In his second season we have only seen glimpses of Christian Benteke at his best. His performance against Norwich changed the entire game. A game that may be the one that keeps Villa up. Against a diminished Manchester United a series of spurned chances killed off any chance Villa had of getting a result at Old Trafford. When he has been injured and/or unavailable Villa’s performances have ranged from inept to insipid.
Now that Benteke is out for eight months with a torn achilles the rest of the season could be quite ugly. A Birmingham City-like late season collapse toward relegation seems more plausible than it did yesterday. If they can muster three points that should hopefully be enough.
This is a particularly bad time for this to happen. Libor Kozak, who for all his shortcomings probably would’ve buried those chances at Old Trafford, is still on the shelf. Gabby is struggling with fitness and his performances are at an ebb. United’s first and third goals were in part due to Gabby giving the ball away. Maybe playing centrally will help him have more of an impact. It certainly can’t hurt Andi’s performances. At times I have been of two minds over which one of him or Gabby should go off for Marc and really haven’t a strong opinion either way. In his limited chances Grant Hold hasn’t done anything to warrant more time on the pitch.
With only two fit, Premier League strikers (sorry Grant) a 4-4-2 makes sense. It also is the formation that best suits Albrighton. As odd as it is accommodating a player who was an afterthought for two years, he has been among the best players since the new year. He may not suit the manager’s preferred formation, but he doesn’t exactly have the pieces for a 4-4-3 at the moment.
It’s a shame Tonev has been a complete zero. Like the blind squirrel that he is I keep waiting for one of his long-range efforts to find the target. I suspect the only reason he saw the pitch was that the manager was hoping he would show something. One option is to play the over-exposed at right back Leandro Bacuna on the other wing. I don’t think anybody wants to see Joe Bennett there again.
That’s what I would do. What’s more likely is that the manager shoehorns Gabby, Andi, and Holt into his 4-3-3, or we see a 3-5-2 and have the pleasure of having both Baker and Clark on the pitch at the same time. All these choices are different levels of bad. I’m afraid we have some bad football on the way.
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