How Unai Emery has transformed Aston Villa into European contenders
There is an image on Unai Emery’s
Instagram of the Aston Villa manager immersed in his work after victory at Stamford Bridge this month that speaks to his dedication to his job. Emery is staring into his laptop, right hand clasped to a wireless mouse. It is a snapshot that chimes with the workaholic and obsessive coach known to regularly rack up 16-hour days. Emery often cuts his own clips of games to review with players individually and sometimes watches back
Villa’s matches up to five times to prepare feedback for his staff and squad.
It is easy to forget Villa were outside the Premier League relegation zone only on goals scored when Emery’s predecessor, Steven Gerrard, was sacked at the end of October. Villa have won 12 of 18 league matches under Emery and would be third if the season had started the day the Spaniard outfoxed Erik ten Hag in his first game. There was much promise against Manchester United but nobody predicted the remarkable turnaround that has put Villa firmly in the hunt for the top six and led Emery to dilute discourse about qualifying for the Champions League. A top-10 finish for the first time since 2010-11, the last season they played in Europe, looks likely.
Emery’s rapid progress at Villa is a triumph of coaching. He is maximising the ability of the squad at his disposal. Except for Álex Moreno, a £12m January signing from Real Betis, he is in effect working with the same tools as Gerrard. John McGinn and Tyrone Mings, both of whom helped Villa to promotion four years ago, are key pillars. Emi Buendía, who struggled for game time under Gerrard, has also been liberated. Emery pinpointed Moreno as an ideal ball carrier at left-back who could help Villa transition at speed. Moreno, who starred against Newcastle, is encouraged to push forward whereas Emery wants the 37-year-old Ashley Young, one of Villa’s most consistent performers, to operate as a more orthodox full-back.
The common denominator in conversations with those who work with Emery is detail. Long meetings and analysis sessions have become part of the diet at Villa’s Bodymoor Heath base. He has tweaked their routine for home matches. The squad now stays at a hotel the night before a game and holds its extended pre-match meeting there, something Emery feels has helped bond his group. Another glimpse into Emery’s world arrived when he began answering a question by talking about the art of switching off and ended up rattling off Napoli, Brighton and FC Andorra, who play in Spain’s Segunda División, as teams whose styles have caught his eye. At 7pm the evening before Villa hosted fourth-tier Stevenage in the FA Cup in January, he was still busy preparing in his office. That proved a rare occasion when things did not go to plan but Emery’s appetite for further success has reshaped what is deemed plausible this season.
How do you take a World Cup winner and make them better? Although Ollie Watkins is the obvious example of a player rewired by Emery – no player has been involved in more Premier League goals (11 goals and three assists) since the World Cup – Emi Martínez embodies some of the more subtle strides made. Javi García, the goalkeeper coach who has been a close confidant of Emery since their days at Sevilla, has reunited with Martínez, with whom he worked at Arsenal, to tailor his approach to fit Emery’s style of building attacks from defence. Martínez has focused on improving his distribution, sweeping and positioning when, for example, an opposition winger is shaping to cross.
Emery and Austin MacPhee, Villa’s set-piece coach, have been known to spend four or five hours honing plans with players in a video session. Antonio “Rodri” Saravia, an individual performance coach and former striker, is an active presence on the training pitch and off the field has spent time with Watkins poring over clips of Edinson Cavani, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Carlos Bacca, who excelled under Emery at Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal and Sevilla respectively. Emery has told Watkins, who last year outlined his desire to develop into a “killer” striker, to focus on staying within the width of the opposition 18-yard box and to conserve energy rather than straying into the channels with little reward.
Villa were brave but calculated in January. As relegation rivals panicked, Villa remained calm. They sold Danny Ings to West Ham and allowed the England Under-21s forward Cameron Archer to join Middlesbrough on loan, despite those moves leaving Watkins as the only recognised striker alongside the teenager Jhon Durán, Villa’s other January signing. Bertrand Traoré returned from a loan at Basaksehir. Last summer Villa cashed in on Matt Targett, who joined Newcastle, and Carney Chukwuemeka, who was sold to Chelsea after he refused to sign a new contract. Villa’s net spend across the past two seasons, aided by the sale of Jack Grealish, is £41m, peanuts by Premier League standards.
On Monday Villa’s players were treated to a welcome day off. The team are unbeaten in eight matches and have won five in a row before visiting Brentford on Saturday. Emery drives standards and he and his coaching staff often report for duty on scheduled days off. It has not gone unnoticed among supporters that Villa’s final two games of the season are against Liverpool and Brighton, teams considered immediate rivals in their quest for European football.
No wonder Christian Purslow, the Villa chief executive, heralded Emery’s appointment at the manager’s media unveiling as the club’s most significant step since promotion in 2019. The hierarchy were confident they were recruiting a world-class coach but visions of mixing it with the elite felt a long way off. Emery has, in doublequick time, made Villa’s plans of again disrupting the established order a distinct possibility. “We are now always dreaming as it is important to think how you can improve,” Emery says. “You have to face your dreams.”