The WSL will welcome a new name to the league next season, with Aston Villa Women being promoted to the top flight of English women’s football from the Championship. They will replace Liverpool Women, who were relegated following the premature ending of the WSL this season. They have already agreed a groundshare with EFL side Walsall as part of their preparations for playing in the top flight.
Over the next few weeks, we will look at Aston Villa, with tactical analysis on their defence and attack, as well as scout reports on some of their key players. We will look at their tactics in both defence and attack, ensuring that, when women’s football returns, we know what to expect from this team.
Formations and setups
Firstly, in this analysis, we will look at how Aston Villa Women set up defensively, with a look at their tactical formations at the back.
In this image, we see how far forward Aston Villa push their defence, aiming to squeeze opponents into their own half. This is a good tactic to use, in that it means the opposition has less space to play the ball in. You can also see how there are three players in this formation, which gives us an idea of how their defence tends to become a back three whilst they are out of possession.
They also spread apart from each other, which increases the amount of space they cover, again ensuring that the opposition have little room to manoeuvre around in when they are in possession. The final thing to mention about this defensive structure is that the player nearest to us has moved further forward, which gives Villa the structure of a curve, and this again just adds more strength to the defence.
