Aston Villa's defensive problems exposed again in victory over Wolves

Aston Villa produced an epic second-half comeback at Villa Park on Saturday as they defeated local rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-1. Late goals by Ollie Watkins, Ezri Konsa and Jhon Duran gave the team their fourth win from the opening five Premier League games and they now sit joint-top in the league table. Despite the excellent result, the first half proved to be a tactical struggle for Villa and Wolves deservedly held a half-time lead.

Villa's first-half struggles

Before the game, Unai Emery had a couple of difficult decisions to make. The first was whether to play a front two of Ollie Watkins and Jhon Duran following the Colombian's blistering form at the start of the new campaign. The second was who to select at right-back. Should he select a natural right-back in Kosta Nedeljkovic, Lamara Bogarde who started the last two games in that position, or Ezri Konsa? In the end, he decided to play Ezri Konsa at right-back, with Diego Carlos starting alongside Pau Torres at centre-half in Villa's usual 4-2-3-1 system, meaning Jhon Duran was named on the bench once more.

Villa started the game very slowly and was struggling to build any rhythm in the opening quarter of the match. Wolves were keeping hold of the ball well and Villa seemed to lack aggression in their press and were far too passive out of possession. The away side took the lead in the 25th minute through their star man Matheus Cunha. Cunha smashed the ball in off the post from outside the area, following a calamitous error from Diego Carlos at centre-back. Carlos received the ball from Emi Martinez as Villa were building play from the back as they often do, and he attempted a first-time pass into midfield. Unfortunately, the pass was sloppy, weak and inaccurate and fell straight to the feet of Cunha who made the Brazilian pay for his mistake.

Having taken the lead, Wolves were the team that looked like scoring the next goal before half time. The claret and blue outfit continued to misplace passes and didn't register a shot on target in the first half. With Ezri Konsa playing at right-back and John McGinn playing on the right of midfield, Villa had very little attacking impetus down that flank. It was all too easy and predictable for Wolves in defence and Villa struggled to create anything at all in the final third.

""It was the worst first half I’ve played with Aston Villa here. I didn’t watch one match like the first half we played; it was very, very poor. We lost possession, we weren’t pressing, we weren’t organised; were very passive.” "

- Unai Emery

The half time statistics provided clear evidence of Villa's early struggles. Wolves finished the half having had 55% of the possession and five times as many shots on goal as the Champions League side.

The main issue in defence

Aston Villa did very well to improve the quality of the left-back department. Ian Maatsen was signed from Chelsea for £37.5 million to provide competition for, and inevitably replace with more time, Lucas Digne. However, after failing to bring in rumoured transfer targets such as Lutharel Geertruida from Feyenoord or Trevoh Chalobah from Chelsea, Villa were unable to strengthen at right-back. This meant Villa would go into the new season with Matty Cash as the only experienced player in that position, with 18-year-old Serbian international Kosta Nedeljkovic providing the cover.

If you had asked Villa fans if they felt right-back was a potential problem heading into the new season, most would have said yes. That problem intensified when Cash had to leave the pitch with a thigh injury just ten minutes into Villa's opening home game against Arsenal in August. Cash has not been part of the matchday squad since and Villa have conceded more goals than any other team in the top half of the Premier League table after five games (7). In Cash's absence, Unai Emery has experimented by trying Nedeljkovic, as well as bringing in academy graduate Lamare Bogarde who has historically been a centre-back through and through. Bogarde has struggled since his introduction at right-back, being beaten easily in the build-up to Leicester's goal at the King Power and being run ragged in the first half in Switzerland against BSC Young Boys in Villa's UEFA Champions League opener.

Diego Carlos was one player that Unai Emery had openly admitted he was happy to listen to offers for during the summer transfer window. The 31-year-old has struggled since being signed by former boss Steven Gerrard in 2022, and after being signed for £25 million the fans had high hopes for the Brazilian defender. However, after suffering a ruptured Achilles tendon injury at the start of his first season, he has struggled to perform consistently at the level he had shown at Sevilla. Despite two man-of-the-match performances against Arsenal last season, Carlos is certainly not at the required level for a team competing near the top of both the Premier League and Champions League.

With Carlos starting at centre-back in yesterday's game, Ezri Konsa started at right-back. When Villa are out of possession, Konsa has no real issues in the right-back area despite it not being his strongest position. His 1-v-1 duel success rate is one of the best in Europe and not many manage to dribble past him. However, in possession, Konsa is not an attack-minded full-back. If Villa choose to play someone like McGinn on the right, who is not a natural winger, then Villa have no attacking instinct down that side which means the team relies heavily on the likes of Morgan Rogers and Jacob Ramsey to create opportunities through the middle and down the left. This was far too predictable during the first half and Wolves had set up perfectly to mastermind this.

Villa's winning mentality under Emery

Despite a difficult first half and obvious weaknesses in the defence, Villa played superbly and fought back in the second half to secure a fantastic victory.

Villa were much more aggressive in the press, forcing Wolves to turn the ball over regularly. The Villans also played with a much better tempo and speed of passing in possession, and Leon Bailey's introduction on the right-hand side created a different attacking dynamic that Wolves struggled to cope with. After applying a mountain of pressure on the Wolves goal, Watkins drew Villa level with just under 20 minutes of regular time still to play. Once that equalising goal came, there was only going to be one winner. Ezri Konsa's diving far-post finish from Youri Tieleman's cross with just a minute left of normal time put Villa ahead and then super-sub Jhon Duran scored his fourth goal off the bench this season to wrap up the points in injury time. The full-time stats proved Villa's second-half dominance, with the home team finishing with 70% of the possession in that second 45 minutes.

Villa have won back-to-back home games and come from behind in both of them. This Villa side has an elite winning mentality and a 'never say die' attitude which means there is no panic in the team when they go behind. The ability to gain points from losing positions is also largely due to Aston Villa's strength in depth. Ross Barkley, who has misplaced just one of his 77 passes so far this season, Ian Maatsen, Leon Bailey and Jhon Duran were Villa's men to come off the bench to change the game. The level of quality on the bench has significantly increased since last season and with Emi Buendia, Boubacar Kamara and Tyrone Mings returning to full fitness soon that depth will continue to improve.

UTV