As Aston Villa become a more feared and respected side to face, our opposition are adapting and posing us a different puzzle to solve.
Villa have been a joy to watch under Unai Emery, as aside from the results, we’ve developed an identity and style of play under the Spanish tactician that has delivered consistently high-level performances.
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In 20 Premier League games so far this season, we’ve scored 43 goals, the second best tally in the top flight behind only Manchester City, while we’ve continued to find the back of the net with great regularity in Europe too.
However, as time passes and opposition coaches study us and devise plans to try and nullify our goalscoring threat, it has led to us now facing different challenges and obstacles to overcome to continue to be so effective and relentless in our winning run.
Villa facing new challenge vs defensive opposition
As we’ve seen against Zrinjski, Sheffield Utd, Burnley and Middlesbrough in recent times, but particularly at Villa Park, our opponents are not only sitting deeper and in numbers to try and frustrate us, but they’re packing the midfield, cutting our passing lanes off into the likes of Douglas Luiz and John McGinn, and forcing us to develop new patterns.
While we’ve found a way late on in many games recently which is testament to our resolve and desire to win, it’s important we continue to evolve and find ways to combat the challenge put in front of us now against many sides, and given Emery’s meticulous analysis and game preparation, we’ll likely start to see that in the coming weeks.
Fundamental to that process though will be having key individuals step up and produce in the final third.
While we’ve missed Pau Torres during his injury absence and what he brings to our build-up play as it gives us a different dynamic if we can’t get the ball into the feet of Luiz or Boubacar Kamara, there are two more attack-minded players who we’ll hope to see kick on in the second half of the campaign and be a major influence.
We’ll still get contributions from Luiz, McGinn, Leon Bailey, Moussa Diaby and Nicolo Zaniolo, but the nuances of their movement, technical ability and quality in either adding creativity to the side to unlock a defence or find pockets of space to be a more direct goalscoring threat, make both Jacob Ramsey and Youri Tielemans pivotal to this next phase.
Emiliano Buendia would be an ideal option to have available when facing this test as he adds something different in the attacking third with his flair, vision and courage to try something to prise open a defence, but we’re still without his services due to injury.
Why Tielemans, Ramsey will be so crucial in next Villa development phase
The same goes for Tielemans, who has been out since suffering a calf issue against Arsenal last month. As per VillaTV, Emery said he was a doubt against Brentford in our following league game, and so given the Belgian international is still sidelined, he must have suffered a setback since.
After a slow start, the 26-year-old was really starting to settle and integrate himself into the Villa XI before his injury blow, with one goal and four assists in 24 outings.
Villa have competition and depth in this squad, but Tielemans was brought in for a reason. In these type of games where we’re searching for a soft spot in an opposition defence to exploit, it’s where he can be so important as he provides a link in our build-up play between defence and attack.
The hope is that we’ll see him return this month, and it will be a vital boost for Emery to continue to evolve this side and ensure we’re able to be more unpredictable and difficult for opposing sides to read us.
Ramsey’s also had a slow start to a campaign that has been significantly interrupted by injury, as he has just one goal and no assists in 14 appearances.
As the 22-year-old continues to build his fitness and sharpness, he will have an integral role to play too as his movement, change of pace and eye for goal can be pivotal in stretching defences and finding spaces to be a genuine threat.
We’ve yet to see the best of him and Alex Moreno down our left flank, and that was such a key part of our play last season as they were both a handful in the attacking phase and the width they provided was critical in the bigger picture.
The good news is that is still an improving area of our play that will hopefully thrive sooner rather than later, and it will be another crucial factor in ushering in the next phase of our development into a top side competing at the highest level.