FA Cup 2018/19: Aston Villa vs Swansea City

Swansea City are going from strength to strength in 2019 after another excellent away performance and victory, this time in the FA Cup third round at Aston Villa. In this FA Cup tactical analysis, well look in detail at how Swansea were able to win comfortably at Villa Park, and what went wrong for Aston Villa.

The Villans had already completed the Championship double over Graham Potter’s Swansea City following their Boxing Day win at the Liberty Stadium. Surprisingly, Potter decided against making wholesale changes to the starting XI that beat Reading 4-1 on New Year’s Day. He made just one change up front, Oli McBurnie sitting this one out due to illness as Courtney Baker-Richardson deputised.

Potter has been dubbed the tinker-man by some sections of Swansea City’s supporters this season. Not one that’s afraid to try and implement new ideas, he’s received criticism of late for switching between different players and formations.

In 2019 however, despite playing twice in only four days, he’s maintained some continuity in terms of personnel and formation. As a result, his side has delivered arguably two of their best performances of the season, racking up seven goals and two wins (both away from home) and a first clean sheet in 10 games.

Dean Smith, meanwhile, did decide to make changes to his starting XI. He made six in total, with O’Hare, Kalinic (gk), Taylor, Adomah, El Ghazi and Hogan all coming in, but he was left reeling after a lacklustre performance.

Aston Villa’s ineffective press and shape

There were a number of similarities between this game and Swanseas 4-1 win at Reading on New Years Day. Not only in terms of Swanseas attacking performance, but also the weaknesses of the opposition too.

Firstly, both Aston Villa and Reading adopted a relatively high press with no success against a Swansea City side known for wanting to play out from the back. Graham Potters side are still learning the art of playing out from the back. On numerous occasions this season, theyve been caught out, losing possession in their own half and putting themselves under avoidable pressure.

Sticking to their guns  and rightfully so  they were able to bypass a poorly-executed press, allowing them to find plenty of space in between Aston Villas lines.

Aston Villa rarely got it right when it came to the basic principle of blocking the passing lanes. Below is an example of how centre-back Mike van der Hoorn was easily able to get a forward pass out to the right-back ahead of him.

Better awareness and positioning would have ruled out this passing option. However, the pass is successfully made and Swanseas attack can progress further up the pitch.