On this side of the pond a tie (or as they say in England, a draw) is often treated with the same disgust as kissing your sister because both are perceived to have a feeling of meaninglessness.

Most sports over here will keep playing through all hours of the night until there is a clear winner or loser.

The NFL used to have draws after 60:00 minutes of play before implementing sudden death overtime which rendered draws so rare some forgot they were still possible.

When it became obvious that the team who received the overtime kickoff had a distinct advantage, the league came up with it’s current overtime format that enabled last weeks’ game between the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings to end in a tie despite both teams scoring on their first possessions of overtime.

Having watched association football for long enough, I have come around to the whole idea of a draw as an outcome. While the notion of a draw is unheard of and alien over here, it is a fairer outcome than declaring a winner based on some convoluted rules like the NFL, or the even more random and worthless shootout that the NHL employs just to avoid the dreaded tie.

With all that said, the match against West Bromwich Albion left me with that empty feeling. One of my favourite matches as a Villa fan was the draw at home against Chelsea from 2011 where Stan Collymore completely lost his mind. Matt made several excellent points in his column this week, and an away draw with all the players we have short of fitness isn’t a bad result. Coming back from down 2-0 could easily be considered a point gained, and it probably was, but I still couldn’t take any great satisfaction.

Like most of you, I shook my head at the starting lineup. Naming the same XI who failed to do anything against Cardiff made little sense to me. That the club couldn’t create anything beyond long shots from Aleksandr Tonev and Libor Kozak didn’t surprise anyone. Matthew Lowton in particular seemed to deserve a start; especially if it enabled Leandro Bacuna to play further up the pitch.

With Gabby Agbonlahor, Andreas Weimann, and Fabian Delph all on the bench, it was safe to say that they did not have the match fitness to go 90 minutes. The start of the team was so poor, but it’s difficult to say that Lowton alone would’ve made much of a difference. As poor as the first half was, it wasn’t like the manager had a lot of options.

As it was, the substitutes did give the club the impetus to draw the match, but their influence did wane after about 20 minutes. From then on the draw was inevitable with West Brom perhaps getting a bit more forward. When I saw the first XI, I wasn’t surprised we fell behind, and when the subs came on I thought we could get a result.

Some other takeaways:

  • Benteke’s relatively poor form also ties the manager’s hands. He is at the level where if he is remotely fit he has to play. He didn’t influence the game much at all, but he has to play in hopes he can create that one moment of brilliance. He wasn’t an invisible, non-factor like Darren Bent could be on occasion, but we do need more.
  • I am not giving up on Tonev, but I think it will take him awhile to adapt his game to the Premier League. Specifically, learning not to end every attacking move with a shot from distance.
  • Given Tonev’s play, I am still holding out hope that a returning Marc Albrighton can contribute something. As Aaron Campeau from 7500 to Holte tweeted, the club could use a player who can do the things he used to do. How many times had this team played narrowly and been stifled?
  • Is Helenius dead? Why do I ask? What was the point of bringing him in if he isn’t even going to feature?
  • I’ve said before that Kozak needs a strike partner. I hope it is never again Benteke. Kozak can’t link up with midfield, so Benteke was dropping deeper trying to link up, and trying to flick on to Kozak. Nobody was running to the end line or creating space. That may have been Tonev’s job, but he kept cutting inside to shoot.  Paul Lambert has gone out of his way to target versatile players, but Kozak looks like he needs a strike partner who can link play and make runs. It’s no coincidence his best performance he was paired with Andi up top.
  • Unless there is something the manager knows that we don’t, Lowton needs a run in the team.
  • Hopefully Tony Moon is fit soon. His absence hasn’t been talked about that much but, Monday excluded, the defence has been solid. However, his width has been missed sorely. On Monday, Tonev was supposed to supply that, but the best thing I can say about his performance was that some of his shots were on target. Then again if the goalkeeper catches the ball, the end result is pretty much the same as a goal kick – he needs to find something different as whilst taking shots is a good thing, there have been several times where he really should have passed

As for Sunderland, if most or all of our recovering players are fit enough to start, I think we should win. If not, it could be dicey. I wrote off Sunderland and Palace as dead and buried a few weeks ago, but the have since gotten wins, and the bottom of the table is getting a little tight.

Villa are currently five points and six places above the drop, but at no point this season have I been worried about another relegation fight. Let’s hope that these coming matches keep us away from the drop zone rather than dragged into yet another scrap.

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