Villa s historic adjustments, Unai Emery s ambitions

Mondo Sports Updated on 2024-01-29

During his time at Arsenal, Unai Emery was known for his stubbornness and lack of flexibility. At that time, in order to prevent the players from drinking drinks, he specially built a juice squeezing machine on the training ground, so that the players could replenish water in time after training, and cut off their desire to drink energy drinks.

On the pitch, Unai Emery's stubbornness remains the same: the team's unchanged 433 formation, insisting on attacking from the back, these routines are familiar to Arsenal fans, and they are as solid as Guendouzi's starting position. As a result, when Unai Emery left class, almost no Gunners fans shouted about the injustice, after all, Arsenal had not won seven games before the class.

After a lap at Villarreal, Unai Emery has shown that the Gunners' failure to win the Europa League is definitely not his problem. He has since perfected his English and moved to Villa, taking a near-relegated team to seventh in the league. By the end of the season, when the Premier League giants were in full swing, Unai Emery led the small team of London City to third place in the Premier League, and after beating Arsenal, everyone could see that this man was not here to prove himself, but to get revenge.

Unai Emery has not had a good start to the season at Villa. The left side of the team has been completely replaced, and he still intends to use last season's 442 4411 formation to continue to play pressing and play the ball at the back. But against Newcastle, the opponent targeted Kamara, against Liverpool, Klopp's pressure on Pau Torres had an effect, and before the home buff, Villa was only 2-2 in the Premier League.

As a result, Emery, who was once too stubborn in the Premier League not to change his formation, began to adjust. Against Crystal Palace, Kamara, who struggled a little under the high pressing system, began to sink, and formed a three-center back with two central defenders in the positional battle, and the two full-backs were able to press up and open up the space, and there was an extra point of play in the backfield.

With one less person in the midfield, the offensive method is naturally simplified, and Emery chose to put the treasure on McGinn: Watkins responded flexibly, Diabi Bailey pulled the side, McGinn became a free man in the frontcourt, the offensive end retreated sharply to respond, and after receiving the ball in the midfield, he completed the acceleration and advancement, and the defensive end took over Kamara's work, and high-intensity frontcourt pressing: relying on his individual performance, even if the speed slowed down in the backcourt, Villa could still play fast in the frontcourt.

And after Tielemans entered the starting line-up, Villa continued to make minor repairs to their own system. In the positional battle stage, Villa is still Xi to starting with three central defenders, but the double back position is dead, and the number of backs is maintained by one-sided full-backs, so that the team's advancement does not rely only on McGinn, and after the ball is played in the backfield, it quickly establishes a numerical advantage on one side of the wing, and the main side advancement has become a fixed routine for Villa.

This Villa team is certainly not perfect: the high defensive relies heavily on the form of Martin, there are many injuries in the team, the Premier League away record is only an embarrassing 2 wins, 1 draw and 3 defeats, once they concede early in the opening stages, the team does not even have much ability to turn the tables. But there is still hope for Villa this season, who have won 15 consecutive games at home and divided the honours and trophies between other powerhouses, while the days of Villa's contentment for a place are over, and they are also demanding turf in the sun.

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