Assessing Tom Cleverley's Performance on His Aston Villa Debut

Aston Villa's heroic 1-0 victory against Liverpool gave fans their first opportunity to see new signing Tom Cleverley don the claret and blue shirt. The former Manchester United man—who is on a season-long loan from Old Trafford—played 85 minutes in his first game for his new club.

So how did Cleverley get on during his Villa debut? Did he demonstrate the talent shown during his impressive loan spell at Wigan Athletic a few seasons ago, or did he put in the type of performance that made him a figure of ridicule in Manchester?

Verdict

The 25-year-old midfielder provided a composed and assured display as he made his Villa bow. His performance was unspectacular, but he kept things simple and did what was required. He didn't see the ball anywhere near as much as he will be used to from his United days, but that is hardly surprising as Villa sat back and defended their early lead.

Playing in a Villa side which is set-up to counter-attack, no player is ever going to be on the ball for long periods of time or dominate possession in a Xavi or Pirlo-esque way. Instead, a Villa midfielder requires energy, determination and composure, which Cleverley showed in abundance as he marked his debut.

He offered little from an attacking perspective, but the same could be said of the majority of Villa's players. He rarely had the ball at his feet, but when he did, he retained possession well with simple passes that nearly always found a teammate.

Villa's performance was gritty and based on a strong work ethic; Cleverley's display epitomised this ethos as he continually pressed, followed his man and tracked back well. Certainly his performance garnered praise, with boss Paul Lambert leading the plaudits: 

All stats gathered via WhoScored as the game progressed. 

First-Half Analysis

Having played the same starting XI for all three Premier League games this season, boss Lambert decided to change things with the introduction of Cleverley. The former Manchester United man replaced Charles N'Zogbia who was relegated to the bench.

Cleverley came into a three-man midfield and occupied the right side, with Ashley Westwood in the centre and new England international Fabian Delph on the left. With Carlos Sanchez still awaiting his first start in a Villa shirt, Lambert's choice of picking Cleverley must have given the midfielder a pre-match confidence boost.

As Villa took the lead on nine minutes, Cleverley had hardly touched the ball, let alone left his stamp on the game. His first contribution came after Villa took the lead, when he was fouled as Adam Lallana slid in on the Villa man and received a yellow card for his efforts.

On the 15 minute mark, the former England international had been the least involved Villa player on the pitch with just six touches of the ball, mainly because Villa's play was going through midfield compatriots Delph and Westwood.

Halfway through the first-half, the new Villa man had just eight touches of the ball compared to Westwood's 15 and Delph's 13. Furthermore, he had made just five passes compared to Westwood's eight and Delph's nine, although Cleverley did have a 100 per cent pass success rate which no other Villa player possessed.

During the opening quarter of the game, Cleverley offered little going forward, but defensively he was solid. He tracked his man—often Liverpool debutant Lallana—and got up and down the pitch well. However, he did not contribute a defensive action such as an interception, clearance or tackle. When the ball did end up at his feet, his passing was safe and measured as he kept possession for the Villans.

By half-time, Cleverley had grown into the game a little more. He had touched the ball 19 times, completed 14 of his 15 passes (93 per cent accuracy) and made one interception to give him a WhoScored rating of 6.46. In comparison to his midfield compatriots, he had touched the ball less (Westwood 25, Delph 23), made fewer passes (Westwood 16, Delph 19), but had a better pass accuracy rating (Westwood 69 per cent, Delph 79 per cent). On the whole, a solid but eventful first-half.

The point was even made that Cleverley's opening 45 minutes for Villa had been more impactful than that of £25 million Liverpool debutant Lallana:

Second-Half Analysis

After the break, Liverpool continued to attempt to get back into the game. This meant that Villa sat deeper as they soaked up any Liverpool pressure. As such, Cleverley rarely touched the ball as his main focus was of a defensive nature. Cleverley was often positioned just in front of Alan Hutton on the right, or in a more central defensive midfielder role as Liverpool's front players rotated.

Cleverley's early contribution came when he blocked a Liverpool shot just after half-time, before he fouled Alberto Moreno on 58 minutes to give Liverpool a free-kick in a dangerous position. The introduction of Raheem Sterling on the hour mark could have caused problems for Cleverley as Liverpool mainly attacked down the left, but Cleverely tracked any run or overlap.

Jon Super/Associated Press

As the match reached the final quarter, Cleverley had attempted just one pass, which had failed to reach its intended target. His touches of the ball had increased to 22, but this meant that he had seen the ball just three times during the first part of the second-half, highlighting Liverpool's dominance. 

From a ball retention perspective, Cleverley made just two passes, of which one was successful, meaning his pass accuracy was down to 88 per cent.

His defensive contributions had improved though, with two interceptions and one block achieved, which had increased his WhoScored rating to 6.58. This was down on Westwood's 6.96, but higher than Delph's 6.4. Considering the recent rise to fame of England's newest international, the fact that Cleverley performed better than Delph should be noted.

As the match reached the final quarter, Cleverley continued in much of the same way. He continued to close down, track back and failed to tire—a good sign considering Villa next play Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Everton. The former Wigan loanee also created two potential Villa counter-attacks with a nice lay off to an over-lapping Hutton and a long, cross-field ball to Gabriel Agbonlahor after Philippe Coutinho had hit the Villa post. 

With five minutes of the game remaining, Lambert decided to replace Cleverley with Sanchez. The midfielder went off to a round of applause after putting in an industrious debut performance. By the end of the match, Cleverley had touched the ball 27 times, made 20 passes, had a 85 per cent pass accuracy rate, made one tackle, intercepted the ball twice and blocked one shot.

"

Tom Cleverley gets applauded off the pitch. He's not used to that

— Colin Udoh (@ColinUdoh) September 13, 2014"

With a WhoScored rating of 6.82, Cleverley was Villa's seventh best performer on the night out of the 14 Villans that took to the pitch. More telling than this however, is that his rating was higher than that of opposition players including Steven Gerrard, Coutinho and Lallana.

Cleverley may have his critics, but Villa Park is as good as anywhere to make a fresh start after things went wrong at Old Trafford. As Lambert goes about creating his band of Premier League rejects, Cleverley's first appearance gives the Villa faithful hope and goes some way to silencing any critics. 

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