Fans of most Premier League clubs would, in the main, be delighted with a point after coming from behind twice away at Everton. Despite their off-field issues, they remain a very good side especially at home. They have a small but talented team who are strong and work hard and a manager who gets the best out of them. A bit like ourselves. Certainly like we were under Martin O’Neill.
Yet as I write this I’m feeling a little bitter-sweet. For sure it was a stirring performance to get back into the game twice. Heart, resilience and resolve will be among words used to describe our performance. You’ll also hear words like ‘unimaginative’ and ‘flat’. What you won’t hear are words like ‘sublime’ and ‘fluid’. I understand the criticism and praise the performance will attract in equal measures.
So I’ve decided to write a very deliberately schizophrenic piece today to look at it from both sides. This in also in keeping with the teams performances of late. In the first half of games we have looked nervous and vulnerable and have no coherence, in the second half we can look a team transformed. It also explains how I felt after watching the game Saturday. One part happy with the result and fight-back another part disappointed by our poor showing, but we were fortunate to get a point in truth.
I am a strong supporter of McLeish and Lerner and I always try look at the bigger picture. I believe we are improving and will continue to do so although as McLeish so honestly explained last week we simply cannot compete with the ‘super-clubs’. We have to consolidate our place and build slowly, sensibly and organically and I think we have the right men to do this and take us forward. We also have to be realistic and patient because McLeish cannot change or clear the mess of the past year overnight, but he is willing to try and he’s gonna give it a damn good shot.
On The Sunny Side of Town
Well 4 games in and we haven’t lost a match. Indeed we are even a point better off from the same set of fixtures last year. We sit 8th in the table, 2 points off 4th. Our defence looks solid, we’ve kept 2 clean sheets in the league. We scored 3 at home to Blackburn – looking great and twice came from behind against Everton at Goodison to grab a point. Things are gong pretty well all-in-all.
We have a manager who, despite his unpopularity with fans, has got the players believing again and seems to be well liked and respected. Look at our defence alone, much more solid than last season. Dunne looks a new player and seems to be a massive influence on those around him, rallying them and keeping them organised. Warnock despite his shaky performance on Saturday has done ok and Hutton will improve with match-fitness. Add to this Shay Given between the sticks who is surely a steal at £3.5m and easily one of the best keepers of the Premier League years.
The defence has been better protected this season also, and this is in no small part down to how McLeish sets us up. We have been playing with Delph and Petrov just sitting in front of the back four, shielding them and acting as destroyers breaking up play. They are also responsible for retaining the ball once its won and setting us off on attacks. They have done very well together, Delph has lost his way a little in the last 2 games but he is a very good young player. He is tenacious in tackle and has good distribution. He also has legs to compensate for Petrov’s advancing years.
Petrov is his experienced foil and he keeps a watchful eye on his young team-mate. He has many critics. I am one but he is currently deserving of his place. He has been stronger than Delph in the last two games, looks to move forward and scored with a fantastic strike on Saturday. Wth Jenas and Herd also in the mix, competition is fierce for a starting berth. He may even be stung by criticism in his homeland with a popular ex-player calling for his retirement and out to prove a point. Whatever the reason, he has responded and he is looking like a team leader.
Then we have the attack and this is very much a work in progress. The key initially was to tighten up, to get back to being solid and to become hard-to-beat. We’ve done that. With a forward of Bent’s calibre in attack we are always dangerous. While Bent has not had a great start to the season thus far, I have absolutely no worries about his ability and he will be our top-scorer this season again.
N’Zogbia is still taking time to settle and it is in fact Gabby who looks our best weapon going forward. Gabby is another player who splits opinion, like Petrov he may not be my first pick but again, like the Bulgarian, he has upped his game a lot this term all the time while adjusting to a new role. He has made it hard to drop him despite what his critics say. Heskey has also performed admirably this season. His work-rate has been first class and he too has got among the goals.
These attackers are backed up at present by Ireland, Bannan, Delfouneso and Albrighton and I am sure everyone will get a fair number of games. Bannan looked very bright when coming on for Heskey and Ireland seems to be hungry and interested. Albrighton will come on despite his early season struggles. Delfouneso is also a young player of promise who will get chances although fewer for the revelation about Bent’s contract making him an automatic starter.
McLeish is trying to find the right blend up front, although rather than constantly changing and trying new things, is sticking with a proven formula to date and who’d blame him. He knows one loss and a lot of fans will shout louder their discontent. All things considered we have started well, solid if a little unspectacular but much improved.
We have signed well in the transfer window and look a decent bet for top 10 at the very least . We are still in the League cup and with an out-of-sorts Bolton at Villa Park coming up soon, I expect we’ll progress here also.
We are well on track, and I think McLeish has done a lot of things right since taking over. He has been a little pragmatic yes, but in his situation, which one of us wouldn’t be? The football will develop as he and the club settle following a fairly turbulent last year. Patience is a massive thing to ask of fans in football these days but that’s what is required. That and a heavy dose of reality.
Ou Est Le Soleil?
I just want to say what follows below is not representative of how I think or feel, just some of the criticisms I’ve heard and therefore I am considering them.
These are indeed the darkest of days in B6 for quite a long time. It used to me fun supporting Villa, even as recently as one to two years ago, but since then it’s been one unmitigated disaster after another and as the saying goes ‘the fish stinks from the head down’. Our board must accept it is largely responsible.
We’ve had 4 managers in just over a year and not one appointment since O’Neill has met with the fans approval. We have a board who don’t listen (or at least appear not too) to the fans. They said they didn’t go after McLaren (Ed – McClaren was never approached officially) because of fan disapproval, and then they appoint McLeish from Birmingham despite protests at the club.
In appointing McLeish we have really scraped the barrel, as while he builds solid looking teams they lack any attacking nous and his teams are sent out to ‘not lose’ rather than ‘to win’. To call him pragmatic would be under-statement in the extreme. His teams practice a very negative brand of football and it won’t change any time soon. In recent games, were a bold move may have turned the game in our favour, he opted to play safe and not give anything away, to draw in effect when the win is there and even at home too.
Indeed during the past week the manager himself said we cannot compete with the ‘super clubs’. Hardly motivating or inspiring. Even if it is true it seems some fans don’t want to hear their manager say it. He was only saying what we already know and that the other frustration we aren’t good enough or it’s too big an ask, either way it hurts.
Then there is our transfer policy. How are we meant to get better when we sell our prized assets when other teams like Spurs don’t? Over the past two seasons we have produced the English national team’s midfield. Barry, Milner, Young and Downing all gone. Throw Cahill and Bent in to the mix, and we have let go the majority of the national teams first choice starting XI!! We either haven’t replaced those who have departed or have done so with cheap alternatives. How can we progress with such a policy?
We have many players who are simply not good enough. Whether that be individually or in the collective. Warnock looked very shaky again, like Bambi on ice, on Saturday and he is a weak link. Also our defence while hard-working are ‘last-ditch’ in their style and lack any mobility. The full-backs remain in position and rarely get ahead of the ball and the midfield is also slow to get forward in support thus we look isolated up front with huge gaps in between our lines.
But Warnock isn’t the only one and unfair to pick him alone out. There are others such as Heskey who are not good enough and/or playing out of position. We would surely be better to play Bannan in his place offering more mobility and a more fluid attack especially if Albrighton would get some starts also. Jenas should be ideally in to partner Delph but I have no doubt Petrov will get the nod. Petrov does not have the legs to play a full game, let alone a full season.
Given our tactics, we should be swarming over teams when we go forward but there is little movement. Instead we are sending out 6 players who have defensive responsibility as their primary concern. This means we are laying deep, not pressing further up the field and inviting teams onto us all again with a huge gap in midfield which better opponents will exploit.
Take Saturday’s game – Everton didn’t even have a striker and are in a bigger mess than ourselve, yet we didnt take advantage, and they looked by far the most dangerous. Our game before that against Wolves, we were supposed to be the home side yet settled for a point, making late changes which did little but disrupt out own play. This will have to cahnge especially at home. We are already playing to a three quarter full stadium, and others will stay away also if the football is negative.
Conclusion
Of course I hear the concerns of others, and a lot of the time I even agree with what is being said. I would change so many things but I am willing to be patient. No matter who we would have got as manager they would be faced with the very same constraints and for me, I think McLeish is doing ok, and thus I genuinely think that he is exactly what we needed.
Yes, the football hasn’t been thrilling, but we had to address our ‘Loss’ and ‘Goals Against’ columns and we’re doing that. McLeish is cementing a strong foundation at the back and building from here. If this means it isnt pretty in the short-term, I can live with that.
So there are the two ways I see it. As a scientific experiment I am sure there is little worth, but we do what we can. However I can say that I was mildly happier when writing the first part. In the second part, I was feeling angry and frustrated and miserable. Although to say that this means we should all try look at the bright side and, as a consequence, we’d all be somewhat mildly happier remains inconclusive. It just worked for me is all. And so I’m gonna stick with it.
The Author
