Aston Villa corners

Aston Villa corners

Aston Villa have had one of their best seasons in recent years, confirming champions league football for the first time in their history and top European football for 40 years. However, the defensive side of things, especially set pieces, is something that can be improved on over the summer. Villa are ranked 17th for headed clearances with 281, only Brighton, Arsenal and Man city have a worst record. Villa are also ranked 19^th in aerial duels won winning 334 duels – only Man City had less 325. In comparison, the 1^st place team, Everton, won 676 aerial duels. 

Team	Set plays conceded	League position
Burnley	16	19th
Aston Villa	16	4th
Sheffield	17	20th
Luton	19	18th
Nottingham Forest	22	17th

Villa conceded 16 goals from set plays, the 4^th worst in the league. Sheffield (17), Luton (19) and Nottingham Forest (22) were the only teams to concede more goals from set pieces. In comparison to the sides that finished above Villa – Man City conceded 3, Arsenal 7 and Liverpool 10.

 

Corners

Defending corners is something that Aston villa need to improve on - they have conceded 10 goals from corners this season. A weakness of villa’s overall defensive play is heading the ball and dealing with balls coming into the box, from set plays or crosses in open play. There are many factors that have contributed to Villa’s struggles in the air, one of which losing Tyrone Mings on the first game of the season. Mings is Villa’s defensive leader and organiser and the others have struggled to replicate that voice along the back line. Torres and Konsa are both solid defenders, Konsa has the best tackle win % rate in the Premier League winning 85.2% of tackles only losing 4 tackles all season. He also has the 17^th best pass accuracy % in the league and 11^th for his position (91.1%). Meanwhile Torres ranked 5^th highest in the league for progressive carries distance carrying the ball 5917 yards. While these stats are impressive, when it comes to heading the ball neither CB ranks in the top 100 players in the league, with Konsa sitting 116^th and Torres 155^th.

Konsa won 30 aerial duels and Pau Torres won 23, in the 22/23 Mings won 61 aerial duels, which is more than both Konsa and Pau combined for the 23/24 season. Mings ranked 9^th in the aerial duels won % with a win rate of 71.8%.

These numbers alone show the importance of Mings to villas defensive set up especially aerially and could be one of the biggest reasons as to why villa have struggled in the air this season defensively and offensively.

Alongside the loss of Mings there are a few other factors as too why villa look vulnerable from set plays, especially corners.

 

3 main factors

1. Man to man / zonal

2. Defence push up too quickly and expose the 6yd box

3. Spaces at the edge of the box

 

Man to man / zonal

One of Villa’s main issues is the hybrid system of man to man or zonal marking. The CB’s will often not have a player to mark and guard the 6yd box. The CM’s act as screens to stop the opposition winning headers. A lot of Villa’s corner troubles have been due to a lack of first contact on the ball – this may be down the fact the opposition know the CB’s will be in the 6yd box and play around that by going short or by going deep.

Villa will often defend corners in similar ways:

-          1 Man goes short to stop a short corner

-          1 man stays at the corner of the box for potential counter attacks (Diaby or Bailey)

-          2 players front post (best headers of the ball)

-          Cm’s will mark the CBs from opposition and act as blockers or screen.

-          CB’s will zonally mark the 6yd box and try to win the ball uncontested.

 These pictures vs Man united are a perfect example of how villa set up from a corner.

 

The first picture the ball comes into the penalty spot where McGinn fails to clear and Hojlund volley’s in.

Hojlund is unmarked in the box and 4 Villa players are attracted towards the ball at the near post. There are also 2 Man united players at the edge of the box unmarked as well.

 

 

The second one, almost identical routine but this time the ball clears everyone and goes to Maguire who is marked by Kamara. Maguire wins the header and then Hojlund has a shot on goal in the 6yd area because Carlos came out to meet Maguire and lost the header.

With the hybrid system of CB’s marking zonally often Villa won’t win the first header if it makes it over the front post screen which ultimately results in a chance for the opposition. Villa need to address this by either signing taller players to fill the gaps in where the CBs should / could be or need to go man for man or zonal for everyone as the mix of both systems doesn’t sui the team. If the 2 CM players were taller / better in the air and more likely to win the first contact, then the system would work better but with the current players marking it often doesn’t work how it should.

 

Defence push up too quickly and expose the 6yd box

Another flaw in Villa’s set piece play is the defence not knowing when to push out or drop deep. A lot of times the ball will go over everybody and the defence will immediately push up, so everyone is on the 6yd line or higher. The issue with doing this tactic as shown in pictures below, it leaves a gap in between the post width right on the 6yd box which allows the player on the ball a free shot on goal from 6yds out leaving the goalkeeper exposed.

 

Schar Newcastle

Diakhate forest

 

Chong Luton

Hojlund Man united

 

These examples all show the same issue, which is the defence steps up at the wrong time and leaves an open gap in the 6yd box, leaving strikers with a free shot on goal. The Villa defensive players are highlighted and are more often than not in a straight line on the edge of the 6yd box

In open play, Villa are the masters of offside traps catching the opponents offside 167 times this season but maybe need a new approach from corners. Villa defenders need to wait until the ball has been cleared before stepping up. The attention turns from clearing the danger to getting in shape too quickly and often the danger isn’t cleared, and the players are more interested with the line than clearing the ball

 

Space on the edge of the box

Another factor to address is the space left on the edge of the box, this has happened in almost every set piece villa have defended this season. They leave a vast amount of space on the edge of the penalty area which has cost them goals and leads to a lot of turnovers being lost on the edge of the penalty area.

Villa conceded 2 almost identical goals vs Liverpool and Tottenham just a few weeks apart. The ball was crossed out swinging from the right, missed everyone in the box and the man free on the edge of the box has a free shot and scored.

At Newcastle, the ball was cleared to Anthony Gordon, the man on the edge of the box who had a free shot on goal which hit the bar and resulted in Schar tapping it in from 6yds because of the 6yd box being cleared out.

Having a man on the edge of the box or bringing round the man at the top of the box more centrally would have almost certainly stopped these goals from happening.

 

Potential solutions

1. Put men on the posts

2. Stop pushing up until the ball is cleared from box

3. Put man on edge of the box a bit deeper and closer to edge of the 18yd circle

4. Go man for man or Zonal – stop doing both

5. Against better physical sides – play 3 / 4 CB’s to increase height

 

Potential changes that could be made is instead of having 2 CBs on the 6yd box, the CB’s mark the biggest threat of the opponent and the spare 2-mark other players or have 1 on the edge of the box and 1 on the back post. This would eliminate easy flick ons to the back post, it would eliminate a lot of easy first contacts being lost.

 

Conceding from corners is something that Villa and Unai Emery will undoubtedly be looking to change and improve on for next season. The re addition of Tyrone Mings to the team may help solve a large chunk of the issue, new signings and different positioning from corners will all be looked at over preseason for improvements.