Switching it up: How Brighton and Villa’s early tactical trends promise exciting top six race
New managers have sparked life into mid-table sides, but the next challenge will be dominating teams in and around them.
There is no fate more cursed for a WSL side than being picked ahead of the season as the ‘surprise’ team who might break into the top four.
In seasons gone by both Aston Villa and Brighton have been tipped to magically break into the top four or even top three, only for another disappointing year to come around leaving them as mid-table mediocrity.
The reality is that a sustained challenger to the top three has only ever been achieved by Manchester United, and even then that is arguable given their fifth-placed finish last season.
Brighton and Aston Villa will meet for the first time this season on Saturday, having both made the kind of starts that would have justified picks as a ‘surprise’ side. Villa lost 1-0 away at Chelsea on opening weekend but impressed, before drawing 2-2 with Tottenham, another team who will be aiming to push on from last season’s 6th-placed finish. Meanwhile, Brighton blew Everton away, winning 4-0, before losing 1-0 to Manchester City.
Both teams have new managers this season, meaning on the one hand they are adjusting to new game models but on the other, they have been more unpredictable to the teams they have faced. Brighton’s coach Dario Vidosic has been fairly bullish about their expectations this season, saying before it began that “the mentality is to go out to win every game.”
“Until it’s mathematically impossible, the aim is to try and win everything. The club has their ambitions. Mine is always: we prepare to win and then we’ll see at the end of the season where we are.”
That has contrasted with Villa manager de Pauw’s more taciturn approach.
“The club said they want to be back in the top six. I’m focusing on implementing my playing style, getting the right people in. In the end, the club wants to be in the Champions League. At the moment, let’s try and be in the top six, then build further on.”
De Pauw expanded on these comments ahead of the Tottenham game.
“My grandma was an Alzheimer’s patient and one thing I learned from her is to act normal no matter the circumstances. If we speak in April or May and we are in a position to attack the top three, I would maybe answer differently. But now, we will stay humble and keep our feet on the ground.”
To an extent the distinction between the two manager’s approaches showed in their games against Chelsea and Manchester City.
Against Chelsea, de Pauw played four midfielders in an attempt to swarm the WSL champions and stop them having any sustained possession. The tactic worked and Chelsea finished the match with their lowest possession percentage against a non-top four side since 2017.
However, it did limit Villa’s attacking thrust, and they only had three attacks that generated shots in the first half. Later in the game, de Pauw brought on natural wingers and they became a lot more dangerous. For the match against Tottenham, de Pauw unsurprisingly switched out one of those midfielders for a winger from the start.
Vidosic meanwhile named an unchanged XI for the game against Manchester City, suggesting an unwillingness to adapt his style regardless of the opponent. In the first half, Brighton looked confident and found themselves able to create a couple of decent chances against City. But the scoreline flattered them. City’s expected goals added up to 3 in the end. Based on a simulation of the chances created, City were as likely to score five as they were to score only once.
It is games like the ones against each other that will have the most impact on both side’s seasons but the differing approaches to the big games reveals a lot about the managerial approach that is going to be taken this season. In another version of Sunday, Vidosic’s decision could well have been interpreted as naivety but given the outcome, it will surely have given his team confidence in the process.
On the flip side, maybe de Pauw’s Villa side would have had more attacking edge early on against Tottenham if they had played the Chelsea game in a manner that was closer to their style of play for games against teams in and around them.
These are both hypotheticals, and there is nothing inherently valid about one approach over the other. Still, it demonstrates an interesting distinction between the two teams who have looked like some of the most promising of the mid-table challengers, even only two games in. Both will surely revert to their preferred style of play come Saturday and a win for either side would be a big boost in the race to be the best of the rest.
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Great to see proper tactical analysis of mid-table teams too! 😃