Unai Emery’s Controlling Ways Pay Off For Aston Villa

Emery’s Foundation of Control


Sunday 2pm could fast become Aston Villa supporter’s new favourite kick-off time, if Aston Villa can comfortably dispatch teams in the same fashion as they did Burnley, on a regular basis. At Turf Moor, Aston Villa boss Unai Emery clearly demonstrated the potential controlling core he wants at the base of his team – in both the defensive midfield and centre-back positions.

The ball-playing and carrying centre-back combination of Pau Torres and Diego Carlos may have been Emery’s eventual pairing all along, judging by how Emery paired them up during the Premier League Summer Series in the USA. With Tyrone Mings’ injury fast-tracking the partnership to the first XI. Deploying Ezra Monza as a hybrid centre-back/right-back does provide the team with extra physicality to defend set pieces, but we’ll see if that’s a short-term fix or for particular opponents and away games.

Villa’s deeper sitting midfielders, Douglas Luiz, Boubacar Kamara and Youri Tielemans, gives Emery a excellent trio to pick a pair from, so Emery ball has excellent fundamentals now, in terms of playing it out the back.

It’s the foundations of controlling a game, whether Villa elect to take hold of possession or not. In the case of their 3-1 win over Burnley, they allowed the home team to keep the ball in certain areas, allowing them 56% overall. When Villa got the ball though they were efficient and ruthless.

In the latest main show of the My Old Man Said podcast, we discuss all the encouraging signs for the season ahead. With Villa sitting in the seventh, the same place they finished last season, surely the only way is up?

UTV

Listen to Episode 254

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Credits:

David Michael – @myoldmansaid 

Chris Budd – @BUDD_music

Phillip Shaw – @prsgame