In modern education, especially when studying sciences with no “true” answer, you find yourself becoming quite boringly neutral when writing essays. This has rubbed off on my opinions concerning Villa lately, and so I would expect most of my comments over my time on this site have been as such. Typically, my views on the season as a whole are pretty balanced, but I’ll air them and let you decide for yourself how it went.

Transfers

Lambert performed pretty strongly in the transfer market – Benteke was a masterstroke as pretty much anyone’s pet dog/cat/Goliath bird eating spider is aware of. Lowton provided consistency and was evidently better suited to going forwards than defending. Bennett, well – it’s like watching a puppy at the park, really. Vlaar was alright, not the Concrete Ron figure I was hoping for but improved as the season went on and our form went up, but tried his best to be an influential figure during that rather massive chunk of the season when we were absolute tosh. Bowery was a useful substitute and workhorse, not a bad deal for the price of a pack of fags. Guzan resigning was, for me, more important than Benteke’s transfer. The bloke was man of the match in an 8-0 thrashing. Says it all, really. Sylla actually really stepped up the mark early on and it’s another inspired piece of business. Westwood is, along with Guzan, Lowton and Benteke, the only real players I can see standing the test of time if they evolve with this team. He will be more and more important the better the rest of the players get. El-Ahmadi was pants, get rid of him. Holman might be better suited to a job in chasing lost causes, like a holiday rep in Bognor Regis or chancellor of the exchequer or something. Dawkins, well he’s gone back to Spurs after what, two substitute appearances?

Overall, a decent group of acquisitions from the lower leagues and minor European teams.

Game Performances

Like we were expecting, it was a roller coaster ride of a season. Lambert stuck to his guns of youth after giving the fringe players and apparently vital experienced players a go in the earlier months and did alright, and then terribly. The boys – for the most part – became men in the closing stages and as many have mentioned, this bodes well for the future with a growth in mentality, confidence and experience. No one can slate old Paul for rejecting the senior players and now Villa haven’t failed, the media have decided to jump back on the bandwagon after spending much of the season writing us off as relegation fodder – typical bloody journos.

For the most part I am content with the way the season went, everyone’s confidence in survival took a major beating during that winter stretch, but we can have reason for hope now the players whose better years are arguably ahead of them survived and proved a lot of the doubters at least to some extent wrong.

Tactical Progress

This is where I’m uncertain. The younger ones look to have overcome some tactical issues over the season, but I am unsure as to whether this was down to coaching gradually taking action, or the switch to a more direct, formerly criticised, approach to play. Lambert opted for a very similar style to O’Neill in the final stages and this was something which people moaned about when ‘success’ was more consistent. Would the fans be willing to take on board this approach when it inevitably brings us to our peak – which could be a lot lower than some expect? Lambert seems an evolutionary type and may switch things up when the team improves but his narrow 4-2-3-1 was rubbish. His wider 4-3-3 allowed our 3 strikers-cum-whatevers to roam around and play freely, but was this due to necessity or did he see the light? Norwich, Colchester and Wycombe fans will all tell you the narrow system is Paul’s preferred method. I don’t agree with it, tactically, and if he does revert to, it I’m unsure as to how successful it can be. I’ll leave that one up for debate, but for me I can see a potential problem with either narrow tactics failing or a similar shouting from the stands for tactical changes.

This Summer

From the looks of it, Lambert has identified our struggles last season attacking-wise was largely based on a problem breaking teams down, relying on the counter attacking methods which Villa have been forced to utilised for a long while.

New midfielder Bacunda, a box-to-box type, is one part of Lambert’s rectification of this problem. Renowned for pace and energy, it seems Bacunda can both aid in counter attacking moves, as well as use his movement and engine to tire out the opposition and disorganise them. Working alongside a ball-player such as Westwood or Bannan (if he stays) then this could be an effective alternative method when playing opposition happier to sit deep and see what we’ve got.

Tonev, another new midfield acquisition, can play anywhere in the more advanced attacking roles, but seems best placed as an inside-forward, where we lack numbers except for the heavily disappointing Charles N’Zogbia. Scout reports on him highlight his crossing and passing abilities which we really lack on the wings, with Agbonlahor and Weimann forced out there in order to fit them in to the system. Both can be commended for their performances last season, but true playmakers they are not.

With the highly expected arrival of Helenius on the cards, it seems Lambert is also looking for players either to rotate Benteke with or to compliment him in games where we can afford to use two strikers (or the horrible idea of replacing him). Tall and with impressive technical ability, he does seem very much a like-for-like replacement, perhaps for this season but hopefully for next, giving us a year to train the lad up to standard and then spend Benteke’s transfer money next summer on defensive or midfield improvements.

Okore for me looks like a good prospect, and in my mind Lambert has brought him in as both cover/competition for centre back and perhaps a future left back option. With his recovery pace and solid passing and attacking play, he seems more suited to slotting in at the sides of more solid centre backs. Okore’s poor marking has been raised as an issue for improvement, and playing him out at left back could mean less costly mistakes, and more use of his pace going forwards and tracking back.

It appears Lambert won’t be in for too many more acquisitions after this, with a back-up goalkeeper and perhaps right back cover still probable issues once our clear out has finished. I would expect, with the amount of recently released ‘keepers from the league, for us to pick up an older head rather than a potential future star as Guzan is hardly that old.

Overall, the squad looks steady and improvements can be expected from this bunch over the next few years. There’s just the key of keeping it all together for as long as possible which will become an issue over the seasons, but that’s a welcome worry compared to struggling to offload lacklustre players.

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