Aston Villa (H) in Three Minutes or Less
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ...In hopefully the first of many Four Four Two’s Tim Palmer (@timhpal) gives us a few key points to take away from the Aston Villa match this past weekend. Introducing the “…three minutes or less” series. Enjoy.
Much has been made of the fact that Chelsea lack a deep-lying playmaker, and it appears another transfer window will pass without any move to rectify the issue. Instead, Jose Mourinho seems happy to only add Marco Van Ginkel to the existing crop, with John Obi Mikel, Michael Essien, Ramires and Frank Lampard constituting quantity but not necessarily quality when it comes to creativity from deep.
It is the latter two that Mourinho has opted for in the double pivot of his 4-2-3-1 in Chelsea’s opening two games of the season. It is a mobile, energetic pairing that came in for criticism when Rafa Benitez continuously preferred it throughout his tenure, largely due to the fact that it offered more graft than guile – perhaps unfair on Lampard, who is a fine passer with outstanding vision.
The format of Villa’s 4-3-3 midfield, with Ashley Westwood sitting deeper and thus occupying the zone of his direct opponent, Oscar, while further ahead Fabian Delph and Karim El Ahmadi were lined up opposite Ramires and Lampard respectively. The battle between the former was key – Delph pressed Ramires as soon as the Brazilian received the ball and meant the majority of his passes were back towards his centre-backs, and towards his own goal.
He finished with the most passes (99) of any player, and features heavily amongst the game’s top pass combinations, but it’s difficult to remember a particular moment where he provided any sort of incisiveness further forward.
However, this is probably most telling of Villa’s clever pressing in midfield and their determination to get back behind the ball when out of possession. Thanks to the sheer physical presence of Christian Benteke, who won a ludicrous amount of aerial battles, and the pace of wide players Gabriel Agbonlahor and Andreas Weimann, Villa only ever really needed to push three attacking players forward at counter-attacks – meaning the midfield trio could sit deeper and counter Chelsea’s creative threat.
Put simply, there was a greater maturity to Aston Villa’s approach compared to Hull City’s, which accounts somewhat for the tenser moments Chelsea experienced in their second match of the season.
Related Posts
« The Chelsea Lions, A Soulless Bridge Seconds Out. Round One. »
Loading tweets...