First, let’s be honest about the game on Saturday – that wasn’t good enough. Sure, Aston Villa managed to lose by just one goal, but no person attending that match will see it as a particularly close encounter. However, before I get an argument stating “But we only lost 2-1, of course it was close!”, I should explain what I mean.
The team started slowly, and were bullied across the pitch. Defending was sloppy, decisions were panicked, and Hatem Ben Arfa managed to get away with the closest thing to a mugging that the law would allow.
As people know, I am a very balanced individual, but that doesn’t mean that everything that is put in front of us as fans should be lauded as good enough – Saturday was not good enough.
What I also want to be clear on is that criticising a poor performance against Newcastle United isn’t akin to wanting wholesale change at the club, nor is it some reason to start calling for the head of the manager.
People do need to realise that Villa are in a period of time where things have been challenging for a number of reasons, both financially and in footballing terms. I know this narrative can be seen as boring, or otherwise frustrating, but the situation is what it is – Villa are where they are.
Some will say “Swansea/Southampton have been doing well, and they are a smaller club than us!” citing what seems to be a logical reason – that these are smaller teams and shouldn’t, in logical terms, be achieving more than we can.
In basic terms, this makes sense – these teams are smaller in many ways, but they are also free from many things we most certainly are not free of.
The Shackles That Bind Aston Villa
I’m not going to be repetitive and start on finances again, rather I’m going to look at a real chicken-and-egg situation at Villa Park. Against Newcastle, everything was flat from the team, the play, the crowd – the whole shebang.
In my opinion, some of this was down to this expectation that Villa were going to win. Many fans said winning was the bare minimum, and anything less was simply not good enough. Whilst I’ve no issue with wanting a positive result, I think things sometimes get too far as though Villa should just turn up and win against other teams.
Let’s be honest, Villa need to work hard, play at pace, and use their best attributes to win games. We saw against Arsenal that we can beat teams that are, man for man, better teams than us. Against Newcastle? Instead, we saw a lack of real composure, a lack of speed, and panic.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that panic doesn’t equal good football. I honestly think that our midfield wasn’t imposing enough – Fabian Delph and Ashley Westwood are not particularly tall – and the likes of Moussa Sissoko and Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa were able to take advantage.
Is The Best Form Of Defence Always Attack?
Also, I’m all for attacking football, but a lack of control in midfield will always, always mean problems for the defence – sooner or later they will be overrun. Couple that with a pair of full backs who roam forward a lot and two defenders simply can’t take the pressure – attacking is not always the solution, though Paul Lambert was honest after the game stating that our team is not mature enough to be playing slow, measured football because pace is such a key part of the Villa game.
Getting back to that lack of defence, one of the key issues – seemingly like the most obvious missing piece of the jigsaw – is this lack of a midfield anchor. Against Newcastle, where was Yacouba Sylla? In a midfield full of bulky French midfielders, wouldn’t we have benefitted from a 6ft player who could stand up to that kind of physical imposition? I can’t help but think that on paper, the Sylla question should have been one posed, even if it meant less attacking.
Against Newcastle, we lost because there was no defensive midfielder dictating the game for Villa – and Ben Arfa was the man of the match for the visitors. Against Liverpool, Phillipe Coutinho starred as the thorn in Villa’s side – another attacking midfielder. Are we seeing a fairly obvious pattern forming? I don’t care that we were playing at home on both occasions – a need to stop creative sparks ripping us apart has to be part of the defensive plan, regardless of whether we are home or away. Isn’t Sylla a solution to that problem?
Also, and let’s be frank again, are some of the players guilty of having no real competition in their position? Both Matt Lowton and Andreas Weimann have struggled a bit, and there’s a fear that instead of any competition being there – or at least making an impact on the starting line up – these players are not going to give their all if they aren’t being pushed.
I’ll be clear here – I don’t mean that either of the aforementioned players are being apathetic or deliberately trying to play badly, rather that competition naturally forces players to do better. On Saturday, even Christian Benteke was guilty of being a little less mobile than usual though, and I can be frank here, minus his overall contribution since his arrival at the club, we would be firmly in the mire.
However, what matters going forward is how we do against Norwich City. Saturday was, understandably, a disappointing result, more to do with the way we lost than the fact we did lose. Should Villa get a good performance – and a win – at Carrow Road, the mood will definitely improve.
However, and understandably, this last weekend will be one to forget for Villa fans so the sooner we move on, the better. Villa can do better – we know that – but there must be more effort than displayed against Newcastle, or fans will, understandably, be getting concerned that things are not progressing forward from last season.
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