Club Brugge 2-3 Aston Villa: Space Changes Everything

Villa arrived in Bruges without a league goal and scored three times before half-time. It was not quite the attacking transformation the scoreline suggests. After weeks spent trying to prise open crowded defences, Emery finally found an opponent willing to leave some pitch behind them.

By Nico Valenti

For three games Villa have been trying to work out what to do with the ball. At Brighton the structure collapsed around it, at Arsenal there was too little attacking support once they won it, and at Hull they had almost all of it without quite knowing how to turn that control into sustained danger. Brugge offered something different. They wanted possession themselves, pushed their full-backs forward and tried to play through Villa. Suddenly there was grass behind midfield, space either side of the centre-backs and defenders who occasionally had to run towards their own goal.

Villa looked a different attacking side in it.

The contrast with Saturday was enormous. Villa had 74 per cent possession and one shot on target at Hull; in Bruges they had only 36 per cent of the ball but nine shots on target. Their 21 attempts carried around 3.0 xG, and three goals before the interval gave Emery a lead that eventually survived a much less comfortable second half.

There was more to it than finishing. Villa were reaching the penalty area in better circumstances. At Hull, the receiver often found five defenders already set between himself and goal. Here, Brugge were frequently still recovering when the decisive pass arrived.

Pau Torres understood the opportunity immediately. For McGinn’s opener he stepped forward from centre-back and kept going because nobody really wanted to leave their man to engage him. By the time Brugge reacted, Villa were already around the edge of the box. McGinn’s first-time finish was excellent, but Pau’s carry had done much of the damage before the shot arrived.

That became a feature of his evening. Brugge’s first line was more interested in Villa’s midfield than Hull had been, which gave Pau room to bring the ball towards it. Once he did, somebody had to make a decision. Step out and Villa had a player free behind; stay in position and Pau could keep advancing. His passing eventually helped release Jackson for the third as well.

It was exactly the sort of match in which Pau’s value can become much greater than his individual defensive work. Villa did not need him to complete another hundred passes. They needed him to recognise when the pass was less useful than carrying the ball himself.

Brugge equalised through Hugo Vetlesen and Villa’s right side looked vulnerable in the move, with Jan Virgili finding the space to deliver and Vetlesen arriving beyond the initial defensive action. Wan-Bissaka’s selection had made sense against a quick winger, although his evening became awkward: Brugge’s first goal developed on his side and his handball later gave them the penalty that made it 3-2.

Between those moments, though, Villa produced their best attacking spell of the season.

Gomes gave the midfield some acceleration

João Gomes returning alongside Boubacar Kamara changed the feel of the midfield. Ross Barkley had been perfectly useful at Hull, where Villa needed someone to receive and move possession around a deep block. Brugge demanded something quicker. There were loose balls to attack and moments when the next action needed to be forward before the home side could recover.

The second goal came from exactly that kind of football. Jackson moved away from the centre and connected with Gomes, whose next thought was to carry the ball towards the penalty area. Brugge’s defenders had to move with him, Buendía appeared in the space that opened and Villa were ahead again.

The move was short. That was part of its quality.

Villa completed more than 600 passes at Hull. They completed fewer than half as many here and created considerably more. It does not make possession irrelevant to Emery’s football, but this squad increasingly looks capable of playing without needing to dominate it. Gomes is important to that because he can turn a regain into an attack himself. Kamara gives him the security to do it.

Jackson benefits enormously from the same freedom. His work for Buendía’s goal was as encouraging as his own finish because he was able to leave the centre-forward position without Villa’s attack disappearing with him. He could receive, combine and trust somebody else to continue the move.

His goal then came from the other side of his game. Pau found the pass, Brugge’s defensive line had been left high and Jackson attacked the space behind it, rounded the goalkeeper and finished. After spending Saturday wrestling with three Hull centre-backs inside a crowded penalty area, this was much closer to the environment his movement is designed to exploit.

The difference around him helped. McGinn and Buendía were no longer constantly receiving with a settled midfield immediately in front of them. Hemmings continued to move between the left side and the inside channel, giving Maatsen room to advance outside him. Brugge had more players ahead of the ball and Villa’s attackers had fewer bodies to negotiate once possession changed.

Hemmings starting again was quietly significant. Garnacho and Mbaye were both available, yet Emery kept faith with the academy player after his performance at Hull. He did not dominate the game, but he did not have to. His movement already fits comfortably around Maatsen and Jackson, and he came close to creating another goal after the break with a ball across the six-yard area.

The competition around him is becoming more interesting than a straightforward question of when the expensive players replace the academy one. Garnacho can give Villa a much more aggressive one-against-one threat from the left; Mbaye can stretch the opposite side in a way few players in this squad naturally do. Hemmings gives Emery a player who can move between those spaces and seems unusually comfortable doing the less conspicuous work around them.

There may be room for all three profiles.

The game became less comfortable when Villa stopped getting out

The first half should not disguise what followed it. Brugge had 64 per cent of the ball across the game and spent much of the second half pushing Villa backwards. The distances that had made the counter-attacking so effective began to stretch in the wrong direction. Jackson became isolated, Villa recovered possession deeper and the first pass increasingly came back rather than forward.

Brugge eventually had 33 touches in Villa’s penalty area. The penalty brought them back to 3-2 and they hit the post afterwards. Villa defended the lead, but never really fully controlled it. There was an uncomfortable period in which the midfield sat close to the centre-backs without Villa becoming especially difficult to play through out wide. Brugge could move the ball across the front of the block and get their wide players into positions from which the penalty area had to be defended repeatedly. Wan-Bissaka’s one-against-one ability helped at times, although his involvement in both goals made it a mixed first full start.

The attacking numbers capture the good part rather neatly. Villa’s 3.0 xG produced 2.93 xG on target. At Hull, 1.74 xG had become only 0.18 xG on target. The difference was the in quality of the chances looked different when they arrived. McGinn was hitting a first-time effort while Brugge were scrambling. Buendía received after Gomes had carried a defender towards him. Jackson was running through on goal instead of trying to manufacture a finish in a packed box. Those are cleaner attacking situations, and Villa’s summer recruitment seems increasingly designed to produce them.

The awkward part for Emery is that Premier League opponents have already seen why they might not want to give Villa any of that space. Hull were perfectly content to sit in their shape and watch Villa complete passes in front of them. Brugge came out to play and discovered that the new Villa have considerably more speed once a game starts to stretch.

So the 3-2 matters, and three goals will do Jackson, Buendía and the rest of the attack no harm. But the more useful discovery in Bruges was about the sort of football this squad might be particularly good at. Villa looked comfortable controlling territory at Hull and dangerous attacking space here. The really good version of Emery’s rebuilt side will need to do both in the same game.