It’s proving to be a time to treasure being an Aston Villa fan this season, and it starts with Unai Emery’s influence and impact on the squad he is building.
The Villa boss has often spoken about some of his key principles, including his desire for control in games through possession and positioning, as well as building a style and structure that works for us regardless of personnel.
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At times this season, he has faced questions about his rotation. Most recently, he named a much-changed Villa XI at Man City, and although we suffered a disappointing 4-1 defeat in that game, it was clear what he is still trying to implement.
While he’s never used it as an excuse – and in fairness, he hasn’t had to given we’ve continued to impress without them – Villa have been without four potential starters for most of the season, in some cases, for it all.
Neither Tyrone Mings nor Emiliano Buendia have featured at all this year, while Boubacar Kamara and Jacob Ramsey have suffered season-ending injuries.
Matty Cash, Pau Torres, Alex Moreno, Youri Tielemans and others have had extended periods out too at various points in the campaign, and yet here we are in mid-April, with Villa sitting in fourth place in the Premier League standings and in the quarter-finals of the Europa Conference League.
That’s where Emery’s principles and philosophy has come to the fore and been so important for us this year, coupled with his ability to improve individuals as part of the collective.
The Spanish tactician has a clear idea of how he wants us to play. He wants control, possession, to play with a high line and with a press that tries to nullify the opposition’s threat higher up the pitch, while also opening up specific passing lanes which allow us to build rhythm and confidence in our play out from the back, to beat a press against us and shift up the pitch with pace.
Of course, there have been times where it hasn’t proven to be as effective, but his desire to change our mentality and approach is creating a culture and understanding of the game that has helped us sustain this progress.
Emery was clear after our win over Arsenal this past weekend that he told his players he wanted that element of control and possession, as without it, it made an already difficult assignment that much more tough. And it showed in the game.
Villa would often try to slow the tempo down, keep possession and play to our strengths in our build-up to try and prise Arsenal open, but also to take the sting out of the game as the hosts got on top in the first half. It still needs the brilliance of Emiliano Martinez at times as well as superb displays from the likes of Diego Carlos and John McGinn, but it’s what a top team has to do even against the best in the league on the road.
Further, his half-time tweaks allowed us to not stifle Arsenal and frustrate both their players and supporters, but it gave us the foundation to go on and take charge before scoring two brilliant late goals.
Going back to the rotation policy and giving players opportunities to play though, it’s part of his plan to build a streamlined squad that can implement and deliver on that style, philosophy and way of playing, regardless of personnel.
So despite that list of absentees above, we’ve seen the likes of Nicolo Zaniolo, Morgan Rogers, Clement Lenglet, Tim Iroegbunam and Jhon Duran come in and do the job required from them to build this style and structure.
Villa still have a lot of work to do to make this the memorable season that we want it to be. However, off the back of what he did in just over half a season last year, which has continued in this campaign and resulted in the highest number of top-flight wins in a single season already, Emery is building something special at Villa, and hopefully it continues to go from strength to strength.
Unai Emery: "To win here is fantastic, it is very difficult.
"We did it, keep going, move on and be positive." ✊
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) April 14, 2024