One Aston Villa hero has already risen to the challenge of this difficult season, arguably exhibiting the finest form of his career. I’m speaking of Gabriel Agbonlahor, of course. At times he’s been unplayable, bullying defenders, scoring himself, and setting up Darren Bent to boot. It’s not been an easy ride for our Gabby over the years, but when facing down the biggest challenge of his career, he’s dug deep and made himself indispensable, earning an England call-up in the process. Let’s pretend for a moment that doesn’t eventually spell the end of his Villa career.

Another Academy product is following in his footsteps. Young Australian/Scot Chris Herd has almost effortlessly slotted into a defensive midfield position, surprising some, and vindicating others.

What’s he doing that other, more highly regarded Villa products aren’t?

It’s All Very Simple

Young Herd is doing the simple things: playing hard, tackling well, making the team better. One might argue it’s a simpler remit than that given a Barry Bannan, and perhaps it is. But it’s no less important.

Of all Aston Villa’s midfielders, Herd has been the one offering something the others don’t. Stephen Ireland, Barry Bannan, Fabian Delph…They’ve all gotten runs to one degree or another. Ireland has shown flashes. Bannan has shown more, especially in terms of grit and tenaciousness. Fabian Delph is a good player who has yet to find a way to truly impress, by his own admission.

Chris Herd has simply stepped in and done a mans’ job. There’s a confidence and headiness there, but more, there’s an attention to the fundamentals: run, cover, press, tackle, play within yourself and don’t do anything stupid. Not such a terribly hard task, but no one else has been up to it. Paired with Petrov he’s made the Bulgarian’s aging legs less of an issue, and given cover to the back four of the sort they’ve not seen much of in the last couple of years. It’s made a difference.

Of course, sterner tests await and it’s only been a couple of games. But for all the hype surrounding the other young guns, Herd has unassumingly stepped up and done what the team needs.

A Page Out of Gabby’s Book

It’s very much of a piece with what Villa’s other success story, Gabriel Agbonlahor has done. Faced with a move out of the traditional striker’s role with the arrival of Darren Bent, Gabby could’ve hung his head and looked elsewhere. Instead, he stepped up his game and has excelled in finding a way to marry his hunger and passion to the team’s needs. Darren Bent’s presence has made Gabby a better player because Gabby has the desire to succeed and refused to be overshadowed. Chris Herd has taken a similar opportunity to provide what the team needs: work hard, do the necessary things, play within himself.

If we’re looking for bright spots, these two players are providing them. Hopefully others are watching and learning. And, yes, Stephen Ireland, I’m talking to you.

Other Thoughts

Thanks to Gabby, and Bent rediscovering what it is he’s supposed to do, Villa finally found themselves where they needed to be…Up more than one. With other teams working harder, even if they’ve less talent, Villa have drawn so many games due mainly to their lack of application. Against Norwich, who will invite the inevitable “Were they poor or were we good?” sorts of questions, Villa did work harder at closing down and forcing the action and were rewarded. We should’ve won, and we did.

Of course, we made it more difficult than it needed to be down the stretch, and clearly Villa have yet to learn to play with a lead. I’m not sure why, when we’re up two, Darren Bent is still on the field, since we need to defend from the front, not score more goals. And Bent doesn’t do much else besides score, as we all know. Naturally, there are not a lot of options coming off the bench, but launching into attacks isn’t what we need to do when up two. Sure, the odd counter, when it’s there, is fine. And I understand keeping on the front foot as a way to stay out of one’s own half. But what we need to do is take the air out of the game, respond to the inevitable push-back by closing down even harder, and showing some composure in passing the ball around, keeping our shape, and not sitting deep. Or switching off.

As Alex McLeish said, ““It’s not an overnight job. We’re building mentalities and toughness and technical aspects but we have to be able to defend first.” I certainly agree about the need to develop a tougher mentality.

There’s a ways to go, and a much-needed win over a newly promoted side isn’t going to convince many that we’ve truly turned a corner. I know I’m not convinced. But the game was a positive step. The question is whether everyone else can follow Herd’s lead and do the simple things well. If they can, Villa may have found a way to make the season more interesting than we might’ve expected.

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