This is the mood among the Aston Villa faithful to start the 2023 campaign, and understandably so. On the pitch, the club continues to have difficulty finding wins and the back of the net. That change has yet to turn the tide, as the club remains winless under new manager Unai Emery this season. This reversal from what we’ve seen in recent years is deeply disappointing. To date, the potential harm she could inflict on our country is most scary. Aston Villa are the first team to fail to score in back-to-back league matches since themselves in May 2023.
Emery, who once took the team through a golden era of unheralded brilliance, now himself faces intense criticism. His favourite tactical arrangement focuses on build-up play through the centre with one forward player wide, frequently using Lucas Digne. The potency of this tactic has waned in recent games. Dango Outtara’s man-marking role on Digne illustrates the lengths Aston Villa has to go through to counter the opposition’s set defensive wall and get inside it. Circumstances thrust Michael Kayode inside during a key recent game, suggesting more shuffling and remaking of the roster between fall and spring.
Adding to the challenges, Aston Villa lost two influential players from the second half of last season—Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio. Their departures have left big holes in the national team’s attacking creativity and goal scoring. On the pitch, Rashford’s absence is equally as obvious. His extraordinary speed and vertical runs made him unique, and the wide players of today are failing to fill the void he left. If Aston Villa agreed to sell Ramsey, it would significantly help them balance their PSR books. This gambit only obfuscates the path forward, robbing the roster of necessary depth and peripheral creativity.
The Bluebirds have failed to win their opening double for the first time in six seasons. This loss has made the pressure on Emery impossible to ignore. The manager’s high line and mid-block tactics, which initially stifled opponents’ build-up play, have not yielded the same results against teams that adopt a more defensive stance. Aston Villa’s biggest failing in the 2022-23 season was their inability to crack a persistent backline, especially when in front of a low-block.
As for Emery, he has publicly defended his role in spite of the clear and continuing turmoil. He has a strong conviction about what he envisions for the team, and a deep commitment to realizing that vision. Yet it continues to raise questions about his tactical vision and the resources at his disposal. No fault of my current squad’s—there are a lot of limitations that affect their potential to perform his on-court tactics to perfection.
As Aston Villa faces one of the toughest stretches of the season, supporters and pundits around the league will be tuning in. The team’s surprising level of success raises several important questions about the future of the team. Can it make enough of a course correction in the next few weeks?
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