It was mentioned in an earlier post that this was becoming something like Groundhog Day. After another draw snatched from the jaws of victory, I have to say I am feeling the same way.
The difference in Groundhog Day though was that the main character actually changed what he did as a result of having the same situation happen over again. Villa, on the other hand, seem to be stuck in the same old routine – Pass for a bit, lose ability to find the next ball, hoof it forwards.
Which is partly what puzzles me about things. After all, Villa are a professional football club, with professional football players, and here they are demonstrating less technical ability than the skills I was taught at age 7 or 8.
Did Someone Mention Groundhog Day
These “errors”, if you can even call them that, are getting repetitive. Repetition, by it’s very nature, is not fun or interesting and leads to testing the patience of even the most understanding individual.
Villa are repeating the same things over and over, and it’s strangely puzzling to say the least. As much as McLeish has been lambasted for defensive football, I do struggle to believe that he is actively telling those players to hoof the ball up the pitch. I’m going to, perhaps controversially, suggest that it isn’t McLeish at fault totally. Partially, sure, but I think others are taking advantage of his hated position.
It might be a view not shared by others, but it isn’t anything new. Only last season we saw players, supposedly “respected” players, fall out with Gerard Houllier over things he was doing, in his mind, to improve the team. We saw Collins & Dunne involved in a drunken spat over tactics and expectations. We saw Warnock out on his ear from the team. We saw Ireland shipped out for his attitude, or lack thereof.
This season, it all promises to happen all over again. Dunne & Collins still display an exquisite lack of imagination where for every passing move that works out, there’s one hoof into nowhere. Nobody is perfect as we all know, but hoofing the ball rarely does anything for us, merely concede possession. Perhaps Houllier was right after all, and the problem wasn’t the manager, but the players.
Warnock, by the same token, has proven that Houllier definitely was right. Weeks of insipid performances are accruing, and with Hutton failing to hit the ground running, the defensive liabilities are shown up at full back position as well as centre back.
With a defence operating that badly, is it any surprise we are dropping points? Is it any surprise we are conceding weak goals? Not in my opinion anyway.
Oh Yes, The Game
Which leads me on to the point in hand – the game itself. Yet again, Villa were dropping points where they should have been doing better. Yet, lo and behold, it was the same old story, with the same old result.
The defence dropped the ball again, and conceded late, taking what could have been a valuable three points and turning it into just one. Darren Bent, supposed predator extraordinaire, was missing shots. In short, it wasn’t really going well.
These issues are player issues. They aren’t down to the manager. The manager selects the tactics, and the players play to them. Whilst selections such as Heskey in midfield can be blamed on McLeish, I can’t imagine a world where he is actively telling the defence to concede, or play sloppily. Former Blues manager he may be, but I’m not subscribing to conspiracy theory and thinking we have “Agent McLeish” in the club. Not by a long shot.
Looking at the visuals for passes completed, for Hutton in particular, it was pretty evident where things were going wrong. In Hutton’s passes, of which I remember there were 49, 31 of them completed. Unlike others who may tell some elaborate story via stats, I am going to keep it simple.
When Hutton played the ball short, the pass completed. When he didn’t, it didn’t.
Simple really. Don’t attempt long passes because, as the stats illustrate, they don’t work.
Now, if I can get these stats and process them in my head from an app that supplies Opta data, I don’t consider it a wild idea to imagine that a professional football club can do the same and, you know, act on them to make things different.
Hutton was, in the words of one Sunderland fan I know, so terrified by Sessegnon that Hutton apparently made the Sunderland player look twice as good as he really is.
Which is not really what you want or expect from a Premier League defender.
Bent missed a chance to score for Villa yet again and, as mentioned prior, if he isn’t scoring, he doesn’t really offer much else.
The trouble is that Villa seem to want, or even need, to have a two goal cushion just to feel safe. As a fan, I personally would only feel safe had we got those two goals ahead, and had three minutes to go. I’d still feel nervous though. Even against lesser teams, and given Bent’s profligacy at present, a two goal cushion is going to be a rare occurrence. So it will be nervous times ahead for all of us.
It’s not a great time to be a Villa fan, but it isn’t like we are going to all change allegiance and support Manchester City in the interim, so we’d better get on with it. After all, what else can we do?
The Author
