Talking tactics: Why Moussa Diaby is an ideal fit for Emery’s Villa

After months of speculation over potential Aston Villa transfer targets, Moussa Diaby is the attacking solution that Unai Emery now has at his disposal.

As per the Athletic, Villa signed the 24-year-old French international in a deal worth around €40m plus add-ons from Bayer Leverkusen last week, adding an exciting new dynamic to our attack that should help us become more clinical.

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With 49 goals and 48 assists in 172 appearances for the Bundesliga side, Diaby showed his quality consistently over several years, and he now has the opportunity to take his game to the next level under the stewardship of Emery, in a system that should maximise and make best use of his attributes.

When we think of Diaby’s main strengths, we immediately look at his pace both in and out of possession, his technical ability and control of the ball, his creativity to register assists and a clinical edge in front of goal to make him an all-round threat in the final third.

Pair that with a system that will allow him to stretch defences to create space for others and to both lead our counter-attacks and use his pace and movement off the ball to find space in dangerous areas to then create openings, it’s clear why Emery has ultimately landed on the Frenchman to be our marquee signing in attack.

How Diaby will be a perfect fit for Emery’s system

Villa played out a 3-3 draw with Newcastle Utd in Philadelphia on Sunday night, and if we look at all three of our goals in that game, it’s clear where Diaby will be a real asset to our attacking play.

Credit must go to youngster Jaden Philogene for impressing at the weekend in the same role, and he showed what Emery wants from his right-sided attacking winger, with Diaby set to take us to the next level in that area of the pitch while also having the versatility to play across the frontline.

One of the hallmarks of Emery’s preferred style of play is to patiently build out play from the back, inviting pressure from the opposition in our defensive third to then leave gaps in behind in midfield and beyond, where the tempo of our play dramatically speeds up as we play incisive passes to reach the goal as quickly as possible.

The first graphic and image below are taken in the lead up to our opening goal, with Emi Martinez waiting for Newcastle to push forward and press, before lofting a pass into midfield for Emi Buendia who makes full use of the space vacated in that area of the pitch.

The Argentine playmaker did brilliantly to evade Sandro Tonali’s challenge before carrying the ball forward and laying it off for Ollie Watkins to break the deadlock.

Notice though how advanced Philogene is throughout to stretch the Newcastle defence and perhaps on another occasion, Buendia plays it in early to him and we have another route of attack.

The next images below are taken shortly before our second and third goals in the same game. The trend continues with Philogene pushing up the pitch for our second, while for our third, he shows great pace and awareness to break forward into space with Buendia playing a brilliant pass into him before eventually finishing the move off himself.

How many times did we see Moreno exploit those areas out wide along with the likes of Jacob Ramsey and at times Leon Bailey and Bertrand Traore by breaking into dangerous areas at just the right time?

Emery’s system and tactical set-up is constructed to make the opposition narrow and vulnerable in behind and in wide areas, and so if we add Diaby’s pace and quality in the final third, we should cause our opponents real problems. Further, if we consider Moreno’s attacking quality down the opposite flank, suddenly we’re a more balanced and unpredictable attacking unit altogether.

The images below show how Diaby was predominantly deployed on the right wing for Leverkusen, but spent a lot of time playing on the opposite side too. The former Paris Saint-Germain ace isn’t shy in having an attempt at goal either, but most of his goals came inside the box, either as a result of clever movement off the ball or breaking forward in possession himself.

It’s one thing having the qualities to become a key player for Villa, but when you combine that with how effective he could be in this system and in Emery’s vision for how he wants us to play, it’s starting to look very promising.

Further, we haven’t even taken into account the ability of Pau Torres and Diego Carlos in particular to showcase their technical quality at the back by playing pinpoint passes forward to find Diaby in a more direct way.

With Ollie Watkins providing a threat of his own up top coupled with Buendia’s creativity and the ability of our midfielders such as John McGinn or Ramsey to not only win back possession in high areas but then bomb forward too, there is a lot to like about how our side is taking shape.

There’s never an absolute guarantee that a new signing will work out, but Diaby looks primed to flourish in a Villa side that should play to his strengths perfectly.