Premier League 2019/20: Everton vs Aston Villa – tactical analysis

Aston Villa’s win on the weekend against Crystal Palace gave them a fighting chance of staying in the Premier League after a terrible run of form since the restart. Coming into this game at Goodison Park Dean Smith’s men could put themselves within a point of survival if they managed to beat this Everton side, who have had abject performances of late themselves.

Aston Villa were on course to gain a crucial away win against Ancelotti’s men thanks to Ezri Konsa who turned home Conor Hourihane’s free-kick delivery. However, Villa is notoriously guilty of dropping points from winning positions (19 lost in total before this game) and have conceded the most goals in the last 15 minutes in the league (16 before this game).

It was no surprise that Villa added to both these poor statistics as in the 87 minute Andre Gomes’ cross was headed by Theo Walcott past Pepe Reina and Konsa who failed in his attempted goal-line clearance as Villa’s victory slipped from their grasps resulting in a painful night for The Villians. This tactical analysis will focus on the tactics of both teams and explain how Everton started with great intent before Dean Smith’s side eventually took control of the game and disrupted Everton. This analysis will also look at how Villa attacked Everton but ultimately did not do enough to put Ancellotti’s side away.

Lineups

After an uninspiring display on the weekend, Ancelotti decided to change from a 3-5-2 he used against Wolves to his more usual 4-4-2 formation. The Italian also made personnel changes to his starting team, making five switches to the team that lost 3-0 at Molineaux last Sunday. Mason Holgate came in to replace Yerry Mina who picked up an injury in the game last weekend while Everton captain Seamus Coleman came in at right-back replacing stand in right-wing back Theo Walcott as Ancelotti resorted to his favoured back four.

Andre Gomes was selected in the central midfield position after missing the last game with an ankle injury replacing Gylfi Sigurdsson who dropped to the bench. The Italian’s last two changes were to inject energy into the wide areas as he brought in Alex Iwobi and Bernard replacing Anthony Gordon and Leighton Baines who started from the bench.