This weekend brings the return of Ashley Young to Villa Park. I imagine many Villa fans, much like myself, will give him a round of applause.
Contrary to how Downing exited the club, Ashley Young acted as professional as can be expected from any footballer who doesn’t have Villa engraved on their heart. Last season we expected Young to go, he did go, and Villa have arguably been worse off without him.
That isn’t to say that his replacement, Charles N’Zogbia, isn’t as good as him. N’Zogbia could certainly fill his shoes but Young’s departure, when combined with Stewart Downing’s exit, meant Villa became wingless wonders.
This season, Gabby in particular has adapted well to play as a winger, even though it isn’t really his preferred position. As much as I can attest to his success in the role, it does smack of a continuation of another failed way of doing things.
Replacing Players With Lesser Versions Rarely Works
The reality is that Villa have been playing a very dangerous game of risk. This isn’t a new choice, and it certainly isn’t solely down to our current manager.
Villa sold Barry and we never really replaced him. They tried to by using Milner which worked out as a fairly lucky choice, till we sold Milner of course. After Milner left, Young was tried in the middle to varying results. Then we sold Ashley Young, as well as Stewart Downing, and Alex McLeish came into the picture.
Looking at Villa in that kind of context, is it any wonder we are where we are? The purchases of players that haven’t been up to scratch is one half of the problem, but then so are the sales of our better players.
You Can’t Expect Two Minus One To Equal Three
Another part of the problem was that players were rarely part of a cohesive object. The reason Young did better instantly at Manchester United after leaving Aston Villa was that he was part of a team that couldn’t be double marked. The sad reality at Villa was that Young was one of the few creative outlets, and thus was able to be kept out of the game when he threatened. At United, Young is only a cog in a much bigger machine.
As a player, it explains precisely why Young would want to leave the club. Notwithstanding his ambition in general, why look a worse player than you really are due to being isolated more than you would at a bigger team? Young knew this, and it formed part of the reason why he left, along with the fact that United are as good as they are, and also the fact his pay increased significantly.
Who wouldn’t? As much as Young was a great player for Villa, he wasn’t a die hard fan like Gabby. Even if he was, surely we understand the benefits of working at a company where your opportunities are better both in terms of pay and success?
As a fan of a club that has becoming increasingly middle of the road it is frustrating. We can’t change our allegiance, but footballers obviously can. We’d move jobs to a better place of work, so we can’t really begrudge Ashley for doing what we would.
Getting back to the game, it is testament to how far ahead United are that Young may not even start for them against us. Had Ashley still been in our team, there’s no question as to whether he would start, but things are a little different at United.
As I mentioned in a previous article, Villa could do a lot worse than attacking United, if for no other reason than sitting back isn’t going to do anything. It is for this mentality that McLeish draws most of the ire from fans. Going out to expect a draw rarely means a win happens and, more often than not, it means playing with fear and mass defending for 90 minutes.
To move forwards, whether McLeish will or won’t do it, he needs to start attacking. Villa might take a beating if the attacking goes awry, but fans would feel better. Sounds strange to say that fans would be be ok with a few losses playing football the right way rather then a list of draws playing the same old tactic. A fair few others would suggest losses would be even better if it meant the exit of McLeish.
It doesn’t make sense when looked at on a microscopic level, and people would call fans crazy for that kind of thinking. However, it comes more down to the concept of “saving for tomorrow”. Sometimes you can’t do better unless you change things. Change isn’t always the solution, but if McLeish wanted some kind of change, he really needs to make it happen himself.
Alex Ferguson may well take three points on Saturday, but we shouldn’t give them to him. As much as I liked Ashley, I really don’t want Villa making things any easier for United than it needs to be.
The Author
