Gameweek 4: The Post Mortem. AVL v SWA, SUN v LIV

Aston Villa 2 Swansea 0, Sunderland 1 Liverpool 1

Summary:

Swansea started brightly but a moment of brilliance from Lowton gave Villa the lead. Villa rode their confidence and their substitutions brought Bent, Bannan and El Ahmadi more into the game late on, and thoroughly deserved their win when they started to dominate possession.

Liverpool have finally executed a decent 4-3-3 playing Gerrard, Allen and Shelvey in midfield. The widemen were also effective in offense, Borini, Suarez and Sterling taking turns to take on the Sunderland defense and creating chances. However, while Liverpool's defensive mentality is correct, it wasn't executed well and Sunderland only needed one chance to punish them. Sunderland's nerves got Liverpool back into the game eventually, and Liverpool were unable to take full advantage of their momentum thanks to Mignolet and a certain white fellow with a really thick frame.

Aston Villa v Swansea:

Lineups:

Villa open with the same XI that drew away to Newcastle. "If it ain't broken, don't fix it" says Paul Lambert, which is interesting as most of this starting XI are relative unknowns or youth academy products. Swansea have Alan Tate replacing Chico, as well as Ben Davies coming in for Neil Taylor. 

With Villa fielding the standard English 4-4-2, their gameplan is simple: to score from the forwards either through crosses from the wings, or penetrative passes from the center. The forwards can be a mix of targetmen and runners, and either forward could drop deep to link up offense and midfield if needed.  Swansea will bring forth their ever famous passing game to the table via 4-2-3-1, relying on the likes of Michu to provide penetration in the centre while Dyer and Routledge play as "narrow" wingers, being instructed specifically by Laudrup to dribble towards the center more and take shots or take on a central midfielder.

Villa's strikeforce will look forward to dispossessing Swansea as key to dismantling them, and hopefully to expose Swansea's inexperienced players such as Tate or Davies. What's interesting for both sides, if both nullify each other, is that both sides have enough firepower on the bench to change a game in Villa's Christian Benteke, Charles N'Zogbia and Agbonlahor while Swansea have Pablo, Ki Sung Yeung and  Luke Moore, who scored against Man City last season.

Tactical Notes:

• The Orthodox 4-4-2 Versus the Fluid 4-2-3-1: Swansea's widemen taking the initial advantage

Villa's straightforward approach was evident straight away with Bent and Weimann combining for Holman to cross for Weimann's chance. However, with Swansea starving Villa of possession, Villa were patient in their approach, and took the lead from a moment of brilliance from left back Lowton. While we shouldn't expect goals like those to come from the fulback (Danny Rose's volley against Arsenal for Spurs a couple of seasons ago brings back some good memories), it showed that Villa were sticking to their gameplan and not panicking and making rash decisions despite not having majority of the ball at home. Speaking of sticking to their gameplan, Villa also won that corner in the first place through intercepting Davies' pass in the first place.

While Swansea had the lion's share of possession, their only avenues of attack came from either Michu playing penetrative passes, or  the wingers creating chances through dribbles, crosses or shots, as Dyer squeezed a superhuman save from Brad Guzan after a corner. Michu also had 2 attempts at goal, which showed how even the game was being played out, despite Swansea hogging the ball and Villa being a goal up.

It is interesting to note that both team's wide midfielders had different characteristics: Swansea's widemen were more prone to dribble at defenders unless a scoring opportunistic chance arises, and hence their playing style consumes more energy than the likes of Bannan and El Ahmadi, who frequently looked for a pass or a shot respectively. It does explain Dyer and Routledge's high amount of energy early in the game, and their significantly little contribution in the second half.

• Substitutions bringing different players into play: The uses of substitutions in 4-4-2

The second half began with a similar story, at least until Villa had a decent spell of possession, and subsequently corners, where Lichaj had a chance on goal as a result of Swansea failing to deal with a flat cross. Swansea's lapses in concentration were beginning to tell. What followed were like for like substitutions, with Weimann and Ireland coming off for Benteke and Westwood respectively, while Swansea traded Routledge and Graham for Pablo and Luke Moore. While Benteke, Pablo and Moore were orthodox substitutions, Westwood, a defensive midfielder, ensured El Ahmadi and Bannan could seize control of the center of the park, and subsequently chances were created for Weimann, Benteke and Clark.

Swansea's dip in contentration levels were the more telling factor, as Benteke could've scored another goal late on off Bent's header across goal, and the chance was only presented due to poor marking from 2 Swansea defenders. Benteke's goal epitomised Swansea's troubles, really. Benteke's first touch after latching on to Williams' poor header for Vorm made it easy for him as Villa exposed Swansea's troubles for the rest of the Prem to see.

Fantasy Implications:

Your Fantasy investment in Swansea players really depends on how much faith you have on Laudrup ironing out the errors in his team's display. While Dyer, Michu and Routledge are decent picks, they have been on the slide lately as teams are starting to get used to their playing style. For Villa, the growing presence of Bannan will certainly fascinate many, but at the moment, Villa's fulbacks have demonstrated enough ability to hold down a starting spot, and create chances for themselves at the same time. El Ahmadi and Weimann are also worth monitoring, and more games will be the key to Villa's Fantasy prospects.

Sunderland v Liverpool 

Lineups:

Sunderland bring John Colback in as Seb Larsson moves back to the right replacing the injured Adam Johnson. Craig Gardner starts again at right back, which is interesting because in the absence of Wes Brown, John O'Shea has deputised there before, and Titus Bramble can fill up the gap in the center. Guess either Martin O'Neill wants O'Shea permanently there or there's something about Titus Bramble he's not safe about... Meanwhile, Liverpool roll out the "tried and true" 4-3-3 with a fluid three-man midfield. Jonjo Shelvey replacing Nuri Sahin, which will firmly place Joe Allen as the "pendulum" midfielder with Gerrard and Shelvey himself pushing forward. With Glen Johnson at left back constantly foraging forward, Sunderland will aim to get behind  him to create chances while Liverpool will abide by Brendan Rogers' philosophy by dominating possession and utilising their wide forwards to take on the likes of Gardner and the relatively inexperienced Danny Rose.

Tactical Notes:

• Starting Shelvey making the midfield 3 significantly more balanced

While executing a strategy with a fluid 3 man midfield, while a midfielder usually has the tendency to stay back to act as an "easy pass" outlet, the other two would advance in tandem as a double-pivot, namely Shelvey and Gerrard to either play incisive passes to the forwards, or play off them to generate chances themselves. Shelvey and Gerrard both had early efforts on goal in the first half an hour as a result of this tactic, but Allen himself had a hand in some of Liverpool's penetrative play; Suarez also had an effort on goal from Allen's passes.

Meanwhile, Sterling and Suarez also managed to have a goal at Sunderland's defence, at least until Steve Fletcher scored first. As suspected, Craig Gardner was the source of the goal, but it is important to note that Luis Suarez actually made the effort to pull out wide and aid Johnson as well (which we might see Liverpool execute better in the future, but nevertheless it's relieving to see Liverpool improving from a Fantasy perspective). With Sunderland's confidence getting a good reinforcement, they tightened up at the back and while Liverpool stuck to their plan, things just weren't going their way as Suarez got outnumbered by the Sunderland masses right before half time and got booked in the process.

• Death by slow reaction: Being second to the second ball

In the second half, as Liverpool started to push wider and wider, their efforts became more fruitful with Johnson hitting the bar and Sterling getting several crosses in the Sunderland box. From Sunderland's perspective, if you are aware that your flanks are going to be exposed, you have to (a) mark the people in the center properly for obvious reasons and (b) put some pressure on the second ball. These responsibilities fell on the two central defenders and the two holding midfielders, Colback and Cattermole, who carried out duty (a) well but neglected duy (b) resulting in Shelvey and Gerrard taking shots from outside the box. The writing was on the wall already.

Another intriguing event is that right after Gerrard shaved the post, Downing came on for Borini. Perhaps Borini needed a rest or Rogers recognised that the Sunderland midfield were starting to slack, but with Downing being outside the box all the time, while Gerrard's shots became more frequently blocked with Sunderland's midfield pushing out as a result of Borini not being present, Sunderland were still second to the second ball and Skrtel nearly took advantage. However, Liverpool exposed Sunderland's slow reactions again when Sterling crossed, Suarez had his shot blocked but smashed home the rebound when no one reacted. Credit to Liverpool for persisting and being more assertive than Sunderland, but Sunderland could've seen it coming by introducing someone more assertive in defence (instead they brought on Fraizer Campbell) or just simply learning their lesson. Shelvey even had the chance to seal the game at the end where he had a free shot at Mignolet, but Mignolet was equal to it.

Fantasy Implications:

This game sold Liverpool's gameplan for prospective Fantasy investors, assuming Gerrard and Shelvey hold a spot in the 3 man midfield and maintain their form, both will see some investment in the long run. Sterling, Borini and Suarez also would be decent differentials based on chances created through shots or assists, but against a more diligent defense on the flanks, they might not have it so easy. For Sunderland, as they have an issue with defending a lead (they also lost the lead to Swansea last week) and Martin O'Neill needs to pep his players up if he wants to see Sunderland's stock go up in value. In the meantime, United beckons for Liverpool, which will be a real test for a functional Gerrard and Shelvey, assuming they show up.