I said before the game on Twitter that I expected a point although I hoped for a win, and so my expectations were met, and Aston Villa are another point closer to safety than before.
As I’ve said in recent time, just because it is likely that we have done enough to stay up this season, it doesn’t mean we can afford to just sit back and relax. As in the Liverpool game, it was Villa who took the lead, although it was via Andreas Weimann this time, with the young Austrian scoring something of a superb effort.
Again, like the Liverpool game, Villa were unable to close out the whole match as Robert Huth scored an equaliser to make it two goals in two games for Stoke City. It will come as no surprise that the Stoke goal came from a set piece – a problem that needs remedying as soon as possible for a club with holes gaping in the defence that urgently need to be plugged.
Yet again, it was Stephen Ireland, a man reborn this season – and potentially one of the few highlights of Villa’s disappointing campaign – who was central to the action, with his creativity and interplay providing the supply for Weimann’s goal, although much praise should still sit on the shoulders of Villa’s emerging striking talent.
Undoubtedly less praise will be heaped on the tactics the manager set up which were, for large periods, a pale imitation of Stoke. When I said in my prior column that Villa can play like Stoke if we’re going to win every game in my opinion, we didn’t win, and many might suggest we were never likely to given our inability to deal with set plays.
Quite how Weimann will fit into the team when Darren Bent is back, given Alex McLeish’s propensity for playing a single striker up front, as well as the presence of the older and more experienced Gabriel Agbonlahor.
However, with a second goal in as many starts, Weimann must surely be staking a claim for a starting place regardless of the competition. What Villa youngsters appear to be showing, under more pressure than would ideally be the case, is that whilst every academy product may not be a star, they are providing able supplement to the first team. In fact, in recent weeks, they are the first team.
Villa were also able to welcome back Charles N’Zogbia to the fold, recovering as he has from his “knee” injury. Clearly the French hospital he was sent to for his scan are miracle workers. Well, that or his injury wasn’t as bad as it may have been implied, if in fact he was injured in the first place. I’m sure you all know my thoughts on the matter.
As a team leading in two consecutive games, Villa need to resolve their season long problem – defending. Whilst it is hard to complain when Villa are scoring, losing goals isn’t something any team can afford, especially when the team has been less than prolific overall this season.
With a leading goal scorer still in single figures for their goal tally, it is pretty evident that issues needing to be fixed at the club will need signings at both ends of the pitch. That, or the manager needs to get more out of his defence than has been managed for both this and the previous season. It’s not necessarily a case for massive squad surgery – the players haven’t become poor as a result of some spontaneous lack of talent – but issues do need to be fixed.
As ever, I imagine fans will be split on if McLeish is able to be the man to make the changes. With Brett Holman’s signature in the bag, and players of the ilk of Bas Dost being tracked, perhaps the manager’s suggestion of using the Netherlands as an influence isn’t far from the truth.
Whilst many will state that this season’s footballing efforts have been far from Cruyffian in their approach, Villa are far from a lost cause. Randy Lerner, a man who has had to contain many issues this season, some of which are admittedly of his own making, hasn’t given up his interest in Villa.
The club, recently victims of savage financial cuts will, assuming relegation is dodged, reinvest. Spending may not be as lavish as the high points of Martin O’Neill’s tenure, but it won’t be league wide.
In fact, no club spent as much in the January window on all their transfers as Villa did a year before on the signing of Darren Bent, so whilst it may be a perceived step backwards for the club in financial terms, the decisions need to be made in context rather than in isolation.
Villa may well be able to breathe easier as they creep towards safety this year, but the summer promises more hope, even if said hope doesn’t come from the removal of an unpopular manager.
The future appears to be orange, both in terms of Dutch players being scouted and McLeish’s carrot top haircut. One only hopes that Villa can make true their ambitions in the near future as otherwise next season promises to be a third successive period of disappointment.
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