Opening Day Defeat to West Ham
It’s now been four days since our opening day defeat at Upton Park and that time has allowed me to rationalise and reflect on both the positives and negatives from Saturday’s performance.
For the opening 15 minutes there was a nice zip about the Villa, passing and moving, working for one another and it was shaping up to be a fine display, and with West Ham offering very little, I thought the three points were there for the taking.
It’s all very well and good being easy on the eye, playing these 10-to-20-yard knocks for a period of time, but if you don’t create chances then you won’t win a football match. It really is that simple. We didn’t have that one player who could make a difference between their midfield and back line, someone who creates pockets of space and feeds the ball into the path of Darren Bent. A Modric-type player who can cause teams all sorts of problems.
I thought that, bar Brett Holman, the new recruits didn’t do too bad. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of Holman’s performance before he was eventually substituted. He was either trying to impress too much or Premier League football came as a bit of a shock to him. I hope it wasn’t the latter, otherwise he’s in for one hell of jolt when it comes to playing against one of the top four sides.
What surprised me most about Saturday’s performance was that we didn’t appear to have a Plan B to turn to. That, and our blatant lack of urgency.
Our style of football remained exactly the same from kick-off right the way through to the final whistle. Some may argue that this works for the likes of Barcelona, but this is the way the players on the continent are taught to play from an early age—not in one summertime. As much as I admire Lambert’s tenacity to try and pass the ball into the net, when we’re one-nil down with 80+ minutes on the clock and have yet to trouble the opposition goalkeeper, I’d be inclined to opt for a different approach.
Please don’t take my comments as scornful, because I still genuinely believe that given time Paul Lambert has the necessary attitude and application to turn this club around and make us both entertaining to watch and highly competitive. Something we haven’t been over the course of the last two seasons.
…………………………………………..
Next Up: Home to Everton
This weekend we play host to Everton, who shocked us all on Monday night as they defeated Manchester United. It was a much deserved victory by a team that looked well-drilled and compact, limiting United’s strong forward line to few opportunities. The match promises to be tougher than West Ham and so we have to offer a lot more than we did on the opening day.
Everton are a tough nut to crack and I’ve been racking my brains at the best possible approach to this one. I have yet to come up with anything. They have adventurous fullbacks, a solid central-defence pairing, and midfielders that can break up play and also create chances for Jelavic—who knows where the back of the net is. It’s fair to say that I may have underestimated this bunch at the start of the season.
The Toffees will likely stick to their 4-5-1 formation, and to combat that we’re likely to remain the same, too. This game will be won or lost in that crowded midfield area. We mustn’t allow Everton to settle, start moving the ball, and find Steven Pienaar too often because he’s a player who can do a lot of damage and unlock a defence in the blink of an eye.
For us, our so called “flair players” have to be at it. Both Charles N’Zogbia and Stephen Ireland have the ability to cause a great deal of problems for any opposing side, but all too often they just aren’t producing the goods. The problem with this pairing is that they both rely heavily on confidence rather than just getting their heads down and giving it their all every week. If these two can find some form from this weekend onwards then I can see us battling to a very hard-fought point.
My prediction: Aston Villa 1 – 1 Everton
…………………………………………..
Darren Bent
Over the course of the last few days I have read comments about the future of Darren Bent at Aston Villa football club, with some supporters suggesting that he’s best off elsewhere and that we spend the money re-shaping our strike force.
Give the man a break. This is a guy who has hit almost 150 goals in 347 appearances (many of which came off the bench), and 18 of those have been for Aston Villa in 39 games. At 28 years old, he’s likely to be just about to hit his prime, and I’m sure that as soon as he finds the net once a whole flurry of goals will come along. He’s only just settling back into the side after a stint on the sidelines through injury.
Apparently he only had three touches in the whole match against West Ham, and this was through no fault of his own. This was just a severe case of a lack of creativity, imagination, and service from our midfield. Bent is not the one to blame.
He’s a forward that won’t come deep to get involved in the game—he strictly plays off the last man. Some people misinterpret that as being lazy and nonchalant, which isn’t the case at all. He’s a goalscorer, and that’s what he does best.
Let’s all hope that he silences those critics this Saturday.
Up The Villa.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The Author
