As Aston Villa fell to their second heavy defeat in the space of only four days, questions must be asked of the current situation. Confidence was obviously going to be low after the 8-0 thumping of our team by Chelsea, but tactically the games seemed the inverse of what would logically be the sensible idea.
What do I mean? If anyone was to tell me we would play 3-5-2 away at Chelsea and 5-4-1 at home against Tottenham Hotspur, I would have laughed it off.
Of course, I understand the rationale of damage control when you get stuffed away from home in the league’s biggest defeat, but damage control needs both structure, effort, and teamwork. Against Spurs, I saw very little of all three.
Now, as is the case for any fan, I’m going to be angry, frustrated, and altogether upset at the situation. Had someone told me that three points would be our total from Liverpool, Chelsea, and Spurs, I’d have taken it, presumably figuring it would have been three individually won points.
As it stands, we have had three points – a fair result in simple terms over those three games in terms of result – but the damage done to a young team after two hammerings has got to be evident.
Earlier this season, I lauded Paul Lambert’s ability to be able to take players out of the team and give them some freedom from pressure by not needing to persist with them. Against Spurs, the changes were rung in several areas, and for good reason as keeping pressure off the team when getting smashed is a sensible logic.
The problem now is that Villa are suffering from the culmination of multiple seasons of pillaging by teams where the cream of the crop were picked off and the rest were left on fat contracts wasting away.
Lambert’s plan to use youngsters is admirable, and there had been early comparisons with the Manchester United logic that brought kids into the team. However, with United there was a significant amount of assistance from the older players as the youngsters were brought through. At Villa, the experienced players are either not good enough, too old, or both.
Which explains, fairly succinctly, why Lambert will be feeling the heat now. His decision to invest in the youth is admirable, and a sensible structure for the long term, but the short term dictates that Villa need some stability and experience there to steady the ship.
Sure, we can be proud, in basic terms, about the youth of our team, and that the future can (potentially) be bright but, and this is the harsh reality of the game, the short term may well inflict damage that could ruin the confidence of such a young team.
When backs are to the walls, a senior player can offer thoughts, support, and assistance. Yes, the manager can also offer this but on the pitch, once the game kicks off, there needs to be some kind of sensibility on-the-field pushing forward the team.
Against Spurs, Villa were bereft of that experience. The players who were older than the average were either unimpressive or unable to provide much control. Brad Guzan, though old in relative terms, is still young for his position, and neither Brett Holman nor Karim El-Ahmadi imposed their will in a way that a senior player should be doing when the going gets tough.
Villa need experience, and a leader quickly. Part of this may be solved when Ron Vlaar comes back to the team, whilst another part will need to be remedied in the January transfer window.
In addition to that, the 3-5-2 variants have to be looked at in terms of what they are providing. Whilst 3-5-2 offers a great attacking threat for those Villa can pin back, against teams who can dominate passing in the middle or via pace or other attacking mechanisms it is a liability, often pushing players with frail confidence all over the place like headless chickens.
It would make sense if the five could be mobile enough to make things work, but in the past two games there’s been none of that. I didn’t expect wins from either game, or even a point, but the nature of how things have transpired, and how we have suffered – heavily – against teams will take its toll on the mentality of a young team.
Lambert is still the man for the job in my opinion, but he will need to show true character to provide some kind of life raft for a team bereft of confidence, teamwork, and coherence over the past few games. The game against Wigan Athletic may well paint a picture of whether Villa can scramble up the table or be sucked into a third successive fight at the wrong end of the table – here’s hoping it is the former.
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