Some might call it backbone. Some might call it grit. Maybe it’s just composure. Or quality. Whatever you call it, that’s the thing that Villa seem to lack.

Here’s what’s on my mind after all the talk about experience after Lambert’s recent additions.

Sitting in a Toronto bar last month while away on business, I watch the fabled hometown Maple Leafs blow a 4-1 third-period lead in game seven of a Stanley Cup playoff series, going on to lose 5-4 in sudden-death overtime to the Boston Bruins. And in so doing, they’d also blown a 3-1 series lead in a best-of-seven series. No one in the bar could believe it was happening, that it could happen, until it did. And even then they couldn’t believe it. Except they could.

Sound sort of familiar?

Did they lose or did the other team win? Was it just a question of will? Luck? Were they afraid to win?

And what’s this got to do with Villa, anyway?

Seeing out games. Simple as that.

Down the stretch, Villa showed something. But during most of the season that something had been lacking. And that’s the thing that makes a huge difference between 17th and 7th: playing with a lead. Successfully.

Because I’ve had a few watching the game tonight, I can’t be bothered to go looking things up. But I do know Villa lost a fair number of points from “winning positions”. I’m sure someone reading has it memorized.

While I don’t always find this a convincing statistic (after all, does an early 1-0 lead against United really constitute a “winning” position?), it does say something.

Likewise the “if-the-game-had-finished-at-halftime” statistic.

Whether it was due to set pieces, or what I called “Keystone Cops defending” under Martin O’Neill, Villa have had a propensity to get head ahead and then squander it down the home stretch.

Sometimes that means a draw. Sometime a loss. When six points would’ve seen Villa at the other end of the table, it’s far from insignificant.

So what needs to happen over the summer? Villa need to find some composure.

That means Villa need to learn not to sit back and invite pressure. They need to engage further up the pitch without over-committing, which is all about anticipating and intervening rather than ceding ground and possession out of fear of over-committing. Which in turn means Villa concede fewer corners, along with fewer free kicks just outside the box.

It also means that when the opponent has got the ball and their backs to goal, Villa need to know when to hold off, and when to step in.

Then there’s holding the ball and passing it around without working yourself into a dead end that leads to a chance for the opposition. Break when it’s there, but don’t over-commit then, either.

Whatever you do, don’t just fall back deeper and deeper letting it all come closer to the goal. Bad things tend to happen, even if that seems safer than over-committing.

Simple right? It is, in theory. But we see it happen time and time again. And as the clock winds down, and the opposition get desperate and find an extra kick, something inevitably seems to go wrong. Because Villa are reacting, then, instead of anticipating and imposing themselves.

For me, that’s all about composure. That’s how I conceive it, and it’s true, from the above, that that’s a catch-all for a mix of things.

But for the most part, it’s having been there, not losing your head. Doing the safe and sensible things without ceding all initiative, feeling opportunity and danger and reacting accordingly. Knowing when to just punt it or put it into touch. When to put a boot in and when not to. Not panicking. Not letting the other team get their heads up, not giving them a way back into the game.

Others might call it experience.

Will this evolving side have more composure? This is what I think many of us are trying to figure out, however we label it. Will that have to come from the outside or is it within the side we have? With many young non-EPL players joining the squad, it’s a very open question.

This is why I think youth, or inexperience, remains the biggest concern among fans. That’s what we’re really talking about when we’re talking about Barry and whether Paul Lambert is going wrong with what he’s adding.

When we’re talking about Milner, we’re talking about grit: work-rate, graft, tenaciousness. It could well be we need both. Or maybe it’s just a play-maker we need.

But what I think Villa need most to kick on is composure. I think it could be there, now that this group has shown resilience and faced down relegation, but that’s far from decided.

What do you think?

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