This is a very interesting formation to analyse, mostly because we have 3 left-backs who have played the majority of their time in that position. Also, two of them played in a different position at the beginning of the season. Mathew Lowton who is historically a right-back, actually had more game time on the left side of the defence then in his natural position! While Richardson started the season playing in midfield, he only cemented the left-back position under Sherwood. But in all of this we haven’t seen Cissokho play since the sacking of Lambert. It’s fair to say that the left-back position continues to be a problem at Aston Villa.
- Aly Cissokho played the most football in left-back, playing a total of 2222 minutes, making 26 appearances in the process and contributing to 7 clean sheets. Cissokho picked up 1 yellow card
- Kieran Richardson played a total of 1689 minutes of football, half of that time was playing in midfield. Richardson made a total of 26 appearances and contributed to 1 clean sheet when playing in defence. Richardson did make 1 assist and picked up 2 yellow cards and a red card
- Mathew Lowton played a total of 841 minutes making 12 appearances and contributed to 2 clean sheets. Lowton picked up 2 yellows.
According to the Whoscored statistics Cissokho was Villa’s highest rated left-back, getting a score of 6.78 landing him the 6th spot for best player. He made 1.9 tackles per game (5th best). Richardson had a score of 6.35 landing him 22nd position and Lowton got a score of 6.67 securing a 10th spot in the table, he was dribbled past an average of 1.1 per game (5th best).
1. Aly Cissokho
The stat’s don’t lie, Cissokho did play very well for Aston Villa. When he signed I think that many Villa fans believe that Villa have finally found the left-back that Aston Villa have been looking for all those years. Cissokho was definitely better in defence with his attacking support being rather poor at most times. Still he did contribute to 7 clean sheets and his injury set back definitely did affect his career at Aston Villa. It’s still not known if he will be staying at Aston Villa but I sure hope he does because I thought he had a quality first season at Aston Villa.
2. Mathew Lowton
Bit controversial perhaps, but for a player that often plays on the right. He played really well especially when Richardson and Cissokho were out injured. You could argue that the penalty he won against West Brom was a very key moment in Aston Villa’s season. He is a very versatile and I am upset that he has left the club. Like Richardson, he didn’t have any outstanding statistics but when called upon he did get the job done.
3. Kieran Richardson
If Richardson started playing with a top-knot earlier than he surely would’ve topped this list. All throughout the season I thought he struggled a bit. He wasn’t too solid in midfield and his defensive play wasn’t great. However I thought his season really did kickstart in the last month, I thought he was fantastic against Arsenal and one of the highlights of our poor FA Cup final showing. If Richardson can continue that form into the start of next season than I’d be content with him staying at Aston Villa. He is surely rated by Sherwood.