- 01/12/2023
Aston Villa's recent win over Tottenham has moved them up the Premier League table, and put the Champions League firmly in their sights. It's a position that Unai Emery's side more than merit and, thanks to their manager's ingenious attacking system, one they've got every chance of holding onto.
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00:00 Hello everybody, Adam Cleary from 442 here, metaphysically returning from the feast of
00:10 football we've all enjoyed this weekend to talk to you about Aston Villa, one of the
00:15 most interesting and exciting teams in England, maybe about to be one of the most interesting
00:22 and exciting teams in the Champions League.
00:26 Deadly serious.
00:27 Well, straight off the bat, are Aston Villa a top four team?
00:33 Well, they just went and beat a team who are already in the top four to put themselves
00:36 in the top four, so yes, currently they are a top four team.
00:40 And they're there completely on merit, like for total number of goals scored, they're
00:44 a top four team.
00:45 For total number of shots, they're a top four team.
00:47 For total shots on target, they're a top four team.
00:50 Hey, maybe you're one of those people who really likes XG, well they're a top four team
00:54 for that.
00:55 You love non-penalty XG, which is their XG minus all the penalties, because obviously
00:59 penalties grossly inflate your XG, they're a top four team for that.
01:02 Now admittedly, when you flip those stats around, it becomes less good, like goals conceded,
01:07 shots on target against total XG against all of that stuff.
01:11 They're not a top four team, they're like right smack bang in the middle of a table,
01:15 but crucially, they're all defensive stats, aren't they?
01:18 And as you know, defending is for nerds.
01:21 Let's just be real here, right, if you're in the top four of the Premier League for
01:24 creating chances and scoring goals, you're just really good.
01:28 Like that just doesn't happen by accident.
01:30 And how's he done it?
01:31 How's genius, big brain, tricksy continental manager Unai Emre, what system has he devised
01:38 that has flummoxed English football?
01:41 It's a 4-4-2!
01:42 He's actually using a 4-4-2 and nobody knows how to play against it.
01:49 That's just, that's really funny.
01:51 And I mean, of course, if nothing else, simply very cool of him to devise his entire footballing
01:55 philosophy around both his favourite magazine and YouTube channel.
02:00 Please do consider subscribing.
02:01 All right, so all joking aside, even though obviously I wasn't joking, it's not, it is
02:05 a 4-4-2 in principle, but the way he executes it is just not a 4-4-2 at all, because this,
02:10 this is the end result they are trying to end up in, in the final third.
02:14 They want a line of five players stretching the width of the pitch, all able to either
02:20 push forward or drop back and get between the lines.
02:23 That's what they're trying to achieve, but they do that from this.
02:28 They start with a really basic 4-4-2.
02:31 And how Aston Villa get from this to this is all to do with these two wide players here.
02:38 Because you think of 4-4-2, you think of wingers, don't you?
02:41 You think of classic, get to the byline, get your cross in, that kind of player.
02:44 They couldn't be more different.
02:46 It's effectively closer to like a box midfield, because you have the two holding players,
02:50 they drop off and then these two come in about as narrow as they're able to do.
02:54 And the reason for that is because of this back six here, all playing the ball around
02:59 in the buildup, they are trying to get a pass through the middle of the pitch to allow one
03:04 of these two players to receive it.
03:06 And the reason for that is really clever, because it's trying to do one thing.
03:09 And if you directly try and stop that one thing, it enables you to do something else,
03:13 which is really good.
03:14 But first and foremost, it's quite unlikely that a fullback is going to want to track
03:18 a wide player into this space to stop them receiving a pass.
03:22 As far as the fullback's concerned, that stops being their problem.
03:26 So with Aston Villa playing the ball around at the back, just being very patient with
03:29 it, it'll even do that thing that Brighton will do, where they'll just put their foot
03:33 on the ball and be like, well, I've got my foot on the ball.
03:37 Guess I'm not prepared to dribble around you or pass it anywhere.
03:40 So you should come and try and win it back.
03:42 They try and bait the opposition forward in that way to create space here.
03:46 One of the wide players will eventually come into the middle and then they make the line-breaking
03:51 pass, which takes the entire opposition press out of the way, either over the top or through
03:55 the middle into here.
03:58 And when one of the wide players receives the ball in that central area, that is just
04:01 the trigger for the entire rest of the Aston Villa squad to assemble their attacking shape.
04:07 I know it sounds like there's a little bit of like Morphin Time Power Rangers about it,
04:13 and there is.
04:14 That is exactly what it's like.
04:15 So if, for example, it is the left-hand wide player, the first thing that has to happen
04:18 is that the fullback on that side has to get up and provide the width over there.
04:23 The wide player on the other side, they move out to the touchline to help stretch the opposition.
04:27 The forward nearest to them, they go into sort of an advanced eight position.
04:31 Always if possible, Ollie Watkins will stay in the middle and then they carry the ball
04:35 into this area, giving you that front five.
04:40 Behind them, the two defensive midfielders, they will push up and the defenders swing
04:43 around into a nice back three with the opposite side fullback tucking in because they're really
04:49 happy to do that.
04:50 So that is how Villa go from a 4-4-2 in their own half to a 3-2-5 all up in your chips.
04:55 But what's really impressive is not just that they do this, it's how quickly they can do
05:00 this, how quickly they can get from back to front, from system to system, from shape to
05:04 shape.
05:05 Like technical term for you here, this is sort of what's known as a direct attack, which
05:09 sounds obvious, like all attacks are direct, but it's like a statistic thing, which basically
05:13 refers to any time you start with the ball in your own half and you end up with either
05:18 a touch in the box or a shot.
05:20 So you basically create a chance out of it.
05:23 And I think it's 50% of all the passes have to be forward.
05:27 So you're looking to basically go from back to front as quickly as you can.
05:30 It's a direct attack.
05:31 Now, if you're sitting there thinking, well, surely every team wants to do direct attacks.
05:35 Well, they do if they can, but you want to see the current league table for just direct
05:40 attacks.
05:41 The top Villa are literally top.
05:43 They are the best team in the Premier League right now from starting with the ball at the
05:47 back and creating a chance out of it.
05:50 Like just to show you how much of a stylistic thing it is, Man City, famed for knocking
05:54 the ball around all over the pitch, death by a thousand cuts.
05:57 They languish down in like 15th or something and Liverpool obviously famed for how quickly
06:02 they attack you and go from end to end.
06:04 They're second.
06:05 Like Liverpool are the team you think of when you think of direct attacks and Aston Villa
06:10 currently are better at it than they are.
06:12 Now we could just go over the Tottenham goal again and show you why having a front five
06:15 like this is so dangerous and how you've got players who can drop off.
06:19 You've got width, you can cross, you can come inside.
06:21 It gives you so many options.
06:22 And obviously what you're trying to do, like you do anywhere on the pitch, is get a numerical
06:27 advantage.
06:28 Like the whole thing about box midfield is you get four players where the opposition
06:31 have three.
06:32 So the whole point of having this attacking five is you have five players, seen here,
06:36 where the opposition only has four players, seen here.
06:39 And ergo it's impossible for everybody to be marked.
06:41 So you're always going to have a spare man.
06:43 And in this case, that was Tielemans.
06:44 He was able to play Watkins in and he scored a really, really good goal.
06:48 So you can see why they want to do that.
06:50 But what's even cleverer about this system is the way I have just shown you they make
06:57 it with Dinhia on this side and the thing coming in doing that.
07:01 That's not what they do all the time.
07:04 They do this in another way.
07:06 So let's just have a gentle reset here.
07:08 Matty Cash, he goes back out to right back.
07:10 The centre backs, they go there.
07:11 Dinhia comes all the way back.
07:13 And I think it was, I think I had McGinn here.
07:14 He received the ball.
07:15 So he goes back out there.
07:16 Diaby and Watkins.
07:17 And we're back in our 4-4-2.
07:20 So what happens if in that line breaking pass, it actually goes to this guy?
07:25 Well, they just do the exact same thing again from the other side.
07:28 The width that comes from the right back.
07:31 He gets up there.
07:32 The two forwards, they'll usually try and keep Watkins in the centre, but he can drift
07:35 out ever so slightly.
07:37 He's flanked by the two eights and the other wide attacker.
07:39 They come into that side.
07:41 The defence shuffles over.
07:42 Now Dinhia, who's just as comfortable being at left centre back.
07:46 He comes across there as well.
07:47 They push the holding midfielders up and voila!
07:50 It's the same five from the other side.
07:53 And do you know how hard that is?
07:56 Emery's been in this job just over a year and he's managed to get a team together with
08:01 just two transfer windows.
08:03 They haven't spent an insane amount of money.
08:05 The majority of what he's done here is in coaching.
08:08 But do you want to know my other favourite thing about Aston Villa?
08:11 Like they are so aggressive and so front foot.
08:13 When they get you in this system, they squeeze you as high as they possibly can.
08:18 They push that line right the way up and it's where they concede most of their goals from
08:23 because they leave all the space behind.
08:24 It's the risk reward that they're really happy with.
08:26 They play on the front foot like this and they're not even a high pressing team.
08:32 They don't try and win the ball back here like you'd expect them to.
08:36 Like here's a mind bending statistic for you.
08:38 I compared them to Liverpool before because they kind of set the bar for direct attacks
08:43 in the Premier League and now Villa are even better at it than they are.
08:46 So you'd assume that other side of Liverpool's game, which is when you've pushed everybody
08:49 up, you try and win it back really quickly.
08:51 You're good at high turnovers, winning the ball back in the opposition's third.
08:55 Villa, by extension, must now be really good at that, right?
09:00 Nah, wrong.
09:01 The third bottom in the league for the number of high turnovers.
09:04 They're not interested in trying to win the ball back here.
09:08 They want to do their play and if it doesn't work, they will reset back into their 4-4-2
09:13 and wait until they get the ball back.
09:15 Like this breaks down or they lose the ball or they miss the shot or whatever, they get
09:18 back into their 4-4-2.
09:19 We'll just do the old magic wand here.
09:22 And they don't sit deep and they don't sit compact and they're not overly defensive.
09:25 They still try and keep the line as high as they possibly can.
09:28 But what they do is they take the 4-4-2 and they're making a diamond 4-4-2.
09:32 One of the holding midfielders will charge into sort of this number 10 position and they'll
09:36 cover across there and they'll try and stop teams playing through the middle from doing
09:40 the kind of build up that they themselves would do.
09:43 They want to stop that pass through the centre.
09:45 So instead, they normally quite happily allow the ball to go out to the fullbacks and then
09:49 that triggers the two wide players to press directly in a straight line to stop any pass
09:54 going forward.
09:56 What they're trying to force the opposition to do is to kind of run out of ideas, hit
10:00 the ball long and because they've got big strapping centre backs, that's why they bought
10:04 Paul Torres, they just clean it up.
10:06 They will squeeze and squeeze and push up and push up and leave all this space in behind
10:10 because they're trying to bait the opposition into hitting it long either so they'll win
10:14 the aerial challenge or it'll go in behind and Martinez can come and sweep it up.
10:18 And then once they've got the ball back, they just reset into their 4-4-2 and they start
10:23 the whole thing again.
10:24 It's just so good.
10:26 My favourite thing about this though is that their next most common route to goal, their
10:30 plan B, is something that literally can only happen because of the most common solution
10:35 to plan A.
10:37 I'd say you go and squeeze them right the way up and you tell your fullback, "Listen
10:41 here, sonny, if you see that wide midfielder moving into the middle to receive that ball,
10:46 you go with him.
10:47 You make sure he's not free to receive that pass."
10:50 And okay, you say, so off you trot over there to make sure that happens and then one of
10:55 Villa's forwards just spins into the space that you have left.
10:59 And then if it's Oli Watkins, the defender or Martinez, they're perfectly happy lumping
11:02 a ball into your feet that you can hold up and then bring everybody else into play with.
11:06 Or if it's Diaby, they're quite happy lumping it in behind for you to go and chase because
11:10 that's why they've got Diaby as one of the centre forwards because he offers another
11:14 sort of approach to Watkins.
11:17 They've got so many ways they can hurt you.
11:20 It's so, so fun to watch.
11:22 And to quote cultural icon Brian Butterfield, that's still not all.
11:26 Now, one of the advantages of having the kinds of centre backs who are there to deal with
11:29 the aerial threat, the long ball threat that you are forcing the opposition to have is
11:33 that you're far more dangerous from set pieces.
11:35 And just to compare Villa to the teams they are competing for Champions League places
11:39 for at set pieces, they are joint top.
11:43 They've got four goals, the exact same amount as set piece specialists, Newcastle United.
11:48 And I appreciate when you look at the actual numbers, it's not like loads more, it's just
11:51 the odd goal here and there, but extrapolate that out across the course of a season and
11:56 Villa end up with like what, eight, nine, ten, twelve goals from set pieces and everybody
12:01 else ends up with four, five or six.
12:04 And there's such small margins trying to qualify for the Champions League.
12:08 Those goals could make all the difference.
12:10 They're certainly worth having.
12:11 The really mad thing about all of this is though, Emery's been doing it for like a year
12:15 and I think it still catches some people out.
12:17 Some people are still surprised to see how good Villa are because of this perception
12:22 of him as having been a flop or a failure while he was at Arsenal.
12:26 And I mean it wasn't good, like I understand why there's a section of the Arsenal fan base
12:29 that just have no love for him whatsoever, but it's very different because he has something
12:33 of Villa that he never had at Arsenal.
12:36 Like he had better or just more high reputation players, he had more money, bigger infrastructure,
12:41 he had all that, but he doesn't have buy-in.
12:45 And you gotta have that, like if you want to have these lofty ideas and complex systems
12:48 and all these different sort of approaches you want to have in game, you've got to have
12:52 the players on side.
12:53 You've got to have not just an eleven, but a squad who will buy into what you're trying
12:57 to do, who will all sit there and listen, they'll pay attention, they'll work and they'll
13:01 run and they'll do all the stuff you're trying to tell them to do.
13:05 And he's got that here, that's why it works.
13:07 Now don't get me wrong, by the way, it's not me saying like, "Oh, it was all the players
13:11 fault at Arsenal."
13:12 If you just listened to him, they would have won the flipping lot.
13:15 Like it is a manager's job to get the players on side, so that was clearly part of that
13:19 job he failed at.
13:21 But looking at what he's doing at Villa now, it's also something that he clearly learned
13:25 from as well.
13:26 And yes, it is still early days and there's a long way to go.
13:28 It's really hard to qualify for the Champions League, but you look at this Villa side and
13:34 you see what they're doing on the ball, what they're doing off the ball, how much everybody
13:37 buys in, how they don't feel like they're one or two injuries from being in the midst
13:41 of a disaster or forgetting what it is they're trying to do.
13:45 And they really, really could do it this year.
13:48 They really could do it.
13:50 So yes, that is Aston Villa and I absolutely love Aston Villa this year.
13:54 So next time you're on television, you should watch them and just look for all of this and
13:59 you will love Aston Villa as well.
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14:38 And until next time, I've been Adam Cleary, that's been Aston Villa, and I will see you
14:44 soon.
14:45 Mondays, eh?
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