Thread by @stighefootball

Unai Emery has reinvented Aston Villa (again)

Short 🧵👇

Villa’s 2022-23 winning template was ripped apart by injuries, notably to Moreno and Ramsey, who formed a fierce left side. Both missed the first several months of the season. Mings and Buendía both tore their ACLs in week 1 and haven’t been seen since.

Early this season, in response to several injuries AND heavy defeats at St. James’ Park and Anfield, Emery reconfigured the team.

On the ball they began to move from 4-4-2 to 3-5-2, with Kamara dropping into RCB in buildup.

This prevented Kamara from getting caught high up and beaten (noted issue at SJP & Anfield) and protected the channel better, making Villa less vulnerable to direct attacks.

Villa have dealt with a bunch more absences these last few months but stayed afloat by patching up the team. Kamara’s ACL injury, though, is significant and demands a rethink akin to what happened in September, when Emery used Kamara himself to fix the issues.

Here's roughly what we've seen in the last two games.

The Moreno + Ramsey left side is back and functioning very well, if only lacking a little sharpness and execution.

It's very lopsided, which is on purpose, to give Moreno the running room, and therefore Ramsey the space to invert and carry.

It's different, but in a way it's the same: It's still a 4-4-2 moving to a 3-5-2, but with different movements to create the switch.

Cash RCB not Kamara; Bailey attacking right presence not Cash; still 3 in CM and 1 player (Tielemans) close to Watkins.

Top managers keep tweaking, keep moving the goalposts. You go stale? You get beaten. You don't react to injuries? You fall off.

This is the third clearly different version of Aston Villa this season, in the space of 26 games. Emery is class.

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