Aston Villa 23/24 season preview

Top scorers (Premier league)

Player	Goals
Watkins	15
Ramsey	6
Luiz	6
Buendia	5
Bailey	4

·       Danny ings scored 6 before leaving club in January 

 

Most assists (Premier league)

 

Player	Assists
Ramsey	7
Luiz	6
Watkins	6
Bailey	4
Moreno	3

 

Ollie Watkins had 21 goal contributions for Villa in 22/23 season which is his best season for the club and his second highest total in his career, only being bettered by his final season at Brentford in the championship before moving to Villa. Watkins has looked sharp since the arrival of Unai Emery, with the striker going back to basics and playing within the lines of the goal and focusing on doing less running out wide and spending more time in goal scoring areas. 

 

Jacob Ramsey also had his most productive season at Villa with 13 goal contributions. Only 22, Ramsey has almost racked up 100 senior appearances for Villa, scoring 12 goals and providing 9 assists. 6 goals and 7 assists of those contributions came in 22/23 season. 

 

Another player who is thriving under Emery is Douglas Luiz, the midfielder has also like Watkins and Ramsey hit his best numbers of his career scoring 6 and assisting 6 goals. One of Luiz’s goals was directly from a corner kick against arsenal which at the time was an equaliser for Villa to make the game 1-1. He also scored 2 more directly from corners, one against Walsall in pre season and one against Bolton in a carabao cup fixture. 

 

Villa will be looking for more goal contributions from there other attacking sources next season to help the likes of Watkins and Ramsey up front. The likes of Philippe Coutinho, John McGinn, Leon Bailey, Emiliano Buendia and new signing Youri Tielemans. Between the 5 of them they only managed 14 goals in the premier league with Coutinho and McGinn only managing 1 each.  

 

Most used line up 22/23 

(Under Emery)

Unai emery took over Villa in October, when it looked as if Villa might be fighting relegation. However a 3-1 rampant win over Manchester United, who hadn’t lost at Villa park since august 1995, turned the tide for Villa and ever since have been on an upward rise. Emery has taken from a potential relegation scrap to a European spot in 6 months. 

Emery likes to operate with different systems for different matches and opponents, he also frequently changes the team slightly in order to utilise certain players attributes, for example Leon Bailey’s pace or Buendia’s ability on the ball in tight spaces. 

Villa  tend to operate with either a 4-4-2 or a 4-2-3-1 formations. The 4-4-2 formation is typically used to accommodate Leon Bailey into the attack where there is potentially space behind the defence to run into.  Whereas the 4-2-3-1 formation will be used to accommodate Buendia into the side if emery feels more midfield presence is needed. 

Ramsey and McGinn make up the other 2 attacking roles in the side, Ramsey often plays wide left and cuts into the middle with his driving runs and McGinn often cuts inside to try to cross the ball for Watkins in the centre. The use of player who are ‘inverted’ allows for them to move inside on their stronger feet or allows them to drive down the line an use their weaker foot, something both players are very good at. It also allows them to tuck inside the midfield to allow the overlapping runs of the full backs, often Moreno or Cash /Young.

 

One of villa’s biggest attacking strengths towards the back of the season was the addition of Alex Moreno at left back. The January arrival tallied 3 assists in 19 appearances for the club. Moreno loves to get forward at any given opportunity and started to form a good relationship with Ramsey on the left side for Villa making overlapping runs and always being an out ball for the defenders or midfielders on the ball. Moreno has a good first touch, good technical ability and is a very good crosser of the ball. 

 

Villa were the most fouled team in the premier league last season, getting fouled 13.1 times per game. Villas most fouled player was their captain, John McGinn, who was fouled a total of 66 times during the campaign which averaged to be 1.9 times per game. With  the  likes of Ramsey who is an excellent runner with the ball, Bailey who is very fast with the ball and Buendia who is quick with his feet and uses his body so well, its unsurprising villa get fouled a lot in games.  Interestingly it is Ezri Konsa who is the second most fouled villa player, with 64 fouls against him. The defender often likes to try and dribble through the press and get himself out of tight situations with his ability on the ball.

 Defensive shape

When in the defensive shape, villa will often go to 4-5-1. Depending on which player is playing will depend on the personnel of the system, however it tends to be Ramsey off the left hand side of the 5 and then either Buendia / McGinn who play as the right of the 5 when defending. This along with Villa’s high line makes them awkward to play through. Villa’s high line is something that will be targeted next season and could be a factor as to why they have bought CB Pau Torres to the club. Villa averaged 1.5 offsides per game, with mings and konsa both finishing top 3 for offsides per game with 1 each. 

 

 Often Villa will play like this when playing opposition with higher fullbacks such as Spurs with Porro . The back 4 tucks into the lines of the 18 yd box and then the wide players usually McGinn and Ramsey will play as full backs and almost create a back 6 allowing very little room our wide for chance creation. If the ball does come into the box then Mings or Konsa will usually deal with it. Mings won 68% of his aerial challenges per 90 last season and averaged 4.5 clearances per game. He managed to clear the ball 89 times with his head, the 5^th highest in the league. Mings also had the 3^rd highest tackles won % in the premier league winning 52% of all his challenges, only bettered by Van dijk (57%) and Felipe (55%). Konsa finished 10^th for challenges won winning 51% only 1% less than his centre back partner mings. Konsa also cleared the ball 54 times with his head, averaged 3 clearances a game and won 55% of his aerial duels per 90 mins. Tyrone Mings also was the 6^th best in the premier league and highest ranked defender for interceptions made. He made 64 interceptions which was only bettered by Declan Rice, Moises Caicedo, James Ward- Prowse , Cheick Doucoure and Idrissa Gueye. 

Going forward 

When playing out from the back often Villa will split centre backs and Kamara / Luiz will drop in short to make a back 3 to receive the ball off Martinez. Kamara or Luiz will then look forward for a penetrating pass between the lines, or look to play out to one of the full backs who are usually out wide during the first phase of build up. As the ball gets passed around Moreno will go forward and often young or cash will move over right to make a back 3 with Kamara sat just in front of them. Watkins occupies the CB’s, Bailey or McGinn will often stay wide right with Buendia looking into the middle of the pitch for pockets of space for him to turn and play Ollie Watkins through on goal. 

Ezri Konsa has the highest completed pass % of the villa squad with 88% of his attempted passes being completed. Konsa made 1872 passes while Tyrone Mings made 1887 passes, the 2 highest of the Villa squad, placing them both in the top 25 passers in the 22/23 premier league season.  It was Douglas Luiz who completed the most passes in the villa midfield last season racking up 1697 passes with an 86.4% completion rate. 

 

With the signing of Tielemans it is expected Villa will continue to play in a similar fashion to last season and will most likely look to control the ball more in games. Villa had an average possession of 49%, 10^th highest in the league and an overall pass % of 81%, the 9^th highest in the league. Tielemans completed 1556 passes in the premier league last season, second highest amongst his villa midfielders. He also recorded more successful through balls than any other villa player last season amassing 12 successful through balls, with Buendia and McGinn both getting 11. 

 

Whilst villa may look to try to control the game more through possession, lots of their goals come from counterattacks and turn overs of play. With an aggressive front line with fast players who are good runners with the ball such as Ramsey, Watkins and Bailey they can often turn defence into attack very quickly and can get over the top of teams to create chances 1-1 for Watkins. Watkins vs arsenal and Bailey vs Leeds are 2 examples of villa’s counter attacking capabilities. 

         Season predictions

With some quality additions to an already improved squad, Villa should be targeting the top 6 of the league this season. With a strong start to the transfer window, a decent squad and some promising youngsters Villa should have more than enough to handle the additional games this season following their qualification for the European conference league. 

 

Villa haven’t progressed past the 4^th round of the FA cup since they got to the final against arsenal in 14/15 season so this will definitely be something that emery and the villa squad will be looking to target. 

 

Emery has unrivalled success in European competitions and he’ll be eager to end Aston Villa’s 40 year wait for European glory and a first trophy since 95 league cup. 

 

Premier league 

6th

 

European conference league 

 

Quarter finals 

 

Fa cup / carabao cup 

Semi finals