Unai’s Aston Villa are fun to watch, energetic, innovative, proactive and to top it all; very good. I’ll be doing a deep dive to how Unai has re-energized Villa Park and got them believing.

Unai Emery is a fantastic coach. A very underrated one too. I’d even add unique. The new generation of managers of the past decade or so are quite egotistical (not necessarily a negative, it’s just what it is.) We’ve seen new managers come up with a set style of play no matter what. If a player doesn’t suit their set style, they are out the door. This has left the players to be the ones to adapt, rather than the coach.

Unai is different. He empowers the players at his disposal. He is able to adapt his style, management to the players. Making him very easy to work with, and fun. And you can see it too, with the players. This excitement from the players transfers to the fans. The fans are happy and excited to tune in every weekend to see their teams play. All this positivity definitely helps during the matchday. They have confidence to play, make mistakes. Confidence that they know what they are doing. Confidence that scares opponents. And Unai is the one making it all happen.

When playing word association, a lot of football fans first thoughts on Unai would be the disastrous Arsenal 18/19 season. I do think he wasn’t perfect. But limiting your knowledge on Unai to that season is, in the nicest way possible, *not smart*. A language barrier, disjointed board plus egotistical players (who all ended up getting sold, (not) coincidentally right before Arsenal’s successes under Mikel Arteta) did not help him at all.

Anyways, you probably clicked on this to read on Unai’s Villa, so I should probably start writing about them NOW.

Villa are a good positional play side. In Possession, they search for superiority to gain access to the final third. Out of possession, they are innovative. I’ll be delving deeper in this article.

Build up

Ever since Roberto De Zerbi rise to popularity in the football world, we’ve seen a lot of positional play sides embrace the “baiting”/absorbing pressure method to gain superiority. They bait opponents to pressure by holding onto the ball longer than usual, then play through the press. Villa are no different.

On paper, Villa play a variance of 433/4231/442. The third midfielder, the furthest forward, will join the front-line either right behind the CF or within the same line as the CF.

During build up, Villa are patient. The back 4 stays deep and wide, and 2 midfielders will remain deep as the pivot. The goalkeeper will hold onto the ball until the opponent pressures them. That’s 6 + 1 (goalkeeper) vs usual 4 or 5. They have superiority in build up.

Aston Villa (1) – (0) Arsenal, Dec 9 2023

The midfielders will position behind opponents midfielders, and only one drops to receive once the goalkeeper is ready to pass; when the opponent pressures him. The other midfielder will remain behind the pressure line to receive as a free player.

“The idea is to control the game with our positioning. If they are not pressing the goalkeeper then he can drive but we are not in a hurry to pass. Maybe we can fix one opposition player if they are coming towards him to press him. It is for this reason.”

– Unai Emery

Soccer is like chess. There’s endless possibilities. Managers, well good managers, will help players by giving them strategies that create tons of possibilities. But players are the ones who make the decision on what play is best. Below are some possibilities from the picture above.

As I said, there’s endless possibilities. These are just some examples of how Unai’s coaching helps the players proactively choose to move opponents for their advantage.

Aston Villa did end up scoring from this build up though. Let’s take a look at how they did it.

Villa were able to play through Arsenal’s press by proactively moving Arsenal’s defenders then exploiting that movement.

1. Bait Saka to pressure the goalkeeper, leaving left side open
2. White jumps to LB, leaving a direct passing lane from LCB to CF
3. Douglas Luiz can receive as the 3rd man

Let’s take a look at a different game, and see vs a different opponent, how they optimally position themselves for advantages.

Aston Villa (6) – (1) Brighton, 30th September 2023

Common pattern once again. Goalkeeper holds onto the ball until pressured. Deep and wide back 4. In this picture you can see the midfielder actually dropping to receive from the goalkeeper. Now let’s look at the possibilities from this picture above.

Villa players are positioned optimally to create movements that trigger certain rotation that will help them progress the ball. The difference between Unai Emery and certain positional play managers is the variances in movements and rotations. A lot of positional play managers want their teams to play short and limit long passes. But even from the goalkeeper, they are able to access the final third within 1-4 passes. Their ability to go direct limits the opponent’s ability to commit players in the press, which allows to Villa to bypass the first phase press easily.

Second phase

Once bypassing pressure, Villa tend to slow things down in this phase. They gain control of possession and allow teams to sit back. Sounds weird right? Why allow opponents to commit more players behind the ball?

Since Villa’s build up is quick once they get the ball moving, they need to slow things down in order to allow players to move into their zones, and also dictate the tempo of the match. In this phase, they’ll pass the ball around to move the opponents block, gain superiority and access to the final third.

The slow passes they play in this phase are still very “baity”. They slow things down A LOT, in order to, once again, bait opponents to come out and press then play through that press once again. Once done that they’ll switch momentum to very quick and attack in lightning speed before the opponents are able to recover their positions.

In this section, I’ll be going into detail on how they do it.

Once entering the middle third of the pitch, they still remain in a variance of 433/442/4231. The difference is, the fullbacks. The RB will stay deeper and narrower, forming asymmetrical back 3, while the LB bombs forwards. The timing of when to move forward is key though.

Here is a common pattern Villa deploy

As you can see, the LB starts deep. They’ll exchange passes between the midfielders and defenders in order to bait the opponent to press. One pressured, the LB is able to receive as a free man/third man run.

Another common pattern if the FB doesn’t stick inside, they’ll play directly to the player in the half spac

Here are examples vs United

Against back 5s or teams that generally won’t step up Villa tend to play quite deep and involve their keeper a lot more. They’ll pass around and go deep to invite a press until they are able to gain access to the final third.

Final Third

Aston Villa are different than most superior positional play sides in the final third. They tend to be very quick, direct and decisive in the final third. Once in the final third, they tend to get a shot off as quick as possible. Since their build up and second phase is mostly absorbing pressure, they usually have the space and players to achieve the quick attacks.

Their final third play lacks patterns as they usually finish an attack within seconds. But Villa players are very good inside the box. They’ll fill the box with 5 players, and rely on the quality of the wingers to find the players in the box. Leon Bailey 1v1s are very common, with Tielemans, McGinn, and Douglas Luiz making late runs into the box.

Villa are also blessed with a CF who has incredible movement. Watkins’ ability to peel off defenders then making a run when the ball is played is very similar to Haaland’s at City. Helps him create separation from his marker, then able to finish first time. Watkins is also very good at channel runs. Not only are they able to create from those runs, but it can force CBs to stay deep and not follow the 10 as he drops between the lines.

Out of Possession

Probably the most innovative part of Villa’s system is how they deploy themselves out of possession. It’s very risky and does cost them at times, but also does prevent a lot too. It’s hard to come to a conclusion whether it’s more beneficial or unsuccessful. I like it. It shows “cojones” and if practiced right, it can be viable.

Anyways, they play a high line, with set triggers, to ensure they catch the opponent offsides. Once again showing their proactiveness.

Jon Mackenzie did an amazing analysis on twitter/x on Aston Villa’s offside trap and triggers.

Once in their own defensive third, Villa will have wingers/midfielders tracking back to make a back 6 even to see out games, whilst keeping their offside traps and triggers. It’s actually quite fun to see it play out.

Summary

Aston Villa are a fun side to watch. Definitely my favorite side to watch currently, especially as a Chelsea fan with what’s been going on past two/three seasons. This article doesn’t do justice to the incredible brain of Unai Emery, rather just a short glimpse of what you’ll see when tuning into them.

The Villa players also do such an incredible job bringing Unai’s ideas to life. The midfield is excellent. Douglas Luiz especially as a standout. He can do everything a midfielder is supposed to; passes, tempo control, dictating attacks, defensively solid, and contributes with goals and assists. Leon Bailey is another standout player. So creative, so elegant, so decisive. His passing is ridiculous. Pau Torres and Clement Lenglet are also incredible with their ability to play out the back.

If you are a new football/soccer fan and are looking for a side to support, Aston Villa should be your first choice. Anyways, that’s it from me. Hope you enjoyed this read!

What are your thoughts on Aston Villa? Do you have any other sides I should check out? Write me @ my twitter