Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has explained the tactical refresh that led to Donyell Malen’s brilliant brace against Burnley.
Villa beat Burnley 2-1 to make it four wins in a row in all competitions and taken them into the October international break on the back of two consecutive Premier League wins.
Emery brought Malen into the side from the start for the second time in the league this season and made a tweak to his tactics that proved decisive. Evann Guessand dropped out of the starting eleven and Malen played more centrally with John McGinn shifted up-field by the introduction of Lamare Bogarde in the double pivot.
Emery expected less defensive width to be required against the Clarets and opted for Malen over the Ivorian, whose best work in a Villa shirt has been done out of possession. The manager detailed the changes in comments reported by the Birmingham Mail.
“We are doing something like that with Guessand, but Guessand is getting more on the right side. We want them to attack the goal,” said the Villa boss.
“With Malen, he played more centrally and not defending on the right.
“We wanted to get the structure, and John McGinn helped to play lower. Really, Malen played fantastically, and he felt comfortable. He felt like he was in the position to help exploit his qualities.
“We are thinking in our structure and then adapting to them. We were trying to get one player to attack aggressively from behind. If we can get Malen close to the box, he has qualities and is a fast player to shoot, and he is clinical. Today he showed it.”
Malen has scored important goals as a second striker before, including in a 2-1 win against Nottingham Forest in April and in the Netherlands’ 3-0 win over Romania in the round of 16 at last summer’s European Championship, where Malen scored twice.
Villa haven’t always been able to harness the best of Malen’s abilities and it poses an intriguing problem to Emery that he seems to be uniquely suited to a role that doesn’t exist in Villa’s typical formation. But the Dutchman’s value was evident against Burnley and Emery praised his contribution.
“Our demands are high demands. He always works well and has a commitment to try his best. Sometimes he performs better or worse,” said the Villa manager.
“He did fantastic. The most important thing is, like with Watkins not scoring, he still did his work.”
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