Last week exceeded my expectations to say the least. When asked to describe the game to a friend who didn’t watch the game how exactly Villa won, I told him that City did everything short of the “Buttfumble” to hand Villa the match.
While all three goals were poor to concede, this does sell the club a bit short. While the first half was one-way action from the third minute on, all the club conceded were a bunch of half chances. Each progressive corner kick became increasingly nerve racking, but the players did ther jobs. They gave themselves a chance to stay in the game, and when City offered them the match on a platter, they were in position to accept it.
Paul Lambert got his tactics spot-on. It didn’t always look that way. It appeared he was a minute away from scrapping them altogether before the first goal as both Albrighton and Tonev were warming up. With the personnel available, I suspected a 3-5-2 might be an option. Without Gabby’s pace creating width, a 4-3-3 would’ve been difficult. Kozak’s running could be classified as plodding and may not lend itself to playing with the kind of tempo that Villa typically play with.
Still, a moment after that thought crossed my mind I remembered how awful the club looked at times playing that system last year. The difference was that Leandro Bacuna was infinitely more comfortable playing as a wing back than Lowton was last year. The more time he sees on the pitch, the better and more comfortable he looks out there.
Against Hull I would like to see a more attack minded set-up. If Gabby still isn’t ready to go I wouldn’t mind seeing a 4-4-2 with the partnership of Kozak and Wiemann retained. If Lambert wants to reuse formations from last season, maybe he will bring back the midfield diamond he used early last season.
Now that the storm of our difficult opening fixtures has been weathered and the club is in fair shape, now is the time to look forward and upwards. Hull isn’t a game they should win, this club still isn’t good enough to expect to best anybody. However, if they play the way they did last week they should be good enough.
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