The Mail on Sunday

PRESSING PROBLEMS

Winning the ball back fast is in decline. Aston Villa are one club bucking that trend

- By Adam Shafiq

JURGEN KLOPP has made no secret of his disdain for the fixture congestion that his — and other teams competing in Europe — have had to deal with this season.

The Liverpool manager has watched on as soft-tissue injuries have kept star players such as Trent Alexander-Arnold off the pitch as his defensive line becomes ever more threadbare.

Not only is fatigue and the compacted calendar, all on the back of no real pre-season, ramping up the number of players on clubs’ treatment tables, but they have also changed the way many teams play. And only a few, like Aston Villa, are using it to their advantage. In short: there is much less pressing. The number of high turnovers is down by four per cent across the Premier League. The number of pressed sequences, where you allow the opposition no more than three passes before winning it back in their own third, is also down by three per cent.

Passes Per Defensive Action (PPDA) measures the number of passes a team allow their opponents before trying to win it back. Teams across the division are allowing their opponents an extra pass.

The number of times a player puts pressure on an opponent who is receiving, carrying or releasing the ball has dropped by 17 per cent. No team have increased that number from last season.

Reduced pressing appears to have boosted pass success league-wide from 79 per cent to 81 per cent; a difference that may appear small but is significan­t given the number of passes that are attempted over the course of a Premier League season is so large.

Aston Villa have, somehow, bucked the trend. They are among the few teams whose pressing numbers are up from last season.

Dean Smith’s side, relegation battlers for most of last season, have punched well this season, most notably with their stunning 7-2 win over champions Liverpool.

While Villa don’t rank first for most pressing metrics, they are consistent­ly in the top 10 for most metrics, but it is their year-on-year metrics that are incredibly impressive.

Smith’s side are consistent­ly first for the biggest improvemen­t in key pressing areas.

The number of pressed sequences they have attempted has increased by 27 per cent, while the next best improvemen­t in the league is eight per cent.

Only two teams have registered a lower PPDA this season versus last season, Aston Villa (seven per cent lower) and Newcastle (one per cent lower); meaning their opponents take significan­tly fewer passes before Villa attempt to win the ball back.

Villa are among the teams whose pressing has decreased by the smallest amount and the percentage of their pressing that results in winning the ball back is up by 10 per cent.

Key to their success has been the areas of the pitch they have been pressing in, with five per cent more of pressures coming in the attacking third and pressures in their own defensive third down six per cent, league highs.

This change in style has been key to their improvemen­ts in both performanc­e and results. They have scored more goals per game than any other side this season, a product of showing the biggest improvemen­t in shots taken per game.

Villa went into the Premier League lockdown two points adrift of safety in 19th place. It is clear that Smith is among the few managers who have used the pandemic to change both his team’s style and fortunes.

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 ??  ?? TAKE A BOW: Jack Grealish exemplifie­s Aston Villa’s high-energy pressing in the opponents’ half
TAKE A BOW: Jack Grealish exemplifie­s Aston Villa’s high-energy pressing in the opponents’ half

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