In the immediate aftermath of Aston Villa’s progression to the Champions League quarter-final, Unai Emery insisted he had watched Liverpool’s second leg with Paris Saint-Germain the night before merely as a football fan.
But anyone aware of Emery’s meticulous ways will know he has watched both legs of this tie with his coaching hat on a handful of times since, his fondness for video analysis verging on obsession.
“Emery put on so many videos, I ran out of popcorn,” Joaquin once quipped, having worked under the coach at Valencia, and the Villa boss will now go about masterminding a result away to former club PSG on Wednesday.
A result, not a win, because he would surely take a draw back to Villa Park for the return leg next week.
In a bid to understand how Emery might look to achieve such a feat, we rewatched both games to try and identify the French side’s weaknesses.
Pick your left side carefully
Emery will need to make a huge call not only at left-back but also on the left wing. Lucas Digne, who has started seven of their 10 Champions League games, is the more obvious choice for left-back ahead of Ian Maatsen, but ahead of him it becomes less clear.
That is because Emery will require a combination capable of stopping not only Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Achraf Hakimi but a drifting Ousmane Dembele as well.
Though PSG’s starting centre-forward, Dembele had more touches – and therefore more passes and dribbles – down the right channel than he did centrally at home to Liverpool, and that is the side they largely attacked from across both legs.
It means Emery will need to decide whether Marcus Rashford is up to the defensive task. This first leg will not be about attacking prowess, even if speed is king on the counter, and the Villa boss may lean towards Jacob Ramsey, who is more entrenched in the Villa system than the Manchester United loanee.
Rashford started away in Bruges but was poor in that first leg before coming off. Having since broken his goal duck at Villa, there will be the temptation to start him, but he may be better suited coming off the bench against tired legs.
For good measure, Digne and Ramsey were the left-sided combo in the 1-0 win over Bayern in October.
Talk, talk, talk
PSG’s fluidity means Villa’s players will need eyes in the backs of their heads, or more realistically, will need to relentlessly communicate with one another.
Rest assured Tyrone Mings will be the most vocal among the defensive line, assuming he starts, and it will be on goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez and the centre-back partnership to lead by example, because they will regularly find a different opposing player hovering close by.
At speed, this caused Liverpool problems, with the typically unflappable Virgil van Dijk torn between coming and going in the 30th minute when Bradley Barcola advanced and Dembele stopped in his tracks.
Ally McCoist, on the edge of his seat for the majority of this match, could hardly believe it on TNT Sports when Van Dijk left Dembele unmarked, and it took a fine stop from Alisson to keep it goalless.
The 3-2-5 PSG operate with in attack is by no means set in terms of position, and even within the first 20 minutes of the first leg against Liverpool, all three of Kvaratskhelia, Dembele and Barcola were in the centre-forward role.
That makes for all manner of combinations, and PSG were potent when their wingers stuck to Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold, and full-backs Hakimi and Nuno Mendes came in to help form the forward five.
Sit back, invite the pressure
There is no getting around the fact PSG are set to dominate possession on Wednesday. Their share at home to Liverpool was 65 per cent and even away at Anfield they shaded it 52-48.
It resulted in 85 attacks at home and 54 away, and while what they do with the ball is down to Luis Enrique’s favoured midfield trio of Joao Neves, Vitinha and Fabian Ruiz, it is on Villa to keep their shape and reduce the pathways through to goal.
If that also means letting PSG try their luck from distance, so be it. Wondergoals can happen but pot shots can also be a sign of frustration, and while Alisson’s nine saves made the headlines, it went largely unnoticed that 17 of PSG’s 27 shots in that first leg were from outside the area – five saved, five off target, and seven blocked.
Villa can therefore also take inspiration from Atletico Madrid, who won 2-1 away in Paris in November despite facing 22 shots.
Of course, PSG did have their shooting boots on against Brest, winning 10-0 on aggregate, but an Emery outfit is less likely to witness a repeat. The only concern here will be the four they have conceded on the road in the Premier League twice this season, at Spurs and Crystal Palace.
Take note, Martinez
Martinez is a world-class goalkeeper in his own right but there is still a lesson he can learn from Alisson, one the Argentine probably works on in training too.
One of Alisson’s nine saves saw him brilliantly scoop away an awkward Dembele shot in the 84th minute with two PSG players hovering nearby.
This applies no matter the opponent, in truth, and to all goalkeepers, but Martinez can be guilty of failing to parry the ball away properly – as was the case against Crystal Palace in February, the 4-1 defeat where Ismaila Sarr opened the scoring by tapping in a simple rebound from close range.
Easier said than done, but Martinez will need to sense the danger when called into action, and get a strong hand to any attempt he can’t catch.
Hoof
There is also the small matter of Villa trying to score. They would take a 0-0 in Paris, but Liverpool showed it is more than possible to survive an onslaught and come away with a victory.
Sure it required some quality saves and some particularly rash attempts from Barcola and Neves when it looked easier to score, but Villa should pay close attention to Liverpool’s winner.
Hooooof. Okay, in Liverpool’s world few long balls are ever actually a hoof without purpose, but it was nevertheless a hopeful pass forward from Alisson in the 87th minute that presented Darwin Nunez with an aerial duel against Marquinhos 10 yards away from PSG’s box.
Neither player headed it but Nunez reacted quickest to the second ball before calmly setting himself and picking out a Harvey Elliott arriving at steam.
If you watch the replay back, Elliott was a good 10 yards behind Dembele when Alisson’s long ball was in the air, but sensing the opportunity the Liverpool midfielder then bursts into shot a split-second ahead of the PSG forward. Moments later Elliott is wheeling away in celebration and Dembele has his head in his hands.
All that in nine seconds. Alisson kicked the ball at 86:20 and the net rippled at 86:29.
And in this regard, Villa already know what a long ball can lead to, Jhon Duran scoring one of the wildest goals Villa Park has ever witnessed when lobbing Manuel Neuer last year. On that occasion it was a mere four seconds between Pau Torres’ long ball and Duran’s first-time effort finding the net.
Duran may be gone, but Villa are not short of attacking quality. They will need to bide their time over both legs, but the class is there to cause an upset.
from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/oxr1ivX
Post a Comment
EmoticonClick to see the code!
To insert emoticon you must added at least one space before the code.