Aston Villa managed a 0-0 draw against a bottom of the table Wigan Athletic team who haven’t kept a clean sheet for 22 games. As you can probably guess from that sentence alone, the performance wasn’t good enough.
Regular readers will know I have done my best to remain pragmatic and stand here objectively when analysing the manager and the situation at Villa. When Alex McLeish arrived, Villa were far from a stable platform but, even with that as a given, today’s performance was poor, and the performance was as indicative of the season’s plight as much as any other game.
Even more alarming is that the game was Robbie Keane’s final match in a Villa shirt following his short loan period. Whilst nobody is suggesting that Villa are a one man team, the fact that Keane will no longer be available will mean a large gap is left in the starting XI. Perhaps we will see Stephen Ireland in his place going forwards.
If You Can’t Beat The Bottom Team, It Doesn’t Bode Well
Looking through the Opta stats on my iPhone Opta app, the numbers make for pretty grim reading. Wigan had 18 shots, 2 of which were on target. Villa had 10 shots, of which 3 were on target. Neither stat is particularly favourable.
Villa finished the game with 39.5% possession. Admittedly Wigan are a team known for passing the ball around due to how Martinez sets up his squad, but sub-40% against a bottom of the table team is not good enough. Where’s the pressure from our team? Where’s the effort?
Villa also managed to complete a lowly 162 of 249 passes, whilst Wigan completed 291 of 393. Villa pass completion rate was a lowly 65%, again lower than Wigan’s 74%. In fact, in pretty much every statistic available, Villa were second best apart from in tackles, interceptions, and clearances. Such statistics, viewed in context, only illustrate that Villa were under pressure though, needing to clear the ball and withstand a sustained effort from a lesser team.
We all know that Wigan’s manager, Roberto Martinez, was invited to interview for the Villa job at the start of the season. He didn’t get it of course, although that was because he declined an interview more than because the club had found a better man.
Villa also managed to pick up 5 yellow cards, leaving players closer to suspensions than they had been at the start of the game. Wigan didn’t even pick up a single one, illustrating yet another battle Villa lost. Seems that we were capable of putting tackles in, and conceding fouls, just unable to actually keep the ball.
It Gets Worse Than That
Add to all of this, Bent also went off with what looked like a nasty ankle injury. With Keane leaving the club as of today, Agbonlahor nursing a damaged hamstring, and Delfouneso out on loan at Leicester, Villa’s striking options are somewhat limited, consisting of Andreas Weimann and Charles N’Zogbia in a secondary position.
Knowing what we know about the past of McLeish, and the fact that it was a February crumble that set Birmingham City on the way towards the drop, there are some parallels. Like Birmingham, Villa are now in the middle of a striker crisis. Also like Birmingham, Villa have had to break up their defensive partnership with Dunne out injured. Nobody is suggesting this means an exact repeat with Villa going down, but it’s not exactly great reading.
As I said before, the four game sequence, of which Wigan was the first, is, and will be, very important to Villa’s final outcome. I said back then that a minimum of 7 from 12 was needed. Villa have taken one so far leaving another six to be taken from the next nine. Looking at it from the context of how today panned out, I can’t say I’m altogether certain we will get those points.
If we don’t, then our buffer between us and the bottom five will soon be eaten up. Yes, I still maintain that there are three worse teams than Villa in the league, and that it is unlikely we will go down, but nothing is impossible. If Villa continue to play as they have today, and with the same poor tactics and injury proneness as has been displayed, relegation isn’t too far fetched.
The question in the eyes of fans is how long will the board let this go on. Clearly the McLeish experiment hasn’t worked out. Clearly the faith placed in him by me and those who wanted to cut the guy a break has been somewhat shunned. What isn’t so clear is whether McLeish will be sacked or, for that matter who could be a prime candidate to take over, especially if the board stick with their established “Premier League experience” criterion.
The Future Needs Some Planning
For me, the likes of MacDonald and Cowans are not the right people to step in, so if there is to be a change, it has to be well thought out, not like how Wolverhampton Wanderers have seen their managerial recruitment go – no thanks, we don’t need to be more of a laughing stock than we already are.
If we have the chance, I’d throw as much money as possible at Paul Lambert. In Lambert, there is a manager who has taken a newly promoted team of players, none of which would even get in the Villa squad, and moulded them into a team that are eighth in the league, a full seven places ahead of Villa. Should he be available, whether now or at the end of the season, Villa need to make that move. Brendan Rodgers has signed a new contract with Swansea in recent weeks, and few other managers fit the board’s stringent Premier League experience criterion.
So it may well be the end of the line for McLeish in the eyes of the fans, especially as the away fans started chanting angrily about tactics and how he should be sacked. All that is left is to wonder if the board will have the courage to admit they have made a second managerial mistake, and hope they can clear it up before another season of disillusionment or even a potential relegation this year.
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