Aston Villa dismantled Newcastle in style on Saturday afternoon. Goals from Jacob Ramsey and a brace from Ollie Watkins sealed a dominant win in front of a vociferous Villa Park crowd.
Now, the past analytical articles I’ve been writing have been centred on the team’s passing network, and I’ve identified a player’s performance as a complement to the network.
But who should I pick this week? I couldn’t. Everyone was too amazing! Moreno, Dendoncker: he was going to be the feature; it was titled Big Donk. Buendia. Ramsey. McGinn. Watkins: were all superb performers!
But, it was Don Emery who positioned them all effectively for the obliteration of Newcastle United FC.
PASSING NETWORK, EXPECTED THREAT & PLAYER STATS
Unai Emery gave another Premier League manager a tactical masterclass. Before we get started, I’ll let you embrace the network image belowβ¦
Right, where shall we start? Defence.
For those that have been following this analytical series and learning on the job, like myself, we have discovered that the darker lines signify passes with a larger expected threat (xT), and the thicker the line width, the more number of passes.
What we have predominately captured from these images in the past games is that playing out of defence has been our primary build-up. Drawing teams onto us and countering swiftly. Below is a recent win over Bournemouth that highlights the build-up between Martinez, Mings, and Konsa; note the darker lines as balls out of these areas carried our highest threat of attack.
Let me share the Newcastle image again below to save you from scrolling back up the page. A network line is awarded when two players make five passes to each other. For the first time under Unai Emery, Konsa and Mings don’t have a network.
These two have previously had our strongest relationship. In every game. What changed?
Well. Emery counteracted Newcastle’s impressive high press, which they have successfully deployed all season, and played straight through Newcastle with intensity and creativity.
Another strength we bypassed was their centre midfield; we didn’t hang around much in this area either. Dendoncker distributed the ball with incredible efficiency considering this was his first league start since Emery’s first game against Manchester United.
Let’s talk about Big Donk and soak in his passing stats. With a pass completion rate of 97.2% from his 36 attempts (14 short, 21 medium, and 1 long), he was key to our accelerated transition from defence-to-attack.
So why the change? Emery is a meticulous planner; he highlighted a weakness and an area of space to exploit: directly between Newcastle’s defence and midfield. Enter Emiliano Buendia.
Buendia thrived by orchestrating from the top. His network is a sea of dark blue, linking up with seven Villa players. The image below captures our danger-creation areas. In the heart of the area of darkness: Buendia and his mates McGinn and Ramsey.
These three caused absolute carnage!
Ramsey, playing more narrow, played mind games with Trippier, drawing him in-field and creating the space for Alex Moreno to attack (how good was the Spaniard!). Kieran Trippier was rattled, bamboozled, as a glorious chorus of “youβre going to cry in a minute” belted out from the voice of the Holte End to add further discomfort.
And John McGinn. Planted uncomfortably in front of Dan Burn, it yielded stupendous rewards. Turning him inside and out with his tenacious, almost bullying press on the left back before bringing the ball in-field to Buendia or Ramsey. Or Ollie Watkins.
The striker has never been as well fed as he was against Newcastle. A supply line with a network of four players eager to assist the 14-goal striker.
And we all know what Ollie Watkins did. Banged! Again and again. A first brace of the season for the forward. And he could have had four but for the woodwork and a (correct) VAR call.
To sum up, it was utter dominance at the highest level! So make sure your seatbacks and tray tables are in their full upright position and that your seat belt is correctly fastened. Villa are flying, and we’re all on board! Bring on the final seven games!
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AUTHOR | RYAN MCKEOWN
Authorβs UTV PODCAST archive Ryan Mckeown – UTV Podcast | An Aston Villa Blog
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UNDERSTANDING PASSING NETWORKS
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HIT THE IMAGE – to be diverted.
