With Aston Villa having made a poor start to the season and pressure building on Steven Gerrard after his team were booed off at home to West Ham on Sunday, we take a look at what's going wrong at Villa Park...
Wednesday 31 August 2022 09:21, UK
Aston Villa are languishing in the bottom half of the Premier League after losing three of their first four matches - and now face daunting tests against Arsenal and Manchester City.
Villa supporters booed off their side following defeat at home to West Ham and Steven Gerrard is coming under pressure to turn their form around.
The club made some summer signings, securing the permanent return of Philippe Coutinho (£17m), Diego Carlos (£26m) and Boubacar Kamara in the hope of breaking into the European places this season.
But their poor start against the teams 12th, 16th, 17th and 18th in the table means they have lost nine of their last 15 Premier League matches and they face the top two sides in the space of three days this week.
Gerrard comfortably guided Villa to safety last year, yet nine months later the rot has set in again - what's going wrong?
"I thought we controlled a lot of the game but we never really created enough to trouble their keeper," said Gerrard after their defeat to West Ham.
Villa entered the final third 68 times to the visitors' 44 and had 57 per cent possession, yet only mustered three shots on target from nine and didn't create a big chance. It was the second time they have failed to score this season.
It was the same familiar story in which Villa have plenty of territory but are unable to create decent opportunities from the positions they manoeuvre into.
Only Liverpool (330) and Manchester City (321) have entered the final third more times than Gerrard's team (280) this season, yet Villa have an xG of 4.24, ranking 14th in the Premier League.
They hold the same position for chances created (35) while their shots tally of 49 comes in at 13th.
Perhaps Villa should take a different approach to their attacks by working the ball into the area - they have attempted the highest amount of crosses excluding corners (77) and the fifth most shots from outside the centre of the box (19).
At least Gerrard seems aware of what is needed.
"Someone to step forward to provide a good cross or a little bit of combination play to get a good shot off," he said after the West Ham game.
But does he know how to make that happen?
At the moment, Gerrard appears to be struggling to identify the best system for these players.
He has flip-flopped between a 4-3-3 and a narrow 4-1-2-1-2 in the first four games with varying success.
At Bournemouth, he played with wingers and lost 2-0. So two personnel changes were made and a switch of formation which brought victory over Everton and "one of the strongest performances" since he'd been at the club.
Yet Gerrard then made three changes to move back to a 4-3-3 at Crystal Palace where they were beaten 3-1. So, back to the 4-1-2-1-2 against West Ham and this time a drab defeat.
What now against Arsenal and Manchester City? Leon Bailey has had some good moments on the wing and a 4-3-3 formation can be spring-loaded for a counter-attack against two sides expected to control possession.
Lucas Digne and Matty Cash are encouraged to get forward in both systems, but the handbrake is likely to be applied this week.
The loss of Carlos to injury already feels like a significant moment in Villa's season. The statement signing of the experienced Sevilla centre-back was Gerrard's own verdict on the Tyrone Mings and Ezri Konsa partnership, a decision underlined when he took the captaincy off Mings.
It was a big decision but when Carlos was seriously injured against Everton, robbing the club of his services until next year, the disruption to the defence had, in a sense, been for nothing. Gerrard finds himself relying on those that he had deemed in need of changing.
"We haven't got enough points on the board. I take responsibility and accountability for that, but I want to put that right and I hope my players feel the same.
"The players are the ones who have to act now, we'll help and support them in every way we can but it's got to come from within as well. We've got two really tough games now, but I've got belief and confidence we can go and get results in them."
