Premier League tour - Villa, Aston Villa, the framework is stable and the signing is weak, can Villa still play the Champions League disruptor

Review of last season

Villa lost in the last round of last season with a goal difference disadvantage and missed the Champions League in the new season. The team has maintained the competitiveness of Champions League qualification in recent seasons, but there is indeed a big gap compared with the league's giant teams. The team's home victory over Manchester City and Chelsea is one of the few good goals, and they also have wins and losses against direct competitors Newcastle and Forest. Unstable performance in tough battles is destined to be unable to make a breakthrough in ranking. Emery's low-post defense and counter-tactic tactics were not significantly strengthened on the defensive end last season. Villa, who is good at defense, conceded the second most goals among the nine teams qualified for European competition last season, only fewer than Tottenham. If the team wants to make a breakthrough in performance in the new season, defense is still the direction of key transformation.

Summer transfer:

As of now, Villa has only made two unimportant signings as the summer window is opened.

1. The young defender Ozjan finalized the contract in February and joined this summer. However, with his ability and previous performance in the Turkish Super League, this can be seen as Villa's goal toward the future lottery-style signing, which will not bring significant improvements to the current team's abilities.

2, 34-year-old goalkeeper Bizo, as the reserve for two goals in the new season, may also be regarded as an emergency choice for Manedes to suddenly leave the team.

has been opening the window for a month. As a team that has the ability to compete for the Champions League qualification in recent seasons, it is still unmoved and has no big signings. Villa's ambition is questioned by the outside world. The current potential signing transactions include RB Leipzig Opunda and Manchester United Ghanacho. Judging from the potential signing targets, Villa still wants to further enhance the firepower on the offensive end. Although the defense line has a stable framework, there are currently no rumors about the defensive players being added. The team seems to be satisfied with the current defensive lineup, but judging from the defensive performance last season, the shortcomings are still very obvious.

Line and Tactics:

From the current situation of no signings, Emery continued to adhere to the 4-2-3-1 low-level anti-counter + fast conversion style, strengthened the core role of Watkins' fulcrum, used the ability to interpolate and run without the ball to create opportunities, and strengthened the linkage between the side and the middle. Last season, most of the team's goals came from Rogers and Watkins' connection. McGinn/Belley, Rogers/Maren cut in the wings, Cash + Digne made a cross from the side, and Tillermans freely stepped forward to form a three-layer offensive net.

Overall, Villa's lineup shortcomings last season were relatively clear, with relatively concentrated scoring points. McKinn and Ramsey were not efficient in participating in offenses. Rashford and Asensio briefly brought improvements to the team's offense in the second half of the league. With no signings yet, the team's offense still depends on the performance of Watkins and Rodgers.

Kamala + Onana's double midfielder performed well last season, and the two of them are still the first and most stable iron gate on the team's defensive end in the new season. The defense line, Cash and Digne are uneven offensive and defensive. The opponents counterattacked many times and threatened to aim at these two points. For most of the time when Mins was absent, Consa + Bortres' defensive performance was relatively stable, but they could not be restricted when playing against strong teams. Mattson has the opportunity to get a full-back main position in the new season, and was also affected by injuries last season and was not ideal at attendance and performance.

New season goals and challenges:

Summer window opens for one month. Villa is one of the few teams in 20 teams that are almost unmoved and have no important signings. They continue to maintain the lineup framework of last season. The new season may lack ambitions. The goal of the new season is still to maintain the competitiveness of the Champions League seat and strive to rank in the top five in the league. The challenge facing

is still that a relatively thin lineup may not be able to cope with another season of multi-line combat. With each team being targeted for reinforcement, Villa is slightly lacking in competitiveness. He is not ideal in playing against traditional strong teams last season. He mainly plays defensive tactics but has too many goals conceded in defensive performance. He does not have signings with reinforcement. Defensive and tough battle abilities are indeed deficiencies in Villa. This is hoped to be supplemented and adjusted in the next month.

Villa's schedule in the new season can be said to be a world of ice and fire. The match with the BIG6 team is concentrated in the mid- and late stages. The first match is at home to face his direct competitor Newcastle in recent seasons. Until the eighth round of away match against Tottenham, they were all mid- and lower-level teams. This is the team's snatching installments at the beginning of the season. Then he fought against Tottenham, Manchester City and Liverpool; he entered the December Christmas schedule, two matches against Arsenal, and faced Manchester United and Chelsea. In the second half, he encountered Forest and Newcastle first. In March, he fought against Chelsea and Manchester United, and until the last four rounds of the league, he encountered Tottenham, Liverpool and Manchester City.

From the schedule, Villa can seize many opportunities to grab points throughout the season to grab a good position in the standings, but they are very intensive to fight with strong teams, which will continue to test the team's performance and lineup depth that was not ideal last season. Once there are no sufficient signings to strengthen, the point advantages established by other teams are likely to be sent out from the strong teams in Lian Zhan. Villa's new season will only be more difficult than in previous seasons.

What kind of results do you think Aston Villa can achieve in the new season?