Manchester City overcame their off-field FFP rule charges to defeat Aston Villa on Sunday. Pep Guardiola’s team blasted into a three-goal lead in the first half thanks to Rodri (4), Ilkay Gundogan (39) and Riyad Mahrez from the penalty spot (45+1).
Ollie Watkins pulled a goal back (61) in the second half on his 100th appearance for the club.
Let’s analyse Aston Villa’s passing networks and player stats from the clash at the Etihad Stadium.
MATCH STATS
Manchester City (3.95) 3-1 (0.28) Aston Villa
Manchester City dominated ball possession by 67% to 33%, completing 620 passes in comparison to Aston Villa’s 304. Villa did record a 81.3% pass success rate, but that declined when in the final third to 65.1%.
Aston Villa managed 6 shots: 2 on target, 2 blocked with a 33.3% shooting accuracy.
PASSING NETWORK & PLAYER STATS
Unai Emery’s side attempted to play out from the back but were suffocated by a strong City press and high-line, forcing us into wasteful long balls, with only 46% of the 54 attempted successful.
Chambers struggled most with his distribution, playing 10 long balls, of which only four connected to a Villa man, he lost possession on nine occasions and finished the game with 78% passing accuracy. Chambers’ defensive partner Konsa was more composed in possession, successfully completing 30 of his 32 passes (94%).
Lucas Digne was another of the back-line players who struggled today; losing possession 5 times, only winning 2 of his 6 ground duals, and had a 73% passing accuracy before being substituted on 60 minutes.
However, as you can see, once the ball is played out of defence and into the double pivot, it is repeatedly shut out. There were few out-balls to Young, none to Digne, and no link-up play with the wide midfielders.Β Manchester City must be credited for forcing us into this central narrow alley, but as a team aspiring to play out of defence, you must find an answer!
Both Jacob Ramsey and Emiliano Buendia failed to establish themselves in the game, completing only 18 and 19 touches respectively in a combined 136 minutes on the pitch.
Douglas Luiz was one player to have a solid game, getting around the pitch well as shown below in his heat map and taking more touches than any other Villa player – 51 in total.
Up top, Leon Bailey had an unproductive day, losing possession on seven occasions and only completing 57% of his accurate passes from his total of just 16 touches. Ollie Watkins scored Villa’s consolation goal; an excellent finish with his only sighting on goal all game. He finished with an lowly xG of 0.08 – summing up the lack of creation for the forwards to feed off.
The substitutions: Aston Villa improved significantly from the arrivals of John McGinn, Alex Moreno, Matty Cash, and, notably, Phillipe Coutinho and Jhon DurΓ‘n. They all worked together to reverse the attacking momentum going into the closing stages.
Coutinho forced an excellent save from Ederson with a rasping long-range effort. Jhon DurΓ‘n also threatened the City goal, rattling the crossbar and having one shot blocked.
Alex Moreno was also much more productive at left-back, winning all his ground and aerial duels, and completing 82% of his accurate passes.
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UNDERSTANDING PASSING NETWORK
AUTHOR | RYAN MCKEOWN
Authorβs UTV PODCAST archive Ryan Mckeown – UTV Podcast | An Aston Villa Blog
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