It’s Aston Villa vs Man Utd in the Premier League at Villa Park! Welcome to my tactical preview of another massive Premier League game for Ralf Rangnick, could we see an evolution of the tactics Ralf Rangnick has used so far at Man United? I think Man Utd should use a 4-4-2 diamond, allowing the side to get the best out of a number 10 (this could be Bruno Fernandes or Donny van de Beek). Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa squad will be raring to go in front of their fans after the recent signings of Lucas Digne and Philippe Coutinho. Villa are 14th in the Premier League form table - well below Manchester United in 7th and will want to bounce back after their 1-0 FA Cup loss to Rangnick’s Manchester United at Old Trafford, and league defeats to Brentford and Chelsea. Manchester United hope to have Harry Maguire, Cristiano Ronaldo and Jadon Sancho available after they missed the FA cup game, but will definitely be without Luke Shaw and Scott McTominay who are both suspended. How will this game go? Excited to see what’s next in the Ralf Rangnick era at Manchester United? Villa fans are you looking forward to Philippe Coutinho’s debut? I’ve had my say in the video. Let me know what you think in the comments as I preview the tactics for the biggest Premier League games, on the Statman Dave Clips channel!

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Despite being very young by managerial standards, with Steven Gerrard taking charge of less than 200 matches as a first team manager, he had a lot of success with Rangers and he’s got some clearly defined ideas that usually see his teams playing on the front foot. Tactically, Gerrard’s preferred formation is a variation on the 4-3-3 with the wingers operating in very narrow positions as inside forwards. At Rangers, a key component of Gerrard’s attacking play was the full backs. These players were extremely attack minded and were tasked with holding the width in the final third, giving the two inside forwards freedom to roam in central areas and operate as a genuine front 3 with the striker, whilst the midfield 3 would cover the wide areas. The composition of this 2-3-5 attacking structure is almost identical to Jurgen Klopp’s Premier League title winners.

Gerrard’s Rangers side would build out from the back and adopt a 2-3-2-3 in possession. Ball progression would come through the wide areas as passing triangles were created between the full back, outside midfielder and inside forward. Alternatively, the defensive midfielder would look for long passes over the top to the forwards making runs in behind. In the final third, chances would largely be created from the wide areas. Either the full backs would send in whipped crosses from deep, The inside forward, full back and outside central midfielder would combine using underlaps to create low crossing opportunities from the byline or we’d see the front 3 use interplay to create chances for themselves. Without the ball, Gerrard’s Rangers would drop into a 4-3-3 with the front 6 used in an aggressive man to man press. The front 3 would press centrally and look to force the opposition wide as the outside central midfielders would support and press the wide areas. The defensive midfielder could be overly aggressive and leave a big hole in front of the defence but if this was exploited the Rangers forwards generally reacted by dropping into shape quickly.

His managerial style has quite clearly been heavily influenced by Jurgen Klopp’s work at Liverpool and Gerrard has continued this at Aston Villa. Like at Rangers, Gerrard has largely used a narrow 4-3-3 but rather than inside forwards the wide players are more like attacking midfielders. They’re so narrow and free to roam that I’d actually describe the formation as a 4-3-2-1 or a Christmas Tree like Ancelotti’s Milan. We’ve seen a lot of the same things from Scotland implemented in Birmingham with the width coming from full back, an energetic midfield three and a narrow forward line but there has been an evolution in pressing. Gerrard’s Villa defend in a Christmas tree and are a lot more restrictive, cutting passing lanes and triggering their press on backwards passes near the touchline.

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