Newcastle's pressing and defensive shape against Aston Villa showed how good they can be

New York Times

2 days ago

Aston Villa away hasn't been the most pleasant fixture for Newcastle United in recent years.
Before Saturday's 0-0 draw, Newcastle had only won once in their last nine visits to Villa Park — a 3-1 victory in January 2024.
Making that trip without Alexander Isak or a proper centre-forward wasn't going to be easy, but Eddie Howe's side were unfortunate not to return home with the three points.
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Newcastle missed chances, especially in the first half when Anthony Elanga and Anthony Gordon came close to scoring on different occasions. However, the bedrock of the team's strong performance was their pressing and defensive solidity that completely neutralised Villa's attack.
Defending out of a 4-3-3 shape, Elanga and Harvey Barnes had different roles during the high press: the Swede focused on pressing Tyrone Mings and Newcastle's left winger was ready to pounce on Matty Cash.
Meanwhile, Gordon was the initiator of the press and his task was to force Villa to build down their left side by arcing his run when pressing their goalkeeper, Marco Bizot. By doing that, Gordon was also blocking the passing lane into Ezri Konsa.
Behind them, Joelinton and Bruno Guimaraes were marking Boubacar Kamara and Amadou Onana.
Once Villa's goalkeeper was under pressure and trying to find a passing option, they pressed Villa's double pivot to force Bizot towards Mings, who had Elanga in his face.
With Gordon blocking the pass back to the goalkeeper and Villa's deeper midfield duo taken out of the equation, Mings was forced wide, where Kieran Trippier was in position to press Lucas Digne.
In this example, Barnes, Joelinton, Guimaraes and Elanga are in their designated positions, while Trippier is ready to press Digne depending on the situation.
Gordon starts the press, but pivots to Konsa when Bizot plays the ball to Villa's right centre-back. To prevent Villa from building down the right, Sandro Tonali and Tino Livramento move up to mark Youri Tielemans and John McGinn.
Interestingly, Trippier drops deeper to provide defensive cover, but Elanga maintains his narrow position on the other side because Newcastle are trying to force Villa towards the left.
Unable to find a passing option, Konsa goes back to his goalkeeper, the trigger for Joelinton and Guimaraes to press Kamara and Onana. Meanwhile, Gordon's arced run forces Bizot towards the left, where Elanga and Trippier are in prime position to pounce.
Newcastle successfully box Villa in, and Morgan Rogers' effort to provide a passing option is covered by Fabian Schar, who eventually collects Digne's lumped pass.
In another example, Bizot throws the ball towards Digne and Trippier immediately moves up to press. The positioning of Elanga and Gordon means that Villa's left-back can't go back, so he plays the ball to Onana, who tries to find Tielemans, but Tonali is in position to intercept the pass.
Newcastle's faultless pressing halted Villa's build-up in the first half and often forced Bizot to go long, where Schar and Dan Burn dominated the aerial duels, and the midfield were in position to win the second balls.
Villa's goalkeeper played 14 long balls — defined as passes that travel at least 35 yards — in open play during the match and only completed three, two of which went to his left-back.
When Howe's side defended in a deeper 4-5-1, the aim was to prevent Villa from accessing Rogers, Tielemans and McGinn between the lines.
The main approach revolved around blocking the passing lanes into Villa's narrow forwards, with Guimaraes, Tonali and Joelinton key to that.
Newcastle's midfield trio oscillated horizontally to block the passing lanes into Tielemans and Rogers, as seen in this example in the 25th minute.
In case Villa managed to thread the ball into one of their narrow forwards, the free player in Newcastle's defensive line jumped forward to defend it.
Here, Tielemans tries to overload the left side, but Schar reaches Onana's pass before him.
The oscillation of Newcastle's midfield meant that they might be vulnerable towards the far side. However, the narrow positioning of Trippier and Livramento when the ball was on the other side made things difficult for Villa's narrow forwards, with Elanga and Barnes in position to support.
Newcastle's pressing dropped in the second half, but their defensive solidity kept them in the game and allowed them to strike on the counter, which led to Konsa's sending-off.
'It's a hot day, maybe we struggled to keep our momentum and intensity,' Howe told TNT Sports after the match. 'I thought we made it difficult for them to gain any control in the game.
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'The home team is always going to have a period in the game — especially one of the quality of Aston Villa — where they are slightly on top, but we defended really well today.'
Newcastle limited Villa to only three shots throughout the match, but they couldn't score from their 16, with Elanga and Gordon being the closest. Howe's team did everything right apart from putting the ball into the net.
Whether it's Isak or someone else, Newcastle missed a proper centre-forward to cap off an incredible performance.
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