on Sunday (12 February).

Villa are heading to Manchester off the back of a disappointing 4-2 defeat to Leicester City and Unai Emery will be absolutely desperate to ensure another heavy defeat isn’t around the corner.

One player to obviously consider is Erling Haaland. The goal machine has 25 Premier League strikes to his name and is the main threat that Villa will have to contend with. However, at the moment Haaland is surprisingly being questioned by pundits and onlookers after drawing blanks in five of his last seven matches.

In City’s last match against Tottenham, Antonio Conte’s side were absolutely superb in dealing with the big Norwegian and it’s something the Villans should potentially consider replicating.

Spurs were aggressive in their approach to negate the 22-year-old, with Christian Romero playing a vital role. The 24-year-old defender was always looking to get tight to Haaland, even when the Manchester City striker dropped into midfield.

Below shows the Norwegian receiving the ball from Ederson before being pinned back into his own half by the Tottenham defender.

The clever defending from Romero sees Haaland lose the ball in his own half, with a number of Spurs’ players ready to latch onto the loose ball and start an attack.

From Villa’s perspective, potentially looking to be aggressive in their approach could reap rewards. Tyrone Mings could be tasked with man-handling Haaland or even Douglas Luiz in the midfield. The striker doesn’t want to be in possession facing his own goal.

In the image above it’s important to take a look at Tottenham’s shape, as it is playing a significant part in how they’re able to push the striker back towards his own goal.

Their back line is incredibly high up – which does come with risk. However, it means they can flood the midfield area and reduce the options Haaland has when he gets on the ball. Ivan Perišić’s position in the bottom right of the picture is vital.

The Croatian usually operates as a wing-back in Spurs’ 3-4-3 system, but in this instance, he’s shuffled around into a more central defensive role to allow Romero to leave his usual position to pressure the 22-year-old.

As per Wyscout, Haaland usually averages five touches in the box, but against Spurs, he didn’t manage one. Tottenham’s aggressive and front-foot approach was key in stifling him. However, do Villa have a player who can compete in the same way Romero did?

Mings would be the obvious candidate considering his position, but there could be a couple of issues if Emery looks to utilise the England international in an aggressive front footway against the Premier League champions.

Firstly, the Aston Villa man’s defensive duels are significantly lower than Romero’s. The Argentine has a career average of nine per 90 minutes which is six more than Mings. He’s a player who looks to contest the ball and was completely comfortable ‘doing a job’ on Haaland.

One other issue is the team shape, Villa rarely set up with three and five at the back and their eagerness to adopt a four-at-the-back system could leave them exposed in behind if they do attempt to be front-footed and aggressive with Haaland.

It’s an interesting one for Emery to contemplate, but Spurs have certainly laid down the blueprint of how to stifle City’s main man.

In other Aston Villa news, the club are set to revive interest in an Athletic Bilbao player in the summer after a failed January swoop.