Aston Villa 1-0 Everton: How Villa Beat The Toffees

Ruthless finishing, never-say-die defending, and that cutting edge with their backs against the ropes might well be some of the ingredients, it could be said, that helped Aston Villa win 1-0 against Everton at Villa Park on Sunday.

It's clear that the away side had the better of play, taking three more shots than the hosts throughout the game, including one more on target, as well as a whopping 14 more corner-kicks.

Everton also dominated possession of the ball, holding it for 67.7 per cent of the time, with the Villans managing a measly 32.3 per cent.

Yet despite all the statistics, it was Aston Villa who won in the most important statistic, goals scored.

This is largely due to the tactics of caretaker Villa boss Kevin MacDonald, whose players held out to give the former reserve team manager a valuable win, which boosts his chances of claiming the first-team job on a permament basis (should he want it of course).

Big John Carew

It was clear right from the outset that John Carew's mission against Everton was to make life hell for the opposing centre-backs, or possibly, one centre-back in particular.

Knowing that Sylvain Distin doesn't always keep a cool head when up against tall, powerful opponents, MacDonald made sure Carew's primary focus when attacking was to target Distin, by backing into the Frenchman when on the ball and always battling him in any aerial challenges.

And it certainly worked. Distin got frustrated and worked up, as the defender frequently moaned at the referee and towards the latter stages of the game had serious difficulty in one-on-ones against Ashley Young due to fatigue from battling against Carew.

But MacDonald's clever knowledge of the opponents paid dividends mostly on the goal, in which Distin and co. were so caught up by Carew's location they had wandered well out of position, meaning full-back Luke Young could cut inside, take advantage of the gaping hole, and finish with aplomb after being given enough space and time.

Classic Man-marking

When people refer to man-marking in football these days, they're often talking about how the defence deals with the opposition from set pieces.

However, Villa's temporary master tactician, Kevin MacDonald, used man-marking perfectly by having Luke Young stick to Steven Pienaar for almost the entirety of the game.

Pienaar and his side of the pitch were the focus of Everton's play in the first-half, as they seeked to capitalise on young Marc Albrighton's inexperience for Aston Villa, which was evident as the talented winger displayed slow reactions, a lack of tracking back, and was prone to making rash challenges inside and just outside his own penalty area.

MacDonald knew this, and outsmarted Everton boss David Moyes by having Albrighton's wing partner Young mark Pienaar out of the game.

This took the sting out of Everton's attack until the last 15 minutes of the match when fatigue took its debilitating effect on the wing partnership.

Makeshift Double Pivot

Following Stephen Ireland's unexpected injury in the warm-up, Nigel Reo-Coker was quickly drafted in by boss Kevin MacDonald to partner captain Stiliyan Petrov in the centre of midfield.

And this meant that MacDonald had to do a quick, slight tactical re-think, as a more defensive player unexpectedly was forced to replace a more attacking player.

Therefore, the Villa caretaker manager employed something of a "double pivot," whereby the two central midfielders stay back when their team is on the attack, providing cover for the two centre-backs whilst allowing the full-backs to run forward and join the attack.

It's a tactic that saw Dunga's Brazil reach the quarterfinals of the World Cup, and was used frequently by Spain as they won the showpiece event in South Africa.

For Aston Villa, while it didn't win them the World Cup, it was the reason they beat Everton, with Luke Young's goal only coming about due to the cover he had defensively from his midfield teammates.

A Reason Why Everton Lost

Everton seemed to do everything but score against Aston Villa, something manager David Moyes will no doubt be very frustrated about. After all, once the players step over that white line there's not much more the manager can do.

However, one possible mistake the Toffees' boss made during that game was not having striker Jermaine Beckford target Villa centre-back Richard Dunne more often in the first-half.

Evident from Dunne's yellow card for bringing down Beckford after the Everton forward beat Villa's defender for pace, Richard Dunne was struggling to keep Jermaine Beckford at bay.

Had the striker placed more emphasis on running at Dunne with the ball, made sure he was marked by Dunne at set pieces, and stuck closer to Dunne when making forward runs, it would have only been a matter of time before the Republic of Ireland centre-back received a second yellow card and been given his marching orders.

Instead, Beckford tried his luck against James Collins, sensing Dunne's centre-back partner would be less experienced or have less pace.

But it wasn't to be, and Everton ended up losing 1-0.