Aston Villa have undergone somewhat of a rebuild of our midfield this summer, and a new partnership could potentially emerge as the control room for Unai Emery’s side.
Both Douglas Luiz and Tim Iroegbunam departed in June, while Amadou Onana, Enzo Barrenechea and Ross Barkley have since arrived to strengthen the squad and give Emery replacements and additional options.
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Villa have settled into a structure and system under the Basque coach which has a midfield pivot at the heart of it, and although the formation is flexible and versatile in its ability to change with and without possession, it has generally relied on a midfield pairing capable of giving us control in that particular area of the pitch.
At it’s most effective, it was Luiz and Boubacar Kamara who gave us that foundation, but with the former now gone and the latter recovering from a long-term injury setback, Emery will have to look to others to fill those voids as we edge closer to the new Premier League season.
We’ve seen different personnel tested in those positions, be it Barkley or Barrenechea getting minutes during pre-season, and they’ve made their case to have a prominent role in the upcoming campaign.
That versatility mentioned above also allows us to play John McGinn in a deeper role if required, while Leander Dendoncker is still currently an option to provide depth.
However, we perhaps saw the most balanced pairing so far this summer against Athletic Bilbao in midweek, with Onana and Youri Tielemans tasked with pulling the strings in midfield and giving us that all-important control that Emery demands in both phases of the game.
With the season fast approaching, the fact that the Belgian duo played 60 minutes with just one more pre-season game remaining on our schedule arguably indicates who Emery is preparing for his starting line-up at West Ham Utd on August 17, and that particular partnership does look capable of being an effective and influential factor in our performances.
Through a combination of Onana’s physicality, tenacity and ability to disrupt the opposition’s play in our third as well as the quality to retain possession and keep us ticking, Tielemans is able to dictate tempo and break the lines with his passing range, as we saw for our opening goal through his assist for Jacob Ramsey.
While Luiz and Tielemans aren’t the same type of player, they will seemingly have a very similar role under Emery in that the Belgian international could now be tasked with controlling the game for us in a deeper midfield role as an orchestrator but with the freedom to advance, and that in turn allows us to not only limit the threat of the opposition, but also utilise our attacking quality and prise teams open with a patient and probing style of play.
Barrenechea and Barkley will have important roles to play too as we’ll need competition and depth over the course of the season, especially as we look to compete across multiple fronts.
However, given their characteristics, attributes and strengths which combine well together, it could be a Tielemans-Onana pivot to start the season, and it will hopefully allow Emery to implement and execute his preferred style of play more effectively, and thus allow us to dominate more games and pick up positive results with an evolved way of playing that builds on what we showed last year.
