Why Unai Emery Might Be The Best Manager In The Premier League

It's time to talk about Aston Villa because Unai Emery has spent a fair whack of money this summer on some seriously special talent but he has also lost a few too. Now they've not started brilliantly but to me it's pretty obvious that their big gamble is going to pay off in the long term and it's all down to one man. I'm Jacob Allsford, 442's resident tactician and this is how Unai Emery's tactical genius has done it again. This is how their team looked in the Europa League final last season. Five of those players in that starting 11 are no longer at the club and when that happens a lot of people start to question the logic. Why have you sold all your best players? Well stay with me because it makes sense. The average age of all their departures in the summer comes to 28 years old. Lots of players come to the end of their peak years. Now that's not to say the likes of Ollie Watkins, Youri Tielemans, Ezri Konsa aren't still great players and players who couldn't have contributed for Villa this season but when you consider Villa have had a fair bit of financial constraints over the last few years selling these players in their peak before their value depreciates massively is really smart and means they can get the maximum price and help themselves out with the FFP, PSR yada yada yada because with the new lads their average age comes to 22 years old whilst Villa have made a net profit of just over 60 million euros which long term leaves them in a position where yes the season hasn't been brilliant in this very short period but over the coming months over the coming years they're in a position where they've got a bunch of these young talented players who fit the Unai Emery mould and they've made a lot of money which gives them more room to go and spend more money as the seasons progress. Almost poetically Aston Villa's first league win of the season came through two of their summer recruits combining and playing brilliantly and what made it even better was that Tottenham who had had a lot of praise especially at the start of the summer were the ones who were on the receiving end of that Villa battering. Now they were able to do this because the likes of Jackson and Maatsen perfectly fit into the front four diamond that Unai Emery loves. Maatsen is a multi-faceted player so he fits into that free roaming 10 role plugging gaps wherever they pop up and Jackson fits the mold of that complete mobile striker stretching defences but also linking play to get those narrow wingers Buendia and McGinn heavily involved. So as much as yes Villa lost a lot of big key players over the course of that summer window they replaced them with younger players who all fit into the Unai Emery structure that he's relied upon throughout his time at Villa. When Villa are in possession you see a central box connecting two of the more advanced attackers and the two defensive midfielders but there's not necessarily fixed positioning Maatsen and McGinn have alternated their positions which sucks in the wide Spurs winger slightly whilst also pinning all three of the Tottenham midfielders so that leaves Buendia on the opposite side 2v1 against the opposition fullback because he has his partner in fullback holding the width meaning when he darts into the space beyond the Spurs midfield he's free to receive and play because his marker is split between two players so doesn't want to commit out and neither of the Tottenham centre halves want to step out either because then Jackson will be 1v1. Now this isn't new at all to Aston Villa for all the whole time that we've seen Unai Emery in the Premier League Villa have constantly used these overloads to create numerical advantages on alternate sides of the pitch. They'll have the ball out wide and surround that player with plenty of secure options leaving the other side unloaded allowing them to play backwards to then pull the opposition out and then instantly spring forward to that side of the pitch that they have a spare man against an isolated defender in this case they have a right hand side box as we mentioned previously and in doing this they commit five Spurs defenders to that side of the pitch they then look to play horizontally which then triggers three Spurs players to step out and creates this 2v1 on the right hand side of the box so when Buendia plays forward first time both of these defenders are reacting after just reshuffling to try and handle the right hand side overload which causes mistakes and leads to Villa ending up with the ball inside the box in a four versus five. This is only possible because of these players being fit for Unai Emery's brand of football and profile wise being exactly what he needs. As we know despite many tactical intricacies these moments where Villa can fill their own box and look to spring forward are still huge parts of Unai Emery's football and Nicolas Jackson has taken that element of their football to a new level. Here, he could easily hold his position with a great angle to receive from his teammate and turn. Jackson loves the ball to feet and is a great ball carrier, so why not? Well, because he's incredibly intelligent with his decision making. Instead, he notices Club Brugge have committed really, really high to try and create the horseshoe around Villa's box, but when they don't effectively counter-press, they just leave tons of space behind them against a centre-forward who has clocked a top speed of 34.1 kilometres an hour this season so when he sets off on his bike he's beating them to any half decent ball and with the goalkeeper being reckless he gets a little bit of luck and can score what is a pretty simple tap-in. Now to some that may be really bland a really bit of unspectacular centre forward play from Nicholas Jackson but it really really isn't. Jackson as this centre forward is required to do the link-up play for this support in three but also relentlessly move to stretch the opposition's back line and that's what makes that goal so good because Jackson will make that exact same run 10-15 times per game in the Premier League I mean he sits fifth for centre forwards in the division for sprints per 90 but not all of those sprints will result in a goal or even result in him getting the ball but if you make enough of them runs you tend to have a mental effect on the opposition centre halves causing them to drop off and then gaps open up for that supporting three that he has or if you make enough good runs eventually someone will give you the ball and if you do that you're going to score a lot of goals which I mean is what Nicholas Jackson been doing loads because he creates himself some big chances but to be fair Villa don't even need big chances I think we all know that by now this Buendia goal had an xG of 0.02 well if we look at it closely it's actually a pretty big chance and to explain how we need to rewind and look at where the assist comes from Here, Hemmings has just ran into the box, committing Tonali, and then stepping across Van Hecke to occupy him too. We then have a man on the edge of the box, pinning back the zone 14 protector, also known as the bloke that closes down anything on the outskirts of the 18-yard box, which means when McGinn cuts this back, Buendia has time to set himself before Maddison has even been able to make an effort toward the ball. So, now Buendia has decent separation from the nearest defender, and a pretty straight route to either side of the goal. And obviously, he finishes it brilliantly. but as much as it's a great finish you will see that same finish from Villa so many times throughout the season because they use those very very fast committed forward runs to then drop it back into an area that is commonly seen as one of the hardest areas of the pitch to actually score from but they do it so consistently and they score so consistently. If you shoot from this area against a settled defence it's very likely that someone will get a nick on the ball and stop it from going goalwards. If you instead stretch that defence and pin them back so that this player is now arriving onto a pass with space in front of him and gaps in the opposition's box then there's a much higher chance of that ball finding the back of the net which feels like pretty simple logic but things like xG well for the majority anyway don't consider those sort of factors in their frameworks so it doesn't really appear up on stat sheets sadly for Villa but for you lot who may look to criticize Aston Villa this season it's important to keep in mind when you look at them overperforming their xG like they always seem to do and you should also be keeping in mind the 442 YouTube channel once you've subscribed we'll be back next week see you in a bit