This Saturday real football returns. The international break can be a funny thing. I think I am not alone in that it’s an unwelcome disturbance during the club season. However, once it arrives and we as fans mentally switch gears from club mode to national team mode, the international break isn’t always the bore-fest that was initially feared.
Now after two matches in five days we have to go back into club mode. The whole thing is like being over another person’s house and having no control over the remote. He flips onto a particular game or program, and right when it starts to gain your attention, the television is flipped back to what you were watching in the first place.
As I said last week, Villa were fortunate in that it gave their young, deadline signings time added time to train with their new teammates without having to worry about preparing for a particular match. In the meantime, I was following the Villans that were on international duty. I was happy that there weren’t too many of them; all things being equal I’d prefer they save their energies for the club. One notable exception was watching the United States without Eric Lichaj. He has his lapses defending, but the USMNT was crying out for the width he could’ve provided when they lost to Jamaica.
During the break, news from the club has also slowed to a trickle. From what I have seen and read the one player I am most interested to see is Ashley Westwood. The only thing I know about Crewe Alexandria is that I am pretty sure I steamrolled them while taking Stockport County from the Conference to the Premier League in Football Manager on my iPad. From the interviews I have seen it does seem like he has a good head on his shoulders. That he was captain of Crewe at such a young age, combined with the way he has carried himself in his brief time with the club, gives me hope that he will do everything he can to be a big player for Villa. If the manger is really serious about giving these young acquisitions a chance, we might see him paired with Karim El Ahmadi against Swansea.
A good start aside, Swansea should be a winnable game. It will also be a test for Lambert’s possession football to see if the team can maintain possession at home against a team that has made possession football its hallmark. Closing down in the midfield when Swansea has the ball will be critical. Coming off an encouraging performance against Newcastle, and an international break, the last thing I want to see is a replay of this fixture from last year where Swansea pass the ball around and the match ends in a draw.
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