Aston Villa News 24/7Since the analysis of Gabby’s goal at Blackpool was well received, I thought I’d repeat the task for the goals against Blackburn yesterday. This time the solid orange lines represent player movements without the ball, the dashed orange lines indicate movement with the ball (dribbling) and the blue lines show the path of the ball between players (passes).
Goal One: Build up to the penalty
With the opening goal coming from the spot, there’s obviously nothing to look at with the goal itself, but the build up to penalty was interesting.
It started with a throw-in on our left flank and it’s worth looking at the options Fabian Delph had after receiving the ball back from Ciaran Clark following his throw-in:
- He had Marc Albrighton just ahead of him; he could send in a right footed inswinger,
- Delph considered shaping a left footed outswinger himself briefly,
- but in the end elected to feed the ball back to Clark to shift the point of attack to the opposite wing.
Here you can see how Blackburn set themselves up to defend. Their back four were all lined up in the box occupied by Ash, Bent and Downing. The two wingers sat deep as auxiliary wing backs, practically forming a back six. The three central midfielders formed a protective barrier in front of the back line and Santa Cruz was the lone point man.
So the objective was to move the ball to Kyle Walker hugging the right touchline and it was shifted fairly quickly through Clark back to Reo-Coker who played it back to Dunne. Dunne played a nicely weighted ball just ahead of Robert Pires and he sent it on to Walker.
There are many things quality players do well, one is knowing what they want to do with the ball before they receive it. Walker’s first touch was the key that set this whole opportunity up. He didn’t trap and control the ball, he used his first touch to knock the ball into space behind Blackburn’s back line and chased up looking to get a cross in.
(In the diagram below I’ve shown Walker dribbling with the ball briefly before crossing, but it was actually just one touch to knock the ball into space and his second touch was the cross).
However, the reason he was able to do this was down to Stewart Downing’s movement off the ball during the build up. Downing had dropped deep as Pires took possession dragging a couple of defenders with him, leaving space behind.
At the same time, Ash had tracked the movement of the ball and looped around Darren Bent so, although Walker’s cross was intercepted before it got to Bent at the far post, Ash was already in position to take advantage of Blackburn’s failure to clear their lines.
Of course, Ash only got the chance to harass Keith Andrews out of possession through Blackburn’s own failure, but trace this passage back to the throw-in and consider the outcome had Albrighton or Delph simply sent a cross in.
In this case, a patient build up led directly to the opening goal which unlocked the game for us.
Goal Two: Marc Albrighton
No diagram necessary for this one, it was simple second phase ball at a corner and I’m not sure whether it was a cross or shot to be honest, but at the time it certainly useful to have a right footer in that position.
Goal Three: Stewart Downing
The third goal was the killer and something of a sucker punch coming just two minutes after the second and Blackburn tried in vain to get back into the game. A classic counter attacking goal.
Richard Dunne had been drawn out to Blackburn’s left to shut down Pedersen, although Kyle Walker was soon back to help out. Whether intentional or not, as Dunne blocked Pedersen’s attempt to create something the ball ended up with Robert Pires.
Pires dribbled out of danger looking up for a outlet and spotted Ash just ahead before slotting in a nicely weighted pass. Ash was immediately shut down, but quickly shifted the ball from one foot to the other and then perfectly into Stewart Downing’s path as he galloped up the wing.
Once Downing had the ball it was a two-on-one situation with Darren Bent giving Hanley a Hobson’s choice of closing down Downing, leaving Bent completely free in front of goal, or sticking with Bent, leaving Downing a free path to goal on his stronger left foot.
Eventually he went to Downing, but too late and the winger fired home perfectly. Bent’s run was perfect though, first to the near post, then to far post once the defender was committed.
Goal Four: Ashley Young
It’s not worth showing even token Blackburn players for this one, they were traffic cones and knew the game was over despite just grabbing a late goal themselves.
The move started with Brad Friedel who threw the ball out to Fabian Delph at left back. He dribbled briefly before sending the ball back infield to Nigel Reo-Coker who then passed it on to Stiliyan Petrov, on in place of Pires.
Petrov was closed down, but spotted Ash’s lateral run behind and made a simple pass into the space Ash was running to. He was immediately closed down, Ryan Nelsen darting forward to press I think, but Ash was already moving the ball out to Downing on the wing and yet again placed a perfectly weighted pass for the wide man to run on to.
This is where it gets comical. As Downing came into the box the Blackburn defense became pre-occupied with him and Darren Bent heading for the far post, completely ignoring Ash who literally strolled into the box unchallenged.
A simple pass and a deceptively good first time strike and it was 4-1. All too easy.
Although it wasn’t really a contributing factor during the build up to the penalty for the first goal, it remains a fact that Stewart Downing was on the right and Marc Albrighton was on the left for all four goals today. The second goal might be a bit of stretch since it was a corner and Downing took it, but again, it’s a fact that Downing was on the right, Albrighton was on the left.
The two wingers spent the first 30 minutes on the “right” flanks, but all of the remainder of the game on the “wrong” wings. Correlation does not imply causation and, once again, I can’t analyse goals that weren’t scored that might have been using the more orthodox system, but surely fans should be close to accepting that “inverted wingers” isn’t a bad tool to have in the box?
You might also like...
20 Comments to “Goal analysis: More goals from the “wrong” side”
Leave a Reply
I agree and have been saying so for a while ” Inverted” wingers give more options – full back on the overlap with right or left foot, wingers can come in side who are generally better shooters and finishers than full backs ( Kyle Walker) an exception. Downing and Walkers link play today was superb after the 30 minutes of playing on the so called right side of the pitch everyone keeps moaning about. Hope this is the last we hear of them. I will say though, it proved evn more so today that Gabby is not a winger and hope GH saw that today after Albies second half display
this is a diagram is from a while back showing how the inverted winger maximises the effect of the overlapping fullback, as you say.
http://astonvillacentral.com/wp-content/uploads/inside-out-wingers.jpg
in short, it provides options.
Totally agree, on the right, the left footed wide player cutting inside with the right-footed full back overlapping bamboozles the opponent. If he’s closed down, Downing can slip Walker in; if not, well, we saw today….
Exactly the same on the other flank with Albrighton or Gabby.
Once we pull away from the pressure of having to grind out points, the football all over the pitch will really start to flow.
agree. next season has a ton of potential and this one remains more about safety right now. i wouldn’t be unhappy if we can grab a cheeky european spot though, i’d really like to see houllier have a crack against continental opponents with his own side sooner rather than later.
all the goals were enjoyable to watch, Ash had a blinder today, causing a lot of havoc in the hole. Downing also showed his versatility, and Albrighton too, notice when they play on the “wrong” side the amount of times they could easily cut in across the face of the box, keeping the ball safely away from defenders, something I always think gives wrong-footed a nice edge. My guess is the swap camp in when they saw it was generally easier to cut in with the ball than always go for the cross. It dragged players out of position enough that they had space to cross it in later.
that’s exactly right, cutting inside forces the full back to use his weaker foot to make a tackle. i guess “inverted full backs” is the logical solution, but don’t think we’ll see that any time soon.
Maybe the key to this is having an overlapping fullback following up behind the winger. Otherwise the option of playing a ball into the corner to be whipped across by the fullback is removed, which makes the defenders choices much easier and the inverted winger can then be left drifting across the box without a killer pass or shooting opportunity.
Which is why I think many fans sense a problem with this inverted winger tactic, as we have no overlapping left-back to provide the crossing threat – this makes the right footer (ash, alby) on the left look less effective compared to when he plays on the right. I think we suffer from this even more when Gabby plays on the left; (although possibly he plays there for a totally different reason – his pace invariably means the opposition defence has to sit deeper giving our central defenders more room).
Luke Young is nearly fit, and can play leftback, but I dont think he would solve the problem as his left footed crosses arent going to unduly worry an opposition defence. So whilst this tactic is a decent punt for the rest of this season (at least on the right), I think Houllier is going to have to get possibly two attacking fullbacks in the summer to make it work properly.
Thats a great point. Downing is much more effective on the right when he has Walker available to be the overlapping fullback. During the first half of the season, it was not nearly as effective. Have seen a few nice crosses from Baker, if only we could get him to stay on the pitch for a while.
Agree with the posting on importance of the defensive backs here. Walker and Downing had many excellent interchanged with Walker ending further up field than Downing. Agree that for sake of balance Villa can’t ignore the lack of this option on the left.
That said, thanks for the thoughtful analysis. Would be interesting to see the same work up on a broader basis depicting how the team was operating in general. Would give more insights into GH’s thought process
i used to do more general analysis after each match, but some of the resources i used changed and it became a bit of a chore pulling it together in the same way. (especially since we were wrapped in doom and gloom at the time)
i’m thinking about ways to do it going forward, but there’s something of a growing chalkboard bandwagon i’ve no desire to be part of and football really boils down to ‘moments’ in any case IMO.
Young’s new role in the side in partnership with a savvy striker, has given options and freedom out wide. I don’t really think it matters who is where.
i agree that’s probably a significant factor.
one of the reasons why i wanted to look at goals in this way was to draw attention to the bigger picture of how goals were created. darren bent’s movement off the ball, for instance, is easily overlooked, but vitally important.
Is it wrong to be laughing at Arsenal, despite not wanting Blues to win a trophy?
yes, it is wrong. I am gutted that Shity won. Gutted. As a proud supporter of AVFC this is not good. Esp since Shity are now in Europe…
I’m sorry, I just find Wenger and his beautiful failures such an entertaining prospect, that I never want it to end.
I realise this bitter mirth shouldn’t stand in the way of my 2nd city rivallry.
I’m writing this, whilst standing in the corner.
it’s kinda complex for me, there’s probably a fairly wordy blog post in it if i felt inclined. but it would probably end up another post i ultimately elect not to hit the publish button on, there’s nothing to be gained.
the short version is that city are irrelevant to me and so is that cup the moment we’re no longer in it. even when we’re in it it’s not exactly top of my pops.
the biggest issue, for me, is that they’ve taken a european spot away from the league. top six or fa cup left for us.
as far as the rivalry goes, the “banter”, well i think the general said it best when he talked about wrestling a pig in the mud.
Oops. One ‘l’ only in rivalry.
I am now wearing the pointy hat, whilst in the corner.
Too American to properly hate City, and I don’t have to listen to the “banter” or face a wave of blue shirts celebrating, but I was glad to see it; I agree with Nan; its more about Arsenal losing. Its good for the game and good for the league to have an economically marginal club knock off one of the giants on a major stage (I am still celebrating Wolves victory over United). I understand that expectations do vary. But it is interesting that it is a great “curse” that Arsenal has not won a trophy since 2004, yet seems barely worth mentioning by anyone that the drought for Birmingham City extends to 1963.
Whilst driving into work at 5am this morning, I couldn’t help noticing a City banner fluttering from a bridge near the entrance to our car park.
On entering work I rummaged around for the largest felt tip pen I could find, I returned to the flag and promptly wrote in large letters across it, “YOUR SHIT ARGHH!!!”
This action made my day and I had a smile from ear to ear, I know it’s childish, but I don’t care.
After all……We all hate blue scum! lol
Yep. It’s all about degrees of separation.
(On the North Wales coast, most of my childish, bitter assaults are reserved for Mancs and Scousers)