After getting an email from previously featured blog George Weah’s Cousin, I wanted to tackle something Chris Rann – the aforementioned blog’s owner – was discussing. The topic? Who can survive, and in what order.

I’m not going to go into that particular topic here – largely because I answered those questions for Chris’ site – but rather the reasoning why I didn’t pick Aston Villa as part of the bottom three.

Why? I know, in recent times, whether governed in months, years, or games, we have been poor. We’ve seemingly been unable to defend set pieces no matter the manager, and we’ve lurked at the wrong end of the table for the majority of three years. However, I do believe that, given the right structure, we have more to us than other teams.

It’s been bleak in recent times, sure, and we all know that conceding goals and dropping points is the hallmark of any relegation-haunted team. For us, it has been a diminutive
midfield who have been unable to stem the tide further up the pitch. Couple that with Ciaran Clark playing like a maniac for Villa – and not the good kind of maniac – and our issues aren’t exactly small.

However, with the right structure and mentality, I think we have it in us to survive. Call it bias, insanity, too much rum, or anything you like, but I don’t think we are doomed – not yet anyway.

This isn’t to say that we are, in any shape, free from danger. On the contrary, our circumstances are pretty challenging, and we need a reaction if we are to survive – at present it is a very big if.

Much depends on such pressures staying on the shoulders of a very young team. On paper at least, Yacouba Sylla can add more height to a team that has lacked it in midfield. If he and Ashley Westwood can work well together, then Villa may, just may, have a glimmer of hope.

Of course, it could go horribly wrong. I don’t need to dig too deeply to know that Villa have issues – big issues – that are causing us problems. Whether it is conceding early and collapsing, or conceding late and being unable to take the pressure, the issues are widespread.

So how do we solve these problems? From my own viewpoint, I see the issues stemming largely from over-exertion in early parts of the match. This, in short, explains why we start strong, can often lead, but then collapse when bodies simply don’t have it in them anymore.

Half of the reason this team has this particular issue is the distinct lack of experience that they have. Older players have the footballing intelligence to know when to expend energy and when to conserve it. Right now, it looks like the players are so desperately eager to please that they burn up all their efforts in less than 90 minutes. The result? Villa fall apart later on.

How you transfer that to a young team is challenging. You can, of course, coach players to think more about their challenges, to think more about how they use their energy but, without the prior experience, the decision-making of players does lack, and it shows.

The key going forwards? Lessons need to be learned and quickly. Some have laid the fault at Paul Lambert’s feet, but the truth is that the issues involved here are mental problems that the players have. You can coach someone to stick to a formation, to play a defensive line, or whatever you want them to, but you can’t actually play the game for them.

In short, this is what is driving Lambert “mental” in his own words. When you have that experience that a good player does, you can sometimes forget that the decision-making, the football intelligence, or whatever you want to call it, doesn’t come naturally to every player. In fact, it is mostly experience that teaches players that, and Villa simply don’t have it.

So survival, for me, comes down to how quickly this intelligence can be gained. If it can be cultivated soon, Villa stand a chance. If not, sadly, Villa risk losing their ever-present status in the Premier League.

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