Why Unai Emery Might Be The Best Manager In The Premier League

It's time to talk about Aston Villa because Unai Emery has spent a fair whack of money this summer

on some seriously special talents but he has also lost a few too. Now they've not started

brilliantly but to me it's pretty obvious that their big gamble is going to pay off in the long

term and it's all down to one man. I'm Jacob Olds for 442's resident tactician and this is how Unai

Emery's tactical genius has done it again. This is how their team looked in the Europa League final last season

Five of those players in that starting XI are no longer at the club. And when that happens, a lot of people start to question the logic

Why have you sold all your best players? Well, stay with me because it makes sense

The average age of all their departures in the summer comes to 28 years old

Lots of players come to the end of their peak years. Now, that's not to say the likes of Oli Watkins, Uri Tielemans, Ezri Konza aren't still great players

and players who couldn't have contributed for Villa this season. But when you consider Villa have had a fair bit of financial constraints

over the last few years, selling these players in their peak before their value depreciates massively

is really smart and means they can get the maximum price and help themselves out with the FFP, PSR, yada, yada, yada

Because with the new lads, their average age comes to 22 years old, whilst Villa have made a net profit of just over €60m

which long-term leaves them in a position where, yes, The season hasn't been brilliant in this very short period, but over the coming months or the coming years

they're in a position where they've got a bunch of these young, talented players who fit the Unai Emery mould

and they've made a lot of money, which gives them more room to go and spend more money as the seasons progress

Almost poetically, Aston Villa's first league win of this season came through two of their summer recruits combining and playing brilliantly

And what made it even better was that Tottenham who had had a lot of praise especially at the start of the summer were the ones who were on the receiving end of that Villa battering Now they were able to do this because the likes of Jackson and Manzambi

perfectly fit into the front four diamond that Unai Emery loves. Manzambi is a multifaceted player, so he fits into that three-roaming ten-roll

plugging gaps wherever they pop up, and Jackson fits the mode of that complete mobile striker, stretching defences

But also, link in play to get those narrow wingers, Buendia and McGinn

heavily involved. So as much as yes, Villa lost a lot of big key players over the course of that

summer window, they replaced them with younger players who all fit into the Unai Emery structure

that he's relied upon throughout his time at Villa. When Villa are in possession, you see a central box

connecting two of the more advanced attackers and the two defensive midfielders, but there's not

necessarily fixed positioning. Manzambi and McGinn have alternated their positions, which sucks in the

wide Spurs winger slightly whilst also pinning all three of the Tottenham midfielders. So that leaves

Buendia on the opposite side 2v1 against the opposition fullback because he has his partner

in fullback holding the width meaning when he darts into the space beyond the Spurs midfield

he's free to receive and play because his marker is split between two players so doesn't want to

commit out and neither of the Tottenham centre halves want to step out either because then

Jackson will be 1v1. Now this isn't new at all to Aston Villa. For all the whole time that we've

seen Unai Emery in the Premier League, Villa have constantly used these overloads to create

numerical advantages on altering sides of the pitch. They'll have the ball out wide and surround

that player with plenty of secure options, leaving the other side underloaded, allowing them to play

backwards to then pull the opposition out and then instantly spring forward to that side of the pitch

that they have a spare man against and isolated defender. In this case, they have a right-hand side

box as we mentioned previously and in doing this they commit five Spurs

defenders to that side of the pitch they then look to play horizontally which

then triggers three Spurs players to step out and creates this 2v1 on the right hand side of the box so when Buendia plays forward first time both of these defenders are reacting after just reshuffling to try and

handle the right hand side overload which causes mistakes and leads to Villa ending up with the

ball inside the box in a four versus five this is only possible because of these players being fit

for Unai Emery's brand of football and profile wise being exactly what he needs as we know despite

many tactical intricacies these moments where Villa can fill their own box and look to spring

forward are still huge parts of Unai Emery's football and Nicholas Jackson has taken that

element of their football to a new level here he could easily hold his position with a great

angle to receive from his teammate and turn Jackson loves the ball to feet and is a great ball carrier

so why not well because he's incredibly intelligent with his decision making instead he notices Club

Bruges have committed really really high to try create the whole shoot around Villa's box but when

they don't effectively counter press they just leave tons of space behind them against a centre

forward who has caught the top speed of 34.1 kilometers an hour this season so when he sets

off on his bike he's beating them to any half decent ball and with the goalkeeper being reckless

he gets a little bit of luck and can score what is a pretty simple tapping now to some that may be

really bland a really bit of unspectacular centre forward play from nicholas jackson

but it really really isn't jackson as this centre forward is required to do the link-up play for

his support in three but also relentlessly move to stretch the opposition's back line and that's

what makes that goal so good because jackson will make that exact same run 10 15 times per game in

the premier league i mean he sits fifth for centre forwards in the division four sprints per 90 but

not all of those sprints will result in a goal or even result in him getting the ball

but if you make enough of them runs you tend to have a mental effect on the opposition center

halves causing them to drop off and then gaps open up for that supporting three that he has

or if you make enough good runs eventually someone will give you the ball and if you do that you going to score a lot of goals which i mean is what nicholas jackson been doing loads because he

creates himself some big chances but to be fair vela don't even need big chances i think we all

know that by now this buendia goal has an xg of 0.02 well if we look at it closely it's actually a

pretty big chance and to explain how we need to rewind and look at where the assist comes from

here Hemmings has just ran into the box committing to Nali and then stepping across Van Hecker to

occupy him too we then have a man on the edge of the box pinning back the zone 14 protector

also known as the bloke that closes down anything on the outskirts of the 18 yard box which means

when McGinn cuts this back Buendia has time to set himself before Madison has even been able to

make an effort toward the ball so now Buendia has decent separation from the nearest defender

and a pretty straight route to either side of the goal. And obviously, he finishes it brilliantly

But as much as it's a great finish, you will see that same finish from Villa so many times throughout the season

because they use those very, very fast committed forward runs to then drop it back into an area that is commonly seen

as one of the hardest areas of the pitch to actually score from. But they do it so consistently, and they score so consistently

If you shoot from this area against a settled defence, it's very likely that someone will get a nick on the ball

and stop it from going goalwards. If you instead stretch that defence and pin them back so that this player is now arriving onto a pass with space in front of him and gaps in the opposition's box, then there's a much higher chance of that ball finding the back of the net

Which feels like pretty simple logic, but things like XG, well for the majority anyway, don't consider those sort of factors in their frameworks, so it doesn't really appear up on stat sheets, sadly for Villa

but for you lot who may look to criticise Aston Villa this season

it's important to keep in mind when you look at them overperforming their XG

like they always seem to do and you should also be keeping in mind the 442 YouTube channel

once you've subscribed we'll be back next week see you next time