Aston Villa manager Unai Emery explains tactical shift in the Premier League: ‘In other leagues, it’s not like that’

Unai Emery has long been regarded as one of the smarter tactical thinkers in football and the Aston Villa manager has been talking details.

Villa have found themselves stifled at times this season but Emery seems to be solving little problems regularly and the team’s form has improved in the Premier League and Europa League.

Emery is a student of the game beyond Bodymoor Heath and Villa Park and a keen observer of tactical trends in the Premier League and elsewhere. In an interview with Sky Sports, he happily talked about tactical theory and what some new developments mean for English football in practice.

Adam Bate noted that the number of passes in the Premier League is down on previous seasons and set pieces, including the now ubiquitous long throw-in, are an increasingly prominent feature of the game.

“With teams playing man-to-man, pressing against their direct opponent, even in a medium block, trying to jump man-to-man, we are seeing a lot more of this than last year,” Emery told him.

“It is because teams in England, and in Italy are performing well doing it. Set pieces are improving, the development is so quick.

“Brentford were one of the first. It was like a corner, six or seven players in the box. Now, there are more teams, maybe 10 in the Premier League, doing it, being more direct. Even we are doing it sometimes.”

Emery knows the value of tactical adaptation

Villa have been meticulous about set plays for years now. Emery kept set piece specialist coach Austin MacPhee on his backroom staff as Villa look to keep one effective route to goal open to them and, ideally, cut off its equivalent supply at the other end.

“In England, you can disturb the goalkeeper, block the centre-backs. In other leagues, it is not like that. In Europe, it is a clear foul,” said Emery.

The Villa boss is sufficiently tactically minded that his style sets out puzzles that are gradually solved by opponents, leaving Emery himself with a challenge to which he must adapt. It’s not that Villa’s flavour been found out, merely that Emery is having to refresh the recipe.

“You have to be always updating tactically, learning quickly, using all your experience to change because football is progressing. We are updating our ideas,” he said.

“We are trying to keep the same mentality, trying to add some tactical ideas to the collective, to the individuals, but not over the top.”

Villa’s next test and arguably their toughest of the season so far will be an away fixture against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday afternoon.

Spurs have lost just once in all competitions under new manager Thomas Frank, whose football tends to match up with Emery’s in Villa’s favour but will surely have a plan in mind to end his winless record against his Basque counterpart.

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