Aston Villa News 24/7I think we’ve touched on this in the past, but one of the weaknesses of our current system when we play two strikers is that it can leave Petrov a little over run. Perhaps I was hasty in wondering whether his mind was elsewhere and maybe he just had a tough game. Either way, he wasn’t able to stamp his usual authority on the game.
Let’s start with a graphic showing the two systems against each other, and this is an interpretation of the average position maps by the way:-
As you can see, Wolves were more or less employing my favourite 4-2-3-1 formation and the two holding midfielders, Karl Henry and Adlène Guédioura, provided that strong platform for the 3 more attack-minded midfielders to operate from. That gave Petrov a lot of work to do and he wasn’t able to express himself in his usual manner.
Compare his passing charts and heat maps from this game against Wolves with the previous game against Wigan:-
Stan made more passes against Wolves than Wigan (29 vs 21), but you can clearly see that he’s pinned into a smaller area of the pitch. I don’t mean to single him out for criticism and I wouldn’t dream of suggesting that he’s the core reason for our failure to win, but the data seems to back up my impression that he wasn’t really at the races today. Maybe he operated in a more conservative role under instruction, I would certainly imagine that was the case for the second half carrying a yellow card, but it’s equally possible that the Wolves system simply forced him to operate in a more constrained manner.
As for the team statistics, they give the impression that we at least edged it, but I felt that we were in more control than the numbers suggest. That said, we had an awful lot of shots that didn’t give Marcus Hahnemann anything to be worried about and if a few of those could have been on target, we would almost certainly have come away with the three points.
| 2 | Aston Villa | Mar 20th 2010 | Wolves | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 51% | Possession % | 49% | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 20 | Shots | 7 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 | On Target | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 7 | Corners | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 0 | Offsides | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 16′, 82′ Carew | Scorers | 23′ Craddock, 38′ Milner (OG) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Petrov | Booked | Guedioura, Zubar | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sent Off | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 264 | Good Passes | 199 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 57% | CPS % | 43% | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 64 | Bad Passes | 76 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 80% | Completion % | 72% | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 18 | Interceptions | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 35 | Tackles Won | 27 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 17 | Tackles Lost | 26 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Blocks | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 13 | Free Kicks | 11 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Average Position Map | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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[Original data and graphics courtesy of ESPN and The Guardian]
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4 Comments to “Statshack Aston Villa 2 Wolves 2”
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It would be easy to single out Petrov and he did look extremely rash in some of his tackles.
But it also struck me that he was the only one thinking at times, where all around him (at least behind him) were panicking.
You’re right though, in that playing two strikers causes us to be weak in midfield.
Same old, same old.
Heskey.
all roads lead back to heskey. that said, he had a hand in both of our goals.
Which is why I never singled him out today.
Given the right method of play and top notch players that can carry him (Rooney), he can do a job.
Otherwise and I’ll keep saying it, he’s not a striker.
But he’s not a midfielder either imo.
i’ve just been watching the game back again. well, up to the wolves goal. i didn’t realise just how bad the defending was at the free kick. in fact it’s downright criminal.
look out for it. collins and cuellar at the back stick all on their own. no one there at all. dunne lost his man and was struggling to get back on terms. and guess who’s the one actually in there making a challenge? it’s a crap challenge granted, but it was our friend heskey!!
3 centre backs and not one of them close to making any kind of challenge. marking thin air.
also, it’s funny how you can get an idea in your head that is a distortion of reality…. i watched petrov closely prior to picking up the booking and he was fine. good even.
i suspect it’s from this point onwards that he starts to have a poor game and that’s the impression i was left with. i know at some point he makes a reckless tackle on their byline. crazy.
anyway, i’ll keep watching. i love the things you see second time around that you missed the first tmie.