If ever there was a game of two halves, this was it. Aston Villa, largely savaging a meek Blackburn Rovers team in the first half, struggled to play when the hosts came out to provide a contest for the Midlands team.
Villa will have left wondering what might have been with several chances to kill the game off in the first half going begging, one coming from an outstanding Paul Robinson save from Charles N’Zogbia in particular. The first half showed Villa’s dominance with twice as many shots in the half as the Lancashire-based relegation battles. Did Alex McLeish seriously believe that Blackburn would come out second half and continue to be that woeful?
Blackburn obviously didn’t and, in what could have been largely predicted by anyone who has watched Villa this season, the nervy opening to the second half eventually yielded a goal for the hosts. It took until the 85th minute for David Dunn to secure a point for Blackburn and, with the overall balance of play being roughly equal, a draw was a fair result on the balance of efforts. Villa second half effort was practically identical to Blackburn’s first leaving a fair balance in terms of competition, but a less than acceptable commitment for Villa in the final 45 minutes.
Which End Do We Fix First?
Villa’s concerns are many at present, and will need to be addressed promptly and effectively come the end of the season. Each half told a different story for the club, with the first half showing the lack of lethality in the team, with little reason why given the personnel, whilst the second half showed that Villa’s ability to defend is almost comedic when pressed.
Ironically, many of Villa’s flaws appear to come from McLeish’s desire to attack rather than defend, with the main issue revolving around inability to press the ball. Pressing, for me an absolute basic for a side such as Villa when it comes to playing teams, seems to lay by the wayside with Villa regularly standing off and letting the opposition play. This is fine if you are Arsenal, and can take the ball off the opposition whilst dancing around for the next five minutes making 60 passes to the sound of “Ole!”, but Villa are not that team.
What Villa are, in their current form at least, is a team that needs to battle. Teams of Villa’s standard simply can’t afford to stand off teams. With the need to win points critical to avoid slowly falling into a relegation battle, it almost appears as though McLeish (and his team) seem happy to let the club’s survival rest more on the ineptitude of the likes of Wolves, Wigan, and Blackburn.
Villa currently sit eight points above relegation, and only ten from the actual bottom of the table, with a remaining 11 games for the season till it is over. A relegation fight is far from impossible, even though it seems unlikely that three teams of those below Villa will all get nine points more than the club by the end of the season.
The worrying thing is the lack of desire expressed by the team shows a lack of interest, of total apathy, as though Villa can only play if they are left to be uncontested, much like the first half this afternoon.
Perhaps I do the club a disservice by suggesting that many of the team are apathetic, but the alternative explanation is even more cutting – that many of them just aren’t good enough. I’m not sure which is more frustrating for the average fans – players who don’t want to put the required effort in, or players who don’t have the ability to do so.
It’s Not Time To Point The Finger, Simply Time To Just Get It Together
Not all the players are at fault for this, but the combination of player selection and tactics are – something that has to rest on the shoulders of the manager.
The fault could be the formation, often exposing a fragile and shell-shocked defence to any team that has any remote ability to either pass or work hard.
Or the fault could be the tactics, which express a limbo state of not attacking and not defending – a challenge of mediocrity for even the most hard pressed tactician – but Villa manage to fail at both. How? The first half should have had more goals in it considering how poor Blackburn were, but it didn’t. The second half should have had at least a defensive shutdown if that was the plan, but it didn’t.
The final option is the faults really are at the feet of the players, not an unbelievable possiblity considering the issues under Gerard Houllier last season, but whatever the issues, they need resolving before Villa eight point game from the bottom three is further eroded.
So for Villa to pull clear, they need to decide just what kind of team they are, and this is down to the manager. Being defensively solid or overwhelmingly attacking both have advantages, but sitting firmly in the middle of the road will offer little more than draws and, as we have seen regularly this season, last slip ups in that strategy involves taking losses too.
It’s time to gamble Alex – I don’t think you realise we’d be much more happy if you just tried to win a game, even if we lossed. What we’re starting to get tired of is this middle of the road inability to either kill off a game, or even shut it down if that is the tactic, regardless of how bad the opposition is.
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