Three aspects of Aston Villa's system for Leeds United to look out for at Elland Road

IN the latest of a new series for the Yorkshire Evening Post, Jon Mackenzie takes a deeper look at Leeds United's next opponents - Aston Villa.
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What a season Aston Villa are having.

After escaping relegation by the skin of their teeth last year, this time around they’re in with a shot at European qualification.

With news of Jack Grealish’s injury, though, their European dreams hang in the balance and will depend on how the Birmingham team deal with his absence.

KEY PLAYER: Aston Villa's Ross Barkley, centre, pictured attempting to race away from Leeds United's Jamie Shackleton, left, in October's Premier League clash at Villa Park. Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images.KEY PLAYER: Aston Villa's Ross Barkley, centre, pictured attempting to race away from Leeds United's Jamie Shackleton, left, in October's Premier League clash at Villa Park. Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images.
KEY PLAYER: Aston Villa's Ross Barkley, centre, pictured attempting to race away from Leeds United's Jamie Shackleton, left, in October's Premier League clash at Villa Park. Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images.
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It would be unfair to call Villa a “one-man team” but Grealish is central to their attacking play and so his loss will be felt.

Here are three aspects of Dean Smith’s system to look out for on tomorrow evening:

Midfield structure:

In this season’s earlier fixture at Villa Park, defensive midfielder Pascal Struijk was brought off early after picking up a yellow card early on.

No doubt the card influenced Marcelo Bielsa’s decision but the introduction of Jamie Shackleton changed the structure of the midfield.

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With Villa playing with a single pivot flanked by two midfielders, Leeds were able to match them a little better with Mateusz Klich and Shackleton in the middle, removing the need for an out-and-out defensive midfielder.

More recently, though, Villa have been playing with a double pivot of Douglas Luiz and John McGinn with Ross Barkley ahead of them.

Will we see Pascal Struijk return to defensive midfield in the absence of Kalvin Phillips?

More attacking flexibility?

As Euan Dewar has shown in his excellent deep dive into Aston Villa’s season, going forward, Villa are extremely reliant on Jack Grealish and Ollie Watkins.

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This leads to their attacking play having a tendency to come through wide left areas.

With Grealish out, much of the creative work will now come through Ross Barkley which should move Villa into more central areas during their attacking phases.

This could give them a little more flexibility going forward than they have when Grealish plays which could be something of an advantage.

The weak full-back problem

Matty Cash has been one of Villa’s stand out players this season. With his injury, the depth of their squad has been shown up.

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Villa will likely play veteran Ahmed Elmohamady or rookie Kaine Kesler-Hayden as his replacement.

We’ve already seen how Raphinha dealt with Jan Bednarek on Tuesday evening. Will we see him back on the left tomorrow evening?

Jon Mackenzie runs All Stats Aren’t We, a Leeds United media channel that focuses on the tactical and statistical aspects of the game.

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Thank you Laura Collins