Aston Villa News 24/7Keith Andrews hit a shot from a little over 25 yards out on the hour mark that forced Brad Friedel’s only save of the match. It was a fine save, but still reasonably routine that you’d expect most goal keepers at this level to deal with with comfort. That was Blackburn’s only shot on target during the 90 minutes, but they somehow managed to head back up the M6 with three points.
In reality, Hoilett shouldn’t have required the good fortune of Richard Dunne directing the ball into his own net since he’d already gotten the beating of the defender and should have been nodding in himself. It was disappointing error by the Irishman, but it’s the nature of being a defender or goal keeper that mistakes often lead to goals. There’s no question that he’s had a brilliant first season with Villa and though he’ll probably chastise himself, it didn’t affect our final position.
Gabby, I think, said that the result reflected their inability to find an opener during the first half and had they done so it would have allowed them to push on for more. Although he talks about not having luck, he’s probably right, it’s another example of not turning dominance into goals, which has frequently been the case this season.
Other than that, I think the numbers below tell the story of the game admirably, I don’t think there’s much to dwell on. Luke Young came on in place of Stephen Warnock at the end of the first half, so I’ve used Luke in the average position map. If you’re interested, Warnock’s average position was almost identical, just slightly deeper.
To prove the level of dominance; 325 completed passes in this game, we’ve only strung together more in one game this season – 346 at Portsmouth last month. The 70% share of the total completed passes in the match is a record this season by some margin, the next best being 65% during the 0-0 draw at the Britannia Stadium.
These statistics, and Sam Allardyce’s obvious joy at beating us, just add to the evidence that more and more teams fear us and play extremely defensively against us. Additionally, the fact that we’re setting such records in the final game of the season makes it difficult to claim that the team are “tired”, although I would accept that I have to extend the argument of the opposition’s tactics have an influence to this too.
Still, those poor wee tired bodies managed to complete the second highest number of passes and the highest ratio in comparison to our opponent in the final day of the season, not the first.
Paul Robinson also had a pretty good day at the office. That is all.
| 0 | Aston Villa | May 9th 2010 | Blackburn | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 65% | Possession % | 35% | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 18 | Shots | 11 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 8 | On Target | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 11 | Corners | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Offsides | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Scorers | 84′ Dunne (OG) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dunne, A Young | Booked | Dunn | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sent Off | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 325 | Good Passes | 138 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 70% | CPS % | 30% | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 79 | Bad Passes | 65 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 80% | Completion % | 68% | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 8 | Interceptions | 22 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 37 | Tackles Won | 29 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 24 | Tackles Lost | 25 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Blocks | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 15 | Free Kicks | 15 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Average Position Map | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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You can find Statshacks from other games here.
[Original data and graphics courtesy of ESPN and The Guardian]
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2 Comments to “Statshack – Aston Villa 0 Blackburn 1”
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Random point – in case anyone missed it, Collins is higher up than Dunne on the average position map because he spent the last 5 minutes playing up front in an effort to get a goal back. We ended up with 3 at the back and Young / Collins / Delfouneso / Heskey all pushing forward.
However – Delfouneso aside (who looked really hungry) – while O’Neill made this in an effort to get a goal back, the players didn’t seem to be up for matching the manager’s effort at that late stage.
While Villa may have dominated possession, we were beaten in the centre of midfield. David Dunn ran everything Blackburn did, while Milner had a suprisingly quiet game. Petrov was left to pick everything up in the middle, but Dunn overran him most of the time. We spent much of the game passing around, and almost always going wide rather than finding openings in the middle – while Blackburn had less of the ball, but Dunn orchestrated his teams play from the space we gave him.
good observation about collins, although he’s generally more advanced than dunne on average anyway, but still a good point. he’s finished games as an auxiliary striker a few times this season.
in the middle, it was a tale of two halves. blackburn had a central 3 of dunn, andrews and a young algerian – koumba – making his debut during the first half. we dominated completely, koumba struggled to make an impact.
big sam brought pedersen on in place of kouma for the second half and their new central trio got a small foothold in the game.
dunn was held at distance and restricted to longer passes forward in the first half, but pedersen gave him the license to get a little further forward after the break, moving the ball and keeping it short, which suits him better. andrews played the more holding role.
the milner/petrov partnership works well against other central pairings or weak trios, but gets exposed against organised or stronger opposition.
the question is whether the solution is a third body on our side in the middle, or strengthen the central pairing. if you think the latter, then who is the weak link?
unfortunately, i came to the conclusion half way through the season that the weakest link in our side is in the middle and it’s our captain. awkward.