WSL 2023/24: What to expect as dark horse Aston Villa host the 2022/23 runners-up Manchester United – tactical preview

After the World Cup this year, a few teams have reshuffled their talent pools. People are eager to see which clubs have come out of the shake-up better off and which are worse for wear. The answers will gradually be revealed on the first of October, starting with the opening match, Aston Villa Women versus Manchester United Women. This tactical analysis and match preview revisits tactics deployed in a previous match between the two while sharing analysis and discussing what to expect from the upcoming game. 

Aston Villa finished the last WSL season with impressive achievements and earned plenty of plaudits. Ending the 2021/22 season in ninth place with 13 goals, they climbed up to fifth place with 47 goals in the 2022/23 season and brought the Golden Boot home. Lots of credit was given to the newly recruited star players like Rachel Daly, Kenza Dali, Lucy Staniforth and Jordan Nobbs. However, the comments also admitted that coach Clara Ward, who signed with Villa in 2021, was a big part of this leap.

Under Marc Skinners leadership, Manchester United had a successful 2022/23 season in WSL, missing out on the title by only two points. The club has lost some key players lately and has to reorganise the attacking pattern they relied on. 

The Last Duel 

If were trying to catch a hint of what will happen, its inevitable to look back at its previous counterpart. In April 2023, the rising dark horse and runner-up of the WSL 2022/23 season had a remarkable match. Aston Villa kept getting ahead, while United kept nailing equalisers. After the crossbar denied Villas luck twice, United scored their third goal at 932 and ended the game with a 3-2 win.

Ward laid out the 4-1-4-1 formation for the starting lineup, which she uses regularly with Birmingham City and Aston Villa. Golden Boot winner of the season, Rachel Daly, held the spearhead position while Lucy Staniforth played the central pivot between the back four and the midfield four.

Wards 4-1-4-1 lineup had been a bit predictable on the central axis — Daly was always the spearhead, and Staniforth was always the central pivot. Daly typically stayed high up, prepared for the killing moments, while Staniforth contributed a wide coverage in both offence and defence. In this game, when Staniforth swung to the sidelines, midfielder Littlejohn dropped back to fill the central pivot position.

Skinner laid out a 4-2-3-1 for Manchester United, using Alessia Russo as the spearhead. Ella Toone, who stays on the top of Uniteds leaderboard as to chance created and build-up to shot, was playing her familiar position — nine and a half behind Russo. Uniteds top scorer, Leah Galton, played on the left wing, and Nikita Parris on the right wing. In the back, the young star Maya Le Tissier and Aoife Mannion held centre-back positions.

Uniteds wing and back combo on the right side consisted of two very speedy players, Parris and Batlle. They are capable of initiating a swift advance along the sideline immediately after winning over possession. This capability gave them an equaliser shortly after Villa scored the first goal.

With players outstanding techniques, the swift advance on Uniteds left side was also substantial. During another sequence, when Villa lost the possession after crowding seven players in the offence third, Blundell, Russo, and Galton executed a perfect sequence on the left sideline, which advanced into Villas defence third in seven seconds.

At the back for United, 20-year-old Le Tissier served as a back pivot, a young backline leader. She has high quality on both the offensive and defensive sides. Her confidence in footwork and decision-making allowed the whole team to push up high and frequently initiated the attacking sequence near the halfway line. Her sending long passes towards the offence third and finding Parris there had worked efficiently in this game.

Eventually, the two teams went into 90 minutes with a 2-2 tie. Uniteds centre-back Millie Turner, who was subbed in at 87 minutes, headed the ball into the net during a corner kick in the 93rd minute and killed the game.

The Strengths and Weaknesses

Under Wards leadership, it was common to see Villas full-backs, Pacheco and Mayling, run higher than their respective winger partners. It was also a typical scene in which the wingers Nobbs and Blindkilde Brown, instead of the full-backs, came back to defend, facing a counterattack. This flexibility can be efficient in pulling the opponent out of shape. The pics below are from Villas game against Liverpool as an example to demonstrate this.

However, this flexibility also comes with weaknesses. Full-backs not coming back right away created dangerous moments in Villas previous games, especially when facing counterattacks. The pics below were an example from one of Liverpools counterattacks. 

Besides the players strengths mentioned in the previous chapter, Manchester United has an advantage in the bench depth, and Skinner has shown his capability to exploit it near the end of games. Last season, he subbed in 3.8 players per game during the second halves, and those players scored 10 goals in total during the season, 18.5% of the 54 goals the whole team scored. Its remarkable how often those players scored just a few minutes after they were subbed in.

Skinner just openly stated that the final 20 minutes of this weekends WSL matches could resemble walking football with play