Tactical Breakdown: Newcastle 5-1 Aston Villa
It’s fair to say that even the most overly optimistic Newcastle fans weren’t expecting a scoreline like that on Saturday.
Aston Villa hauled their way up the league after Unai Emery’s appointment as manager in November, climbing from 13th to 7th and guiding the Villans to a European spot. After last season’s success, Emery’s side have added some very talented and reputable signings so far this summer - in Youri Tielemans, Pau Torres and Moussa Diaby.
However Villa’s seemingly strong squad was no match for Eddie Howe’s energetic and well-drilled Newcastle.
Newcastle lined up in what looked like a standard 4-3-3, typical of last season, however we saw throughout the 90 minutes a few different shapes the Toon formed in and out of possession.
Newcastle’s starting lineup for the first competitive match of the 2023/24 Premier League season.
Out Of Possession
Howe’s side set up in a 4-3-3 using a high, aggressive press to diminish Aston Villa in their build-up play from the back.
The two 8s - normally Joelinton and Sandro Tonali - pushed high up into advanced positions, roughly in line with the wide men, to reduce the space around Villa’s midfield and in turn not making players like Douglas Luiz and Boubacar Kamara feasible passing options.
When they did try and play out from the back, the front three of Miguel Almiron, Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon led the high press, using the centre backs as a pressing trigger, showing them onto their weak foot and forcing Villa to go long, resulting in possession being quickly regained.
Eddie Howe set up his side with a very high press from the first minute - typical of this Newcastle side since his appointment.
In Possession
Newcastle’s general shape in possession rotated fairly often over the 90 minutes, however the one consistency throughout was that the defence moulded into a back three. With Dan Burn tucking inside and Kieran Trippier taking up a more advanced area as he moved high and wide, allowing him to make use of his attacking and technical ability by having him positioned further forward.
When this occurred, Gordon would drop into a deeper area opposite Trippier to create width and stretch Villa out of shape, causing gaps to appear through the centre of their side.
Tonali would drop in alongside Bruno Guimaraes in a double pivot sitting in front of the back three, with Howe’s men using a 3-2 build up in possession.
Almiron tucked inside, occupying the half space with Joelinton taking up the same position on the opposite side. This gave Isak more support through the centre of the pitch whilst allowing Trippier and Gordon more space to operate out wide.
Newcastle’s shape in the build-up of their third goal, as Isak made Eric Konsa pay for a costly mistake.
We also saw Trippier and Gordon push further forward alongside the frontline, creating a 3-2-5 shape, similar to what we saw in Pep Guardiola’s title winning Manchester City side last season.
This move created a numerical advantage in the Toon’s attack, meaning that to cope with this, a Villa player must drop in level with the back four (see Tielemans below). This, in turn, left them light in midfield and meant Fabian Schar had time and space to pull off this cross field pass to Joelinton.
Villa’s narrow defence meant that Gordon was also in acres of space, should Schar have chosen to play one of his trademark diagonal long balls over to his flank.
Eddie Howe’s side adopting a 3-2-5 formation in their build up - the shape that helped Manchester City become champions last season.
Despite many people believing last season was a one off, Newcastle continue to prove themselves as a top side after the blitzing of a strong Aston Villa team in a campaign which may make many critics eat their words.
Sources:
https://tactical-board.com/uk/big-football-vertical
https://www.nufc.co.uk/nufc-tv/highlights/aston-villa-h-highlights-23-24/