What formation should be played at Villa Park?

Paul Lambert has successfully devised a formation to make Aston Villa a formidable opposition on the road, but at Villa Park he is still to find the formation that will replicate the success Villa have found on their travels.

So far in his reign as Villa manager Lambert has experimented with several different formations, both home and away, but when Villa play away from Villa Park it looks like two entirely different teams to when they do.

When playing at home the expectation is for teams to press forward, leaving possible holes and gaps for the opposition to exploit, but when teams play away it gives them a sense of freedom and Villa have taken strong advantage of this both at the latter end of last season and so far this season.

Villa have become known as specialists for playing counter-attacking football away from home, claiming such scalps as Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City on their travels. Lambert’s employment of a 4-3-3 formation with a three man attack of Christian Benteke, Gabby Agbonlahor and Andreas Weimann takes advantage of the three’s strongest attributes (Gabby’s electrifying pace, Weimann’s workrate and Benteke’s all round ability of a number nine) and they duly oblige by taking advantage of teams who like to play high up the field at home; the main aim to try and catch out home teams who are expected to push up the field, then expose their vulnerability at the back.

Arsenal were disposed of 3-1 on the opening day of the season, thanks to a brace from Christian Benteke and a goal from Antonio Luna on his debut; all three goals created from counter-attacks.

Other successes on the road with the 4-3-3 formation employed include Liverpool (3-1), Norwich (2-1) and City (4-2, after extra-time).

But at Villa Park it’s an entirely different story, Lambert is yet to find a formation that suits the playing style for his young, hungry attacking side. An array of formations have been tried including 4-4-2, 3-5-2 and 4-2-4, but none of yet have proven to be continually successful.

An all out attacking formation of 4-2-4 certainly didn’t work, as seen in Lambert’s own admission of his biggest regret from last season (Bradford) and again against Newcastle this season. Against Newcastle Benteke had equalised in the 68th minute, but to the horror of the crowd in attendance 4-2-4 was deployed by Lambert, convinced Newcastle wouldn’t score again. Hatem Ben Afra had controlled the Newcastle midfield all afternoon and there were no surprises when he set-up substitute Yoan Gouffran for the winner in a 2-1 win.

4-4-2 didn’t work either, when Liverpool came to Villa Park after scoring they happily sat back and soaked up the pressure from Villa, giving fans food for thought of what formation would work at home; the most controversial formation though seems like it could be the answer to the very much debated topic.

Last season 3-5-2 was introduced to Villa’s faithful and the results were disastrous, the heaviest defeat in the club’s history (8-0 against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge), one of the most embarrassing results I can recall seeing as a fan of this great illustrious establishment, a 3-0 home defeat to now Championship side Wigan Athletic and a 4-0 defeat to Spurs; over that Xmas period 15 goals were conceded without even a reply.

With two stronger wing-backs in place (Leandro Bacuna and Antonio Luna) instead of Matthew Lowton and Joe Bennett, the decision by Lambert to again employ the 3-5-2 formation was introduced in the most recent home game against Manchester City.

In the opening 45 minutes of the match it was clear the gamble had back-fired, City’s array of pressure and presence was absurd. Villa’s 18 yard box was constantly berated with City pressure, but somehow it remained 1-0 at the break, it could of easily ended up being three, four or five.

Though the only way to describe the next 45 minutes is a miracle, in a crazy 60 seconds Villa went from being 2-1 down to 3-2 up. First Weimann was fouled and new addition Leandro Bacuna expertly curled an effort from 25 yards into the top left-hand corner leaving Joe Hart routed to the spot and then less than a minute later a long ball from Brad Guzan had Hart was caught in no-mans land and Weimann gratefully poked the ball past him and into the unguarded net to send Villa Park into raptures; Villa somehow went on to win the match 3-2.

A formation of 4-2-2-2: Guzan, Bacuna, Vlaar, Clark, Luna, Westwood, Sylla, Delph, a much-needed attacking midfielder, Gabby and Benteke would bring a much more suited balance to the team when playing at Villa Park.

Playing 4-2-2-2 with Ashley Westwood (for his range of passing) and Yacouba Sylla (the physical enforcer in the middle) sitting just in front of the back-four, Fabian Delph and the hopeful arrival of a number ten in January just behind a mix of a fast small forward (Gabby) and a big physical presence (the complete number 9, ohhhhh Christian Benteke) would balance out playing teams at Villa Park who try and sit back and soak up the pressure after scoring e.g. Liverpool.

Villa Park in recent years has never seen the success replicated on the road, Martin O’Neill couldn’t replicate his impressive record away form at Villa Park, so hopefully Paul Lambert can do one better and achieve equal measures across both formats.