Aston Villa (A) Post-Match Thread

[BaldyBoy68]

Never been a fan of Aston Villa so great to see them get a hiding. Men against boys and the Men won handsomely.

 

[blueparrot]

We’re not winning the league again mate while VAR is operating

Bet we do.

 

[BluessinceHydeRoad]

There seems to be a widespread belief that City only won because Villa were woeful, but my opinion is that City, and Pep in particular, actually destroyed Villa's ability to play. I heard Steph Houghton's answer when asked in the pre-match discussion why Pep had picked both Kun and Gabby and throughout the match I was impressed with how shrewd she (and Pep!) was. She pointed out that Villa had no real forward and were playing five at the back with four in front of them. They had no out ball and had no choice but to "play out from the back". City wanted both forwards to make it much more difficult for them to do this and this is exactly what happened. Much of Villa's panicky defence and mishit passes stemmed from always being under pressure - the second goal, blamed on Drinkwater's lack of match sharpness was actually the result of a rash like press from City. Throughout the first half the best Villa could do was to hit long "passes" out, which went straight to our lads, and it was little different in the second half. Steph saw clearly what no-one else did.

 

[kaz7]

Great away win. Charlie Nicolas predicted 0-5 on sky sports. Thought he was nuts, thought Villa would have put up more of a fight! But wow, what a game from us. And for the 2nd time this season we’ve played like that without Sterling on the pitch. We play a different kind of better without him.

You have a very unhealthy obsession with putting raz down

 

[worsleyweb]

You have a very unhealthy obsession with putting raz down

I think raz just needs a a rest.

 

[northwichblue]

You sure that's not Ole down to see more great football?

Definitely Ole, that was after Serg scored his hattrick and Citys sixth, he snapped and wanted to throttle Pep

 

[cleavers]

This thread is missing a few posters though, ones who would normally be all over a post match thread when we’ve had a poor result...

tommo74 was engaged elsewhere last night, busy defending liverpool and VAR.

 

[WallyA]

Decided to rewatch the first half (didn't have time for 2nd half) as I find it helps illuminate certain things, my observations from that 1st half:

1. Formation

I thought for sure we would utilize 2 wingbacks when I saw Cancelo and Mendy but it was clear that Mendy was tasked to stay wide with Cancelo playing inverted, this seems like a common thing Pep does where he hasn't often tasked BOTH fullbacks to stay wide.

Honestly, what seemed like a 4-3-3, was 3-4-3, 3-5-2 etc, changed so often its hard to pin down. I'd say in general it seemed like a 3-5-2, but again it was so fluid.

2. Defense

I thought it was solid. To focus on Stones, even though it was just Aston Villa I thought he had a fantastic first half (again only rewatched first half). In particular around the 30th minute when we pressed high they got through our pressure and Stones had to sprint back and made a great tackle on the edge of our box to receive the ball. His overall passing was very good as well. Again, just Villa but good signs atleast, if he can keep doing this there is hope.

3. Cancelo and Mendy

Quite simply, Mendy played wide and Cancelo played inverted. I hardly noticed Cancelo playing wide tbh, very often we set up as 3-5-2 with him joining Stones and Dinho with Mendy and Mahrez being wide, then the formation changed based on Villa's positioning.

Cancelo specifically I thought was monstrous. He is so comfortable on the ball and really glides forward very well. I've seen Walker stumble dribbling with the ball too many times but what Cancelo does should be the norm imo. Good recovery tackles as well when we lost the ball and had one good driving run in the half-space that almost created a goal.

4. Mahrez-KDB connection (the first special link)

Cancelo didn't go wide because the right flank is all about these 2. They rotated so many times, and look for each other all the time. And they do it at the right times to, KDB is typically wide right when it is advantageous to switch to him and have him whip a cross in, he does this very well in the half space as well. Kevin is soo good at this its actually ridiculous, he knows Mahrez wants to come inside and accomodates him throughout the game which is ideal for us imo.

5. Jesus-David connection (the second special link)

Jesus positioning was honestly the most interesting thing for me this half simply because he doesn't play winger alot for us. I saw him play second striker to Aguero, regular winger, box to box midfielder as his main 3 positions. All of these happened based on where David was.

There were so many times where Jesus dropped so deep he was almost next to Rodri, with David in a more advanced position. He would collect pass the ball then start drifting forward and David would move accordingly, it was so weird to see but he was effective almost every time.

Where as on the right KDB-Mahrez rotate around the flanks, Jesus-David rotated in the half space vertically, Mendy almost exclusively stayed wide and didn't come inside much.

More things to probably say but those are my points of note. Not going to rewatch the 2nd half, so some of these points may be weaker based on that.

 

[HarrytheBlue]

Have you thought of a career in sports journalism? Perfect summarisation of players and performances imo.

Mahrez and Kevin are building up a tremendous understanding. I don't think a small number of short passes not reaching their target amounts to Kevin being rusty. You're going to get that when you're constantly two or three passes ahead.

 

[HarrytheBlue]

Decided to rewatch the first half (didn't have time for 2nd half) as I find it helps illuminate certain things, my observations from that 1st half:

1. Formation

I thought for sure we would utilize 2 wingbacks when I saw Cancelo and Mendy but it was clear that Mendy was tasked to stay wide with Cancelo playing inverted, this seems like a common thing Pep does where he hasn't often tasked BOTH fullbacks to stay wide.

Honestly, what seemed like a 4-3-3, was 3-4-3, 3-5-2 etc, changed so often its hard to pin down. I'd say in general it seemed like a 3-5-2, but again it was so fluid.

2. Defense

I thought it was solid. To focus on Stones, even though it was just Aston Villa I thought he had a fantastic first half (again only rewatched first half). In particular around the 30th minute when we pressed high they got through our pressure and Stones had to sprint back and made a great tackle on the edge of our box to receive the ball. His overall passing was very good as well. Again, just Villa but good signs atleast, if he can keep doing this there is hope.

3. Cancelo and Mendy

Quite simply, Mendy played wide and Cancelo played inverted. I hardly noticed Cancelo playing wide tbh, very often we set up as 3-5-2 with him joining Stones and Dinho with Mendy and Mahrez being wide, then the formation changed based on Villa's positioning.

Cancelo specifically I thought was monstrous. He is so comfortable on the ball and really glides forward very well. I've seen Walker stumble dribbling with the ball too many times but what Cancelo does should be the norm imo. Good recovery tackles as well when we lost the ball and had one good driving run in the half-space that almost created a goal.

4. Mahrez-KDB connection (the first special link)

Cancelo didn't go wide because the right flank is all about these 2. They rotated so many times, and look for each other all the time. And they do it at the right times to, KDB is typically wide right when it is advantageous to switch to him and have him whip a cross in, he does this very well in the half space as well. Kevin is soo good at this its actually ridiculous, he knows Mahrez wants to come inside and accomodates him throughout the game which is ideal for us imo.

5. Jesus-David connection (the second special link)

Jesus positioning was honestly the most interesting thing for me this half simply because he doesn't play winger alot for us. I saw him play second striker to Aguero, regular winger, box to box midfielder as his main 3 positions. All of these happened based on where David was.

There were so many times where Jesus dropped so deep he was almost next to Rodri, with David in a more advanced position. He would collect pass the ball then start drifting forward and David would move accordingly, it was so weird to see but he was effective almost every time.

Where as on the right KDB-Mahrez rotate around the flanks, Jesus-David rotated in the half space vertically, Mendy almost exclusively stayed wide and didn't come inside much.

More things to probably say but those are my points of note. Not going to rewatch the 2nd half, so some of these points may be weaker based on that.

The thing with Kevin is that he's been delivering that diagonal raking pass since his first game for us. Perfection every time. Kevin's ability is just ridiculous.