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Aston Villa's high-line: Will Unai Emery's tactic continue to reward this season?
*Published before Aston Villa's 6-1 win over Brighton on September 30*
Villa are unusual in many respects.
The tactical landscape of the Premier League has probably never been more exciting than it is this season.
Roberto De Zerbi's Brighton, Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool 2.0 and Ange Postecoglou at Tottenham are all setting up in a different manner to any other Premier League season, as are Unai Emery's Aston Villa.
Since the Spaniard's arrival, Villa have become famous for consistently deploying a high line against their opposition, and whilst the rewards have been significant, there do appear to be risks that have been repeatedly exploited by better teams so far.
So, what does Emery's high-line look like in practice? And what does it entail for opposition teams?
Bold but calculated
"We are trying to play with our shape, building with two or a third centre-back playing low as a right full-back. We will not change a lot, we will react by trying to be stronger with the same structure," said Emery early in the season.
He appears to be committed to the plan of playing this high line, regardless of the opposition. Drilling down further on plan A rather than preparing plan B.
Their boldness is evident in their approach against Chelsea, where they played an extremely high line with the Blues trying to find space in behind.
They had little luck in doing so though, Emery's Villa caught them offside a total of 10 times during the game, their highest tally since he took over.
Chelsea's attackers thrive in space, and for Villa to halt them so many times is a testament to Emery's commitment to his philosophy.
What's curious about this is that, unlike most teams that position themselves higher up the pitch, Villa are not that intense out of possession.
In fact, when you look at PPDA figures for the season so far from Opta, they've averaged a figure of 16.2 per90, only three sides have a higher rate - West Ham, Luton and Forest.
PPDA - Number of opposition passes allowed outside of the pressing team's own defensive third, divided by the number of defensive actions by the pressing team outside of their own defensive third. A lower figure indicates a higher level of pressing, while a higher figure indicates a lower level of pressing.
When the opposition manage to breach their defensive third, they fall back into a 5-3-2 shape, with one of the wide midfielders tucking into the backline for maximum coverage. As evident in the above example against Chelsea, it was Nicolo Zaniolo who dropped with John McGinn engaging on the other side.
Maintaining their shape and covering the right spaces is a big part of Emery's setup. Whereas once they've won the ball back or even building out from the back, they are extremely direct in their attempts to find Ollie Watkins and Moussa Diaby in behind.
Last season, they managed an astounding tally of 116 offsides against (3.05 per90), higher than anyone in the league. They've continued in a similar vein this season, accumulating 24 offsides against so far, at least five more than any other team.
Going back to their high-line, they can expect to get plenty of joy against most opposition sides, and should be expected to catch many an attacker offside with their intriguing approach.
What's the downside?
For one thing, being able to catch your opponent offside repeatedly is limiting possession sequences effectively.
Emery ensures that the lines between his players on the pitch are small and that once the ball is won back, it can be circulated quickly into space.
Making the pitch narrow by demanding his players to keep a tight shape, Villa do make themselves difficult to play through on the ground, however, once the space is found in behind, they can be punished badly.
They found that out the harsh way during Liverpool's second, where all it took was a well-timed pass from Trent Alexander-Arnold to break the offside trap and find Mohamed Salah in behind, a cutback from the Egyptian ending up in the Villa goal.
Better teams will test Villa's approach time and again, and in the season opener, Emery admitted that he got it wrong.
"They were faster, stronger in the duels, more aggressive in attack and they won because they were better. We were less in the duels, less in the runs, less aggressive than them. This is the reason. Tactically, as well, we took some wrong decisions," said the Spaniard.
Their lack of pressure in forward areas meant that Newcastle were able to find their wide men easily who then linked with the likes of Alexander Isak and other attackers to find the spaces in behind.
The pitfalls of their approach are evident in the data, only two other sides have allowed a higher pass completion rate from opponents than Villa (83.8%) - Luton and West Ham.
Furthermore, only Fulham (0.15) have conceded a better quality of shot. On average, a shot that Villa have faced has had an xG of 0.14 xG.
Big boys to prove major test
They've had plenty of joy being a direct side thus far, with more direct attacks (22) than any other Premier League side according to Opta.
It's worth noting that they have accumulated the fourth highest xG tally from open-play this season (9.28), so the attacking upside is there to see.
Direct attacks - The number of open play sequences that starts just inside the team's own half and has at least 50% of movement towards the opposition's goal and ends in a shot or a touch in the opposition box.
Whether this approach is worth changing is yet to be seen definitively, but it is worth keeping an eye on.
The ceiling of this approach will be decided by the quality of their execution against better opponents, they will undoubtedly be flat track bullies against lesser sides.
Expect the offside traps and goals to continue flying at both ends for Villa and Emery.
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