Thread by @EBL2017

With Gerrard's appointment at Villa in mind, I take a deep-dive into his managerial abilities and achievements at Rangers in an effort to predict how he fits in at the club. Regardless of that, the entertainment value in the PL increases tenfold with Stevie G back ✌️

THREAD.

Gerrard is an exciting appointment for Villa but the key to him improving as a coach within his 4-3-3 centres around the aggressiveness of the fullbacks, much like Nuno at Spurs and Klopp at Liverpool. Nuno was sacked due to a lack of aggressiveness, Klopp won a PL/CL due to it.

Gerrard sets his teams up in the same narrow 4-3-3 shape as Klopp at Liverpool and it led to his Rangers team having an invincible season, breaking Celtic's decade long dominance by winning Rangers' first league title in 10 years, and only conceded 13 goals in 38 games!

Structurally, Gerrard's Rangers were compact and difficult to play through, particularly when aggressive high up the pitch. This aggression was most prevalent early on in games which saw them go 1-0 up before being able to manage gamestate within a more passive narrow 4-3-3.

This was enabled by the fact that Rangers had superior quality to every team in Scotland so they could control games early on when it was frantic with their aggressive pressing whilst being superior technically to each team. Against the likes of B. Leverkusen, it didn't work.

In those games, Rangers were forced back into a deep block and had 35% of the ball in both the home and away leg. This is normal because Leverkusen have better technicians, but it's also down to structural issues too. Rangers were passive when pressing the opposition fullbacks.

Another example can be seen below against Celtic. Celtic are building play here but Rangers are passive and are easily forced back into a deep block - this is problematic because their structure isn't conducive to defending deep. There's lots of space on the sides to exploit.

Within the Premier League, each team has top technicians to easily make that pass and force Gerrard's Villa back into a deeper block. Within that deep block, there's a lot of space down the sides to exploit and that's where teams combine so Villa will be very vulnerable.

When Villa's narrow 4-3-3 block is easily bypassed, and it will be if Gerrard doesn't improve upon the lack of positional aggression from the fullbacks, they'll be defending with 7 players with the wide players shuttling back but that's not going to keep out nearly every PL side.

The likes of Liverpool, City, Chelsea and lower teams like Brentford will get a lot of joy down the sides and use their combinations on the side to exploit that major weakness within Villa's deep block. Villa will also be exploitable when transitioning into that deeper block.

So, what Gerrard wants to prevent is defending deep. If his team is defending deep within that narrow 4-3-3 structure, then he's got major issues. To improve upon that, he must 1) be more aggressive with the positioning of the vertical block & 2) task the fullbacks to press high.

So, a specific example of that exact scenario can be seen here. Liverpool's general block is much higher than Rangers' block thus increasing the pressure on the build-up. The narrow 3-3 press is also backed up by the fullback who ultimately retrieves possession for The Reds.

Nuno tried to replicate Klopp's Liverpool but failed miserably due to the conservative positioning of the fullbacks. Liverpool defend in the same shape but the difference is when the oppositions fullbacks receive each lane is closed off because they're pressurised from all angles

So, Liverpool's block shift across in this manner which has each angle/player covered:

Or when pressing even higher up the pitch they press in this manner (crucial focus is on the ball-side fullbacks for each team).

Each passing lane is covered. If the ball carrier wants to recycle, Salah is right on top of him, if he wants to go inside, Hendo is there, if he wants to go down the line, TAA is in his way. The only free pass is to switch the play under intense pressure, but that's not feasible

So, for Gerrard to succeed in the Premier League he must improve the aggression in which his teams press in the narrow 4-3-3 shape. Personnel is not an issue either - the likes of Ings, Watkins, McGinn, Nakamba, Targett, Cash, etc, etc are all suited to this intense style.

Gerrard's understanding of balance in terms of combining player profiles for his system is good, and his on-ball structure is good too and is again very similar to that at Liverpool, but none of that will matter if he doesn't enable his teams to control games without the ball.

Overall, it'll be interesting to see which way Gerrard sets Villa up and if he improves upon his structural issues at Rangers despite the top job he did there - I am merely suggesting that once his specific Rangers system style faces higher quality competition it can be exposed.

However, at Rangers, that system was good enough thanks to the opposition Gerrard's teams faced, and that saw his teams accumulate phenomenal achievements within his time at the club. He quite literally could not have done a better job.

Either way, it's great to have him back 👍