Why Leeds Were the Better Team Against Aston Villa Despite Less Possession

Unai Emery's now won four of his six Premier League games in charge of Villa - twice as many as Steven Gerrard managed (2) in 11 PL games as boss this season, which helped his team to jump from 16 to 12 in the league table, while Leeds still at 15 with two points above the relegation zone.

Despite the defeat, Jessie Marsch admitted that his team was the better one and deserved more points from Friday night. And to be honest, he was telling the truth, let's see why...

Unai starts the game with a 4-4-2, while Jessie with a 4-2-3-1, and when the villains' CBs have the ball, Leeds players put pressure on them, Aaronson waits for Rodrigo to come back to close down the passing lane on Kamara and jumps on Konsa, at that moment Gnonto blocks off the passing lane centrally, and when the ball goes to Young, he moves towards him.

At this screengrab, the ball goes from Konsa to Young, Gnonto moves towards him while covering Douglas Luiz, and Roca steps up to mark him until Aaronson is back, also Adams shifts to mark Buendia and Struijk with Bailey.

And when the ball moves to the left, Rodrigo jumps on Mings with cutting off the passing lane to Kamara, Harrison checks Ramsey first till Adams’ arrival which forces Mings to go wide.

And when the ball goes to Lucas Digne, Harrison moves towards him with intensity, while Rodrigo shuts down the back pass and Aaronson tracks Kamara’s movement, Leeds manages to win the ball and start the break.

Unai knew that his team was suffering at his favourite phase of play, so he changed his build up scheme a bit, Kamara goes inside to drag Rodrigo, which opens the passing option to his goalkeeper.

And when the ball goes to Martinez, Rodrigo starts to move towards him, which maximizes the space that Rodrigo should have run, which gives Mings more time on the ball to pass to Ramsey.

Ramsey drops a little bit to receive, but Harrison shuts down the passing lane to him first, which forces Mings to pass to Moreno, At this moment, Harrison jumps on him, but Moreno solves the situation and dribbles past Harrison to play it back to Konsa.

Again, Kamara tries to go inside to pull Harrison and Rodrigo with him, which allows him to switch the play to Moreno.

And because of the huge space for Harrison and Adams that have to cover, Ayling steps up to press on Moreno, while Koch tries to reduce the time for Ramsey to receive, and at the end of the day, they managed to stop Unai’s adjustment.

After the half-time, Jessie realized that his team should be more aggressive to score the equalizer, so he asked from Adams to step up to Mark Kamara, which let Aaronson block off the back pass to Martinez, and when Rodrigo makes his run, he should mark Ramsey.

Which forces Mings again to go wide and Leeds managed to set their trap.

​Unai put this in his mind, and he decides to adapt and make his second variation, Douglas Luiz takes a few steps forward and the formation becomes a 4-4-2 diamond, Kamara is the pivot, while Douglas and Ramsey are in front of him. This adjustment forces Bamford to follow Kamara's movements, because if he did not he would be free, as Adams and Rodrigo duties to mark Mings and Ramsey.

And Because of the space he has to cover, Rodrigo tries to prevent this pass by taking some steps towards him, which opens the back pass to Mings, which means that the Villains able to circulate the ball again.

Bamford tries to press on Martinez to halt this, so Konsa is free to receive the ball, while Gnonto still with Young, which gives Konsa the chance to carry the ball forward and pass to Buendia.

Buendia passes it back to Kamara to play it to the free man, Ramsey, and Aston Villa manages to break Leeds’ pressing.

That’s true that Unai could turn things around in the second half, which gave his team more possession, apart from this, he conceded (Xg=2.4), and his team got embarrassed in his home in the most moments of the game.