As Aston Villa managed a 3-0 win against Tranmere Rovers, there were both positives and negatives. Well, not exactly negatives, just concerns.
On the positive side of things, I was very happy with Darren Bent’s adaptation of his game. He is now coming in to deeper areas to get the ball, and he linked up well with player. Charles N’Zogbia, a player under intense scrutiny by some, did well when he came on as a striker illustrating that a partnership with Bent may actually be a far wiser idea than simply having the French wide player out on the wing.
I was fortunate enough to be in the dugout before the game and got a chance to get up close and personal with the players as they trained before the game. It’s always good to see training up close when I got the chance, and I was impressed with Bent’s control of the ball from mid-air. If he can improve his passing, something that will come with time, I will have absolutely no complaints about the player. Those who suggested Bent coming deeper would affect his striking prowess were proved wrong as the £24m striker scored as a result of a well worked move in which he didn’t just stay isolated.
The game was an overall positive experience with Barry Bannan adopting a solid position in the midfield though he still had a tendency to overcomplicate passing. The concern is, as ever, how Bannan will get on against tougher opposition. The defence was coming forward very strongly via both full backs though I did notice that the back four lost shape very readily.
I also have my concerns about how Enda Stevens may find his future at Villa as whilst he didn’t make any massive glaring errors, I do feel that, at present at least, he isn’t up to the necessary quality needed.
However, the importance of a confidence building win, regardless of the team, is important. As Villa stumbled to defeat against Everton, the Tranmere game gave a chance to get back to winning ways. I was actually quite surprised by the amount of changes though I feel that the move of Brad Guzan to the number one slot may well be permanent by the end of the season.
Other than that, there was little to cover. I could sit down and give a blow-by-blow account on what did and didn’t happen, but there are match reports on newspaper sites for that kind of things. All that matters is we got a win, and did it well.
I’ve included this brief analysis so there’s some comment on the game from me rather than it appearing to be ignored. Graham will have a post up in the morning so I imagine most of you will be able to respond to both his post and mine on that article given the lateness of this piece. Either way, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the game whether you made it to the stadium or not, most probably in the morning as I’ve disabled comments on this piece so as to not go beyond our agreed “one official post per day” rule.
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