How did Aston Villa nullify De Zerbi's high flying seagulls?
Why are Brighton a dangerous team to play against?
Brighton has become one of the most exciting teams to watch in the Premier League. They have established themselves in the league over the last few seasons, and taken a large step forward since the appointment of Roberto De Zerbi. He has brought new ideas with him that have seen Brighton shoot up the league and into contention for European places. But what makes them so good?
"That is the best team in the world in making the build-up, the best team is Brighton. There's no better that make the process to bring the keeper, the ball, to the last quarter. There's no team better in modern football now."
"Brighton is the master of when to pass to the free man. They move at the right time. They don't pass the ball until the opponent moves.
High words of praise, especially when you consider who those words are coming from, none other than Pep Guardiola himself. Brighton start their build up phase in a box comprised of their two center backs and two deep lying midfielders. Their goal keeper is heavily involved in their build up and serves as an extra man.
They wait for the opponents to make a move in order to win the ball and cleverly manipulate the space to break the opponents initial press. Their two forwards don't operate as traditional number nines and drop in to midfield to help in the build up phase. They are important in beating the press as they provide solutions for their teammates, as well as issues for the opposition central defenders. The forwards dropping in to help with build up means that the opposition center backs aren't sure whether they want to follow them and leave space in behind, or leave the forwards to free receive the ball in space and turn.
Above you can see an example of just how deep Brighton's forwards were in their game against United earlier in September. If the defenders don't follow them into that space they have an overload in their build-up phase and can play through United's press without any issues. If they do step up with the forwards they leave a large space down the middle of the field that Mitoma and Adingra will look to exploit.
So how did Aston Villa control the build up phase of the best team in the world?
In short, it comes down to controlling the space that Brighton are trying to find and exploit. On Brighton restarts Aston Villa used Watkins, Luiz and Diaby to control Brighton's box without having to commit a fourth player into the press high up the field. When Steele was in possession, Diaby and Watkins would look to cut of the entry passes into the deep lying midfielders. Leaving both center backs open as passing options. As Steele played the ball to either center back the corresponding forward would go and engage him. Once the ball was played out to one side of the field, Aston Villa would work to try and keep it on that side. Diaz would follow the ball and pick up the midfielder that was strong side, while the strong side forward would try and prevent the center back from recycling the ball through Steele.
Usually a team would ask their wingers to join in with the press and step up onto the opposition full backs, but Villa didn't always do this. They would leave Brighton's full backs open until they received the ball, presumably to cut off the pass from the center backs into the forwards, making exiting the press more difficult for Brighton. In addition, when engaging Brighton higher up the pitch Villa would task Kamara with following Ferguson when he came short for the ball, and on the opposite side Pau Torres would step up with Welbeck. Konsa was left as the free man with the responsibility of providing cover to Cash and Digne if any longer passes were attempted by the Brighton back line. This approach allowed Villa to keep their team compact and press in a smaller area of the pitch.
When Brighton did advance into the middle third of the field Aston Villa altered their approach slightly with Kamara joining Diaz in stepping onto the midfielders.
One would presume that Villa did this to take away any time that Brighton's center backs would have to find passes in behind the Villa defense, allowing Watkins and Diaby to be solely focused on denying Dunk and Webster time on the ball.
De Zerbi's half time adjustments
Brighton changed the personnel at half time and that gave them some success at the start of the second half. Fati and Joao Pedro are more comfortable in receiving the ball in tight spaces with defenders on their back, and this helped Brighton establish a rhythm early in the second half. Fati didn't always occupy the space directly in front of Kamara and would drift to other side of the pitch behind Diaz. Dunk was able to find Fati in the space behind Diaz with some success, which helped Brighton move the game higher up the pitch.
Did Emery draw up the blueprint for all teams to use against Brighton in the future?
Villa had a memorable day at Villa park and it was day to learn from for Brighton. Brighton couldn't establish their buildup play early enough in the game due to Aston Villa's approach, when combined with all of the individual mistakes you are left with a game that can get away from you, as was evidenced in this match. Huge credit goes to Villa for creating the situations that resulted in those mistakes.
It will be interesting to see how Brighton adjusts in the coming weeks. Will other teams take a page out of Emery's book and employ the same approach to disrupt Brighton's build up play? Time will tell. Brighton are capable of losing a game in this manner every now and again, but they usually come back with a strong performance following a defeat. De Zerbi has received high praise from top managers, rightfully so, and expect Brighton to find a solution during the week and not be caught out by a similar approach in the future.
