Aston Villa will have to ready for ‘rollercoaster’ to continue after up and down start
Aston Villa midfielder John McGinn has described their start to the season as “a bit of a rollercoaster” after Unai Emery’s side were beaten 3-0 by Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday (3 September).
Villa managed to confirm their Europa Conference League qualification with an 8-0 win on aggregate over Hibernian and won impressively against Burnley and Everton, but were dismantled by both Jurgen Klopp’s Reds and Eddie Howe’s Newcastle United.
McGinn was quick to suggest that their tumultuous start to the season didn’t suit Emery’s side as they look for consistency. While that is obviously the goal for every team in the league, it’s never that easy to achieve.
Quoted by Birmingham Live on Monday (4 September), McGinn said: “Today was a bit of a blow but we need to react the same way we did after Newcastle. We need to put this game in the past and show everyone how good a team we are.
“[It’s been] up and down, a bit of a rollercoaster so far, which doesn’t really suit us,”
Easier said than done
We have only just reached the first international break of the season so McGinn and Aston Villa are going to have to get set to ride this rollercoaster for a little while longer if they want to continue fighting for European places this year.
Villa’s next five games see them take on an attacking Crystal Palace side, Legia Warsaw, Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, and Everton in the Carabao Cup before they face Brighton at Villa Park to end their September fixtures. On form, you could argue Villa are the favourites in all of those fixtures, but they couldn’t face teams with more different styles of play.
While there is no such thing as an easy fixture when you’re competing in Europe and the Premier League, the next month could well be a test of just how capable Emery’s side is of fighting on all fronts and navigating teams with very different styles of play.
Their two visits to the now “big seven” clubs have seen them struggle to even lay a glove on their opponents and with Chelsea struggling for form they need to ensure they at least compete with Mauricio Pochettino’s side when they travel to Stamford Bridge.
Villa have shown they can win in different ways as well. In stats provided by Fotmob, against Everton, they managed to score four times with 60 per cent of possession, while when they travelled to Turf Moor they found the net three times with 43 per cent of the ball. But against Liverpool, they only registered 36 per cent possession.
Emery’s side is managing to take shots in all of their matches, whether they win or lose, against Klopp’s side they managed nine attempts on Allison’s goal and in the wins over the Toffees and Burnley they managed 12 and 16 respectively (Fotmob).
The difference comes in the xG these chances are generating. Against Vincent Kompany’s side, Villa managed 2.7 xG, while in the win over Everton they registered 3 xG. In the loss bat Anfield their nine shots only warranted 0.66 xg. That was despite every one of the Villans’ attempts being taken from inside the box, with only three shots being put on target.
Another problem area seems to be the lack of threat Villa pose from set pieces, averaging an xG of 0.29 from set pieces in the Premier League so far this season, an incredibly low number when you consider the height of their overall expected goals.
With Tyrone Mings out with injury, Emery’s side isn’t the most physically imposing, with Pau Torres by far and away the biggest aerial threat, standing at 192cm – 8cm taller than Diego Carlos and only just taller than Mings himself.
Whether it be through a change of tactical setup or even a greater sense of belief, Emery needs to find a way to set up his slide to beat the big teams away from home, like they did when they bettered Tottenham and Chelsea as visitors last year.
In other Aston Villa news, Philippe Coutinho has chosen his preferred next club after the window has closed