Football News: Formation Change At Aston Villa?

Afternoon all, most all agree we want something to change at Aston Villa. We can't do anything with players now, we have what we have until January, unless we bring younger players into the first team, which we won't.

Much has been said about the manager, obviously that's a position that can be changed at the click of the owners fingers. I personally don't want that to happen, but understand that results and performances make up owners' minds. And the better the Glasners and Iraolas do, the more tempting it is to think they could do even better with us. But again, I want Emery to stay.

Formation is something we can change, and it will be interesting to see if we do that on Tuesday. We have been served well with the 4-2-3-1 setup under Emery, but this season (as many have said), it just feels flat. We don't appear to have width, but, when we do get width (ref Malan and Guessand starting against Crystal Palace) it doesn't or didn't make much difference - albeit that lineup only lasted until half time in that game.

We appear to put all of our attacking hopes in getting the ball to Rogers and seeing what happens. Unsurprisingly, the opposition have worked that out. Madness is doing the same thing and getting the same result, which this season involves no goals and little to cheer about.

So, change is needed. What are the obvious options?

Palace set up with 3-4-2-1. When we played them the other week Munoz and Mitchell hugged the touchline throughout the game. They stayed advanced even when Villa were attacking. They stretched the pitch and offered width throughout. Based on who is currently fit now, we could set up with:

Martinez
Lindelof / Konsa / Torres
Cash / Tielemans / McGinn / Maatsen
Rogers / Elliott
Watkins

Brentford set up with 5-3-2. Or 3-5-2 when attacking. I agree with SC's sentiment on how they played last night vs Chelsea. Lots of intent and interestingly, this is the formation we used to some success under Little, when we had Charles and Wright bombing up and down the wings. Also a formation that has two up front, which must be worth a punt when you haven't scored in ages. Based on who is fit now we could set up with:

Martinez
Cash / Lindelof / Konsa / Torres / Maatsen
Tielemans / McGinn / Rogers
Watkins / Elliott

Set up as 4-3-3. I noticed that Arsenal used this yesterday to accommodate Eze and Maduake playing around the Swedish lad. We also used to play this with some success under Dean Smith and with zero success under Gerrard.

Martinez
Cash / Konsa / Mings / Maatsen
Tielemans / McGinn / Rogers
Malan / Watkins / Sancho

You could absolutely pick holes in the names i've put above for each formation. A fit Kamara would walk into all of them, a fit Garcia would probably be a better wingback option than Cash. But the point is, 4-2-3-1 doesn't seem to work, so we should try something else.

We have a squad capable of trying something else. I noticed at the end of the Palace game (admittedly too late) and yesterday vs Everton, that Emery did go to a back three with wingbacks, so the possibility of that must be somewhere in his thinking.

On to Tuesday with hope.

Written by SystonVilla September 14 2025 15:14:28