Ollie Watkins’ double proved decisive in Aston Villa’s 2-1 win over Fulham final weekend. However the return of Pau Torres, following two months out with an ankle harm, was equally vital.
Unai Emery’s aspect are a unique proposition when he’s accessible and their file with and with out him this season proves it. When Torres begins, they’ve a win charge of 76 per cent within the Premier League. When he doesn’t, that quantity drops to 25 per cent.
His return was effectively timed given Diego Carlos had joined Ezri Konsa and Tyrone Mings on the harm checklist. Emery wanted Torres to step again in and ship. In fact, he did simply that, bringing his normal poise and displaying why his supervisor trusts him implicitly.
Their relationship appears a very good place to start out in dialog with Torres at Villa’s coaching floor. It’s, in spite of everything, the rationale he’s right here. They gained the Europa League collectively at Villarreal. In July, Emery referred to as him on his honeymoon to debate the deserves of a reunion.
“We were in contact,” Torres tells Sky Sports activities with a chuckle. “I had to tell him to let us enjoy our holiday, that a honeymoon is something you only experience once in your life, and that we leave it until I was back. He respected that for the days before I came here.”
The anecdote is an perception into the mindset of a supervisor who “lives football 24 hours a day”, to cite Torres. His presence at Villa Park was a significant a part of the attraction to the centre-back, whose £45m arrival was confirmed as quickly as his honeymoon was over.
“He is a very demanding manager, first of all with himself,” he says. “He’s the primary one who desires us to get optimistic outcomes and that vitality, that demandingness he has of himself, transmits to all of the gamers. We’re type of contaminated together with his manner of seeing soccer.
“He demands that football is the biggest thing in your life and that you are fully focused on it. As players, we have to take advantage of having a manager like that, who demands so much from us.
“I believe we are able to obtain vital issues with him.”
Torres has, in fact, already achieved that at Villarreal, taking part in an important function in that historic European success below the 52-year-old, then resolving, two years later, that the time was proper for a change.
“I felt like, at Villarreal, there wasn’t much more I could do,” he says. “I had achieved my dreams with the club of my life. It was time to accept a new challenge and come to the Premier League.
“I’m pleased with the step I’ve taken.”
Everybody associated with Aston Villa feels the same way. The signing felt like a coup at the time and so it has proved. But only after an inauspicious debut against Newcastle in which Torres was thrown on for the injured Mings in a game they went on to lose 5-1.
“That recreation introduced us again to actuality as a result of we had had a very good pre-season,” he recalls. “To have that consequence within the first recreation damage us. We needed to get up and are available again stronger. I believe it was a turning level in our work, to make sure the following outcomes had been optimistic.”
Villa won five of their next six games, with Torres ever-present. In fact, before hurting his ankle against Brentford in December, he had not missed a single minute of Premier League action.
His impression has been transformative.
Along with his excellent ball-playing means added to their backline, a workforce already lethal in transition is now able to passing their manner by means of opponents too.
The affected person build-up which led to Watkins’ second objective towards Fulham, throughout which Torres may very well be seen firing a trademark diagonal go into Youri Tielemans, then dropping a shoulder and carrying the ball previous Andreas Pereira, was simply the most recent reminder.
Final season within the Premier League, Villa solely scored one objective from a build-up of 12 or extra passes. This time period, with the unflappable Torres dictating proceedings, they’ve already scored seven. They’re a extra full aspect, able to hurting groups in numerous methods.
Torres’ composure in possession is charming. “It is what I was asked to do as a young player in Villarreal’s academy,” he says. “They are a club who work very well in that sense at youth level.
“So, I’m used to that manner of taking part in out from the again, of drawing our opponents out and creating areas to assault extra simply. I additionally assume that if I seem calm, the workforce goes to be extra calm and extra assured. I believe that’s good for my team-mates.”
But it is of course a question of quality as well as composure.
Torres has a special talent for threading passes through to his midfielders – no Villa player comes close to his total of 134 passes bypassing four or more defenders this season – and there is range to his distribution too, with only Newcastle’s Fabian Schar making more successful switches of play in the Premier League.
Emery loves his willingness to take dangers.
“You have to try to overcome the pressure of the other team,” says Torres. “You can always make a mistake. But you can’t be afraid of that. More often than not, when you do it, it turns out well and the team is able to attack more easily.”
Torres’ capability to interrupt opposition strains is just not restricted to his passing. His ball-carrying is one other weapon. “Of course, if you can find a solution with a pass, it is always better. But in some moments under pressure, you have to dribble past an opponent.”
He seems to do this effortlessly. However taking part in as a centre-back on this Aston Villa aspect is a high-wire act out of possession in addition to in it. This season, they’ve caught their opponents offside on a whopping 124 events, practically thrice’ the typical.
Their aggressively excessive line is a significant function of their play. However what’s it actually like, as a centre-back, to play with such big expanses of open house behind you, with opposition forwards continuously making an attempt to run off your shoulder? And the way do Villa make it work?
“The four defenders have to be in constant communication, being careful about our body shape so that we are in a position to run when our opponents make their moves,” explains Torres.
“It is most difficult when an opposing player makes a run from further away, from the second line of attack. Those are the runs we have to have under control most of all. Our goalkeeper also needs to be co-ordinated with us and alert to passes in behind us.”
Anticipation is vital and that’s one other space wherein Torres excels. In 17 Premier League begins this season, he has solely made 11 tackles, as a substitute utilizing his means to learn the sport to get rid of the necessity. The identical instincts are required to fight these runs in behind.
“When the opponent has a passing option, the striker makes his run and he has got away from you, you have to act early to make sure he is offside,” he says. “Although sometimes, of course, you end up having to run back with him towards your goal and deal with the problem in another way.
“It’s not precisely that we play for offside. But when we’re clever and we all know tips on how to learn the motion, we all know we are able to trigger the opponent to hurry their run and go to quickly.”
The circumstances are particularly demanding for Torres, as Villa’s left-sided centre-back, given the necessity to cowl for left-back Alex Moreno, whose remit is to push excessive up the sector as an additional attacker.
“It is what we work on,” smiles Torres. “He has to jump forward in attack and the defenders who stay back have to be vigilant to those spaces. Again, it is about being co-ordinated and anticipating the action the rival might take in that zone, so you can adjust before it happens.”
The complexity of his function can hardly be understated. However Torres speaks about all of it matter-of-factly, rejecting the notion that he’s key to Villa’s success – “football is about the whole team,” he says – and as a substitute specializing in the challenges that lie forward.
Villa stay fourth forward of Saturday’s assembly with Nottingham Forest. Their Champions League future is of their arms. However they haven’t gained consecutive Premier League video games in two months.
“All teams have highs and lows over the course of the season,” he says. “You have to get out of the lows as quickly as you can.
“I hope that second has handed for us and to any extent further we are able to return to getting optimistic outcomes as a result of that’s what we’re working for.”
With Torres fit again, their prospects look far brighter.
Follow Aston Villa vs Nottingham Forest on Sky Sports’ digital platforms from 1.30pm on Saturday; kick-off 3pm; free highlights available from 5.15pm
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