I’m deliberately late with this post as I didn’t want to make it too easy to spot this game in the formation challenge.  In case you were wondering, it was (D).

You may notice that the formation shown in the average position map for this game probably more closely resembles a 4-4-1-1 with John Carew apparently in the deep striker role. As a recent commenter correctly pointed out, there will be factors that influence the average position, sometimes distorting the truth, so it’s worth considering what might have caused this map to look the way it did.

Firstly, if Carew’s to be the big target man that he’s portrayed as, you might expect him to occupy the most advanced position, but actually both Gabby and Ash are further up the pitch on average. Can that be correct? For the most part, yes it is, although the gap probably isn’t as large as it appears. Carew has defensive duties that Gabby does not and that will effect his average position. The more Villa are under pressure of set pieces, the deeper Carew will appear overall.

Ash and Milner always appear much narrower on average than in reality because they swap wings for periods during most games. However, they generally only swap for a period of 5 or 10 minutes once or twice a game, they still spend around 75% of their time in their respective positions.

MON made an interesting change on 57 minutes during this game though. Emile Heskey came on for Fabian Delph, but initially played on the left wing as he has done previously in his career. Ash swapped to the right and Milner pushed into the middle. This will have effected the wingers’ average positions, Ash more than Milner.

On the subject of that change, just speculating here, MON may well have been thinking about creating a lop-sided attack down the right for the last half hour or so by using Ash and Milner in combination. That might allow Heskey to ghost in on the left and pick up any spare ball while Blackburn are dealing with Carew and Gabby. I know, it’s weak, it’s all I have though. (I’m actually laughing right now at the image of Heskey trying to “ghost” in anywhere!!)

These maps have their flaws, but they can be quite insightful. The shape and position of the back four alone can almost describe the nature of a game. Sometimes the midfielders form a pleasing shape that accurately resembles the system employed, but more often it looks a bit chaotic.

In this case, I think the relative positioning of the full backs is quite revealing, which is especially ironic in a 4-4-2!!

2	Blackburn	Sept 26th 2009	Aston Villa	1
	48	Possession %	52
	22	Shots	8
	4	On Target	4
	6	Corners	5
	4	Offsides	2
24′ Samba, 88′ Dunn (Pen)		Scorers	3′ Agbonlahor
Grella, Dunn		Booked	Delph, Petrov
Grella		Sent Off
	162	Good Passes	201
	56	Bad Passes	66
	14	Interceptions	6
	32	Tackles Won	36
	33	Tackles Lost	28
	0	Blocks	6
	15	Free Kicks	18
Starting XI: 1. Friedel 24. Cuellar 25. Warnock 29. Collins 5. Dunne 19. Petrov 16. Delph 7. Young 8. Milner 10. Carew 11. Agbonlahor Subs: 22. Guzan 18. Heskey 20. Reo-Coker 21. Shorey 26. Gardner 23. Beye 14. Delfouneso
Average Position Map