Well, if my prior statement of better teams beating lesser teams needed further expansion, it appears sides that are roughly equal end up in stalemate at Villa drew despite going ahead earlier in the game from a Darren Bent goal.
Bent’s effort was supplied by recent man of the moment, Stephen Ireland, a player who appears to be growing in confidence, and who has managed to slot into numerous positions, both in the hole, in midfield, and out on the left.
Ireland himself is something of a microcosm of Villa’s overall issue with confidence. Villa have, to all intents and purposes, been a side stripped of self-belief, concerned about making errors largely because of the seemingly never-ending finger pointing of those who look for fall guys.
Predictable Villa?
The game played out much like many other of Villa’s games, not only from this season, but in accordance with the past few seasons. Again, Villa went ahead with a goal, only to see points dropped late. Again, there was the same discomfort in the crowd as the game went on. Villa may not have been openly lambasted today, although boos did ring out at the end of the game, but the tension is still somewhat palpable.
In terms of substitutions, Keane made his Villa debut, in place of Stephen Warnock, a change that few could suggest was “defensive”. Sure, Clark slotted into the left back position as Warnock went off, but putting on a striker for a defender surely indicates a desire to score, and to snatch a late winner.
Sadly for Villa, a late equaliser wasn’t to come, but then on the effort sustained over 90 minutes, a win for Villa may have been a tad unfair on Everton given their contribution to the game. Certainly for the first half, it was Everton who shaded a somewhat evenly contested performance, with Villa suffering from the same issues in the first half as in many other games this season.
So what is it with Villa and slow starts? The team, and manager, have been fortunate that many teams have not displayed the attacking prowess to take advantage of Aston Villa’s slumbering start. Again and again, Villa start slow, building to slight improvements, only for the team to seem reinvigorated after half time team talks.
I’m all for the support of the team, but I do have to wonder if fear is really acting as a paralytic for a team that has had mixed fortunes so far this season. Every great game Villa has played has had an equal and opposite dire performance to provide balance. The rest of the matches have been fairly tepid, uninspiring draws. If ever fans wanted evidence that Villa are middle of the road this season, the results say it all.
So if Villa are paralysed by fear, why do things regularly seem to come good in the early part of the second half? Ok, the players have had chance to scope out the game, seeing where they can and can’t make a difference, but how long can this continue? Villa’s crisis of confidence, longer standing than the tenure of Alex McLeish, shows no sign of changing, leaving Villa in a short term future of ruing wins that became draws, and draws that became losses.
Something Needs To Change
Clearly, such an issue needs a remedy imparting soon. Suggesting it needs to be done though, is the easy part. What will prove challenging is how a man under fire can inspire a team that have several swords of Damocles swinging above them. Fans are prone to criticising McLeish, sometimes fairly so, sometimes not, which obviously has a chain reaction effect on the players. Then the players also find themselves on the end of regular criticism, abuse, and spamming of “thoughts” on social media sites.
If that is the environment that Villa have to work in, then changing the situation will prove hard. Many will suggest that the appointment of Alex McLeish has made it harder for Villa than it may have needed to be, and I can’t argue with that, but things are what they are now. McLeish is in charge, and thus he needs the support of the fans of the club. He may well have been a former manager of Birmingham City, but he is the current manager of Aston Villa, and current personnel at our club need the support of our fans.
If we don’t, for whatever reason, choose to make a paradigm shift and get behind the club, then the rest of the season will play out in predictable fashion. It won’t be a relegation fight, nor will it be a push for Europe. It will be dull and bland, the ultimately karmic result of apathy and frustration. Villa seem unlikely to push any higher than eighth this year, and that is if fortunes upturn a little, but I don’t feel they will finish lower than twelfth either.
As I’ve said on numerous occasions, if there is one thing a team needs, it is the support of the fanbase. If Villa fans can’t support Villa, who will? Certainly not our Premier League rivals, and certainly not the media who have got much airtime out of Villa’s “club in crisis” storyline, dutifully supplemented on a week by week basis via social media in-fighting, open talk of protests, and public anger bubbling along on the surface.
We can’t sit and clap players if we play badly, I’m not that foolish to suggest such a thing, but we do need to stop the rot. Even if stopping the rot starts slowly, by letting bad decisions not inspire predictable anger and ire, by cutting Aston Villa a break, by just being less negative, it is a start. I’m not even suggesting people be inanely positive, just less negative.
Try it. Give the team our support without criticism for a month or two, then see the results. If Aston Villa still offer nothing regardless of our support, if the players fail to respond despite not being shackled by boos or insults, then maybe things do need to change. I personally still have faith, albeit in an period where I often feel in a minority of one, but results will show us what is truly needed, but only if those results are untainted.
So with Villa dropping two points this afternoon, the club continue their meandering in the middle of the table. Everton will be happier with a point than Villa will be, but at least it stopped the headlines being printed of equalling the record of losses since 1963.
If we really had have lost, then I’d have struggled to say much apart from hoping it changed for the better. As it happens, things have changed, slowly admittedly, but a point is better than none, even though we could have got three today.
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