Newcastle came from behind to conquer a deserved away win against Aston Villa in the FA Cup fourth round.
The Magpies had to battle hard in order to leave Villa Park with a spot in the FA Cup fifth round. Tammy Abraham gave the hosts an early lead despite being offside. VAR will only be available from the next phase onwards.
It was an even game until then, with both sides having waves of attacking momentum. But the opener eased Villa’s life, since spaces started opening up in the Magpies’ defence.
What led to Newcastle turning things around against Aston Villa?
Leon Bailey’s negative impact
Marco Bizot’s sending off was obvioulsy the biggest swing factor of the game. His decision to rush out of goal looking to clear the ball at the halfway line made no sense. And as Jacob Murphy breezed past him, the only action left was to take him out and receive a red card.
But while it was still a 11v11 affair, Villa had plenty of opportunities to get a second. Newcastle’s already leaky defence gave even more space after going 0-1 down. The hosts had already managed to escape their press in a number of different ways: playing out from the back with short passes, going long on the ground and over the top.
In fact, Tammy Abraham had a great performance offering support to teammates with his hold-up play. It’s curious that they eventually went away from that considering how well it worked early on in the first half.
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Morgan Rogers played a deeper role, helping in build-up sometimes inside his own box. Having him all the way back helped the team progress collectively with clean passing sequences. This, however, meant that the other attacking options were on the opposite side.
Ross Barkley played as the centre-attacking-midfielder but appeared more on the right-hand side, along with right-winger Leon Bailey.
This was the Jamaican’s first start across all competitions in one month – another cup tie with Roma. His lack of rythm showed and was critical to Villa not being able to extend their lead.
There were countless of fast breaks and promising situations that ended due to failed touches, inaccurate passes, unsuccessful take-ons or poor decisions overall from the No.31. Not to mention his header that went wide from a decent position.
Key Leon Bailey stats vs Newcastle:
- 75% passing accuracy (15/20)
- 0/3 successful take-ons
- 1/7 duels won
- 1 big chance missed
- 2 failed first-touches
Eddie Howe’s unorthodox tactical tweak
Newcastle play better with space to run than patiently breaking opponents down, at this point it’s common knowledge. But every football game and even contexts within the same match ask for different solutions.
Villa, on the other hand, are at their best hitting opponents on the counter. With a one-goal lead, they would try to protect it. Which would often leave Newcastle with territorial dominance, passing the ball around in the attacking half or even the final third.
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But Eddie Howe doubled down on their usual strategy and refused to fall into the ‘trap’ that the game was creating for them. He knew better than to have his players parked near Aston Villa’s box just controlling possesion and waiting for an opening.
The Magpies never looked to truly establish themselves in the attacking half. They picked the ball up near their own goal and immediately tried to inject pace going forward, always on the sides but mainly down the right.
Centre-backs and centre-midfielders were always looking to activate Jacob Murphy and Kieran Trippier on the run. They actually played with more pace against 10 men than they did against 11 men, which is rarely the case.
This led to a chaotic environment and Newcastle were often rushed and even desperate at times. There were a lot of mistakes, misunderstandings and inaccurate passes.
Howe orchestrated a team that saw no huge leap in their possession tally from the first (56%) to the second (59%) half. Playing with a one-man advantage usually leads to this gap being much larger.
And their passing accuracy illustrates perfectly how Newcastle wanted to play. Splitting the match in three key moments (first half, second half pre/post Newcastle’s second goal), the image is clear:
| Newwcastle passing accuracy | 0′-45′ | 45′-76′ | 76′-90′ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 86% | 81% | 88% |
Considering how they were playing, with desperation and rush, it was no surprise that neither of their first two goals actually came from the situations they were creating. Sandro Tonali had enough luck to see his first strike go in after a few deflections, but struck one beautifully in the bottom corner to make it 2-1.
But the one-man advantage also allows to win second balls at a much higher rate. It also helps to surround the box after crosses and keep the ball alive in the mess before the opposition clears it out.
Then Lamare Bogarde gift-wrapped the third goal – which was also awkward as Pau Torres cleared the ball off Nick Woltemade’s foot and it hit the top corner.
But ultimately it was a deserved win for Newcastle who saw a few controversial decisions go against them early on.