If there is one club that has been active in the current transfer season, it has been Aston Villa. After being relegated from the Premier League in the 2015/2016 season, three years had to pass until they were able to return to England’s top league. They started last season led by Steve Bruce but after 11 games he was sacked and replaced by Dean Smith.
Smith, a boyhood Aston Villa fan, was able to achieve a formidable turnaround in Villa’s performance, finishing the season in fifth place. They qualified for playoffs where they flew past West Bromwich and Frank Lampard’s Derby County to claim a spot in the 2019/2020 Premier League.
As of this week, Aston Villa have spent over £100 million in acquisitions, and comparisons to what Fulham did last season are starting to arise. In this tactical analysis and scout report, we will go through the tactical challenges and expectations for Aston Villa this season.
The analysis will focus on reviewing their tactical performance last season, the signings they have made so far, how this case is different than Fulham’s and how should we expect the team to tactically confront their return to the Premier League.
2018/19 Season Review
Aston Villa’s last season went from a low to high performance. They started with an irregular form that showed a vulnerable team that was unable to get a consistently good football level. They even managed to save points on added time in several games.
After the 11th round of the Championship, Steve Bruce was fired, and Dean Smith was brought in to turn around a team that was unconvincing inside the pitch. And he turned them around very well. He consolidated the 4-1-4-1 the team was used to play, sometimes changing into a 4-3-3 but with a different style.
He looked for a much more attack-oriented game, with short passing and associative football, relying less on long-balls as they used to do with his predecessor. He gave even more importance to having a wide team, usually looking for numerical superiority on both wings. The image below shows a long ball played against Hull as an attacking strategy, frequently used under Bruce.
And what is even more interesting, he gave more freedom to his players to move across the attacking front while keeping the attacking structure. This resulted in several position swaps between his players that were very effective in confusing his rival’s defence.
The sequence below shows how Abraham starts through the middle and ends up wide crossing the ball to the goal area. At the same time, Adomah starts wide and ends up attacking through the centre. Worth noting how these movements pulled the defenders wide leaving the centre open without marking.
