When some of our brethren get to hand-wringing, they wonder aloud, things like, “What happens if Benteke gets hurt? We’re &$!*%#@”.
Thanks to a fortuitous international break, and an otherworldly performance against City, Villa look to have weathered that particular storm. For now, at least. And, of course, thank you Kojak for bailing us out at Carrow Road.
But the thing on my mind, after watching a brutal weekend of American football, is that injuries really are pivotal. We all know this, but most everyone tends to toe the line and parrot some version of Injuries Are Part Of The Game™.
Of course they are. And they can be terribly cruel. Yes, teams soldier on and try to adapt. But a couple-three key injuries can quite literally be crippling to a side.
On Sunday, I watched the Green Bay Packers lose two of three starting wide receivers. They’d already started without middle linebacker Clay Matthews, and lost a big-play receiver in the off-season. Even though they pulled out a gritty 19-17 win over the defending Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens, their season could effectively be over. One of those two receivers suffered a broken leg. He ain’t coming back anytime soon.
On Saturday, I watched the Oklahoma Sooners go down to defeat in their 108th game against the Texas Longhorns. This is like losing to blues if they were also French. Injuries, in particular to starting defensive tackle Jordan Phillips and linebacker Corey Nelson, played a key role. Without these two in the middle (two-thirds of the defensive spine), Texas could run, and control the game. Possession, in other words.
Etiquette dictates that coaches are supposed to brush off injuries, insist on excellence regardless, act like nothing happened. Damn the torpedoes.
But anyone on the inside knows that one or two key injuries can effectively end any season’s aspirations. Sometimes you’ve got someone who can step in and you don’t miss a beat. Sometimes you don’t. Luck of the draw. Look at United and take out Rooney and van Persie.
So, back to Villa.
Since the long-ago days of Martin O’Neill, Villa have had a very thin squad. No real depth. You can pencil in the starting XI most weeks. Never mind how good that XI is or isn’t. It’s an all-your-eggs-in-one-basket syndrome.
Two years ago, the Packers suffered a devastating string of injuries during the season, yet somehow filled the gaps and won the Super Bowl.
How? By being deep. Unexpectedly so, probably even to themselves. Guys just came in and made plays. They didn’t necessarily stick as starters after that. They just did something special at a certain time of asking.
One of the issues facing Villa has been a lack of true depth. Perhaps it’s been the failure to develop talent. Perhaps that talent hasn’t really ever been all that good (in enough numbers). Perhaps it’s been the mis-allocation of a limited resource (aka money) on mediocre assets. Perhaps it’s all of the above.
But the bottom line is that we’ve all said about a number of players, “What happens if he gets hurt?” Or, “Who do really have that could come in and change a game?”
So, you try to build depth. You’ve got to have 25 bodies potentially capable of doing something useful in the Premier League.
Part of the rationale behind Lambert’s budget-wise spending has been all about this. He needed a new floor. Not just one or two planks. Pretty much a whole new floor. And we know flooring can be rather expensive. You want the tropical hardwoods? Gonna cost you. Villa had a lot of square footage to cover. And they’re on a budget.
To get enough players in to completely overhaul not just a starting XI but an entire first-team squad, you have to go cheap and young and in numbers. Villa just don’t have enough money to do a City. So, as a matter of necessity for more than one reason, that’s what’s been done.
I don’t know how many of the first round will stick. We’ve seen Bennett replaced. And now Lowton, for the time being, anyway. I don’t know how many of the second round will stick. I think Okore would’ve quite easily. And it looks like Bacuna will.
But as we go forward, we have more young players on reasonable wages making up that depth. It’s not killing us to carry Lowton or Bennett as back-ups. Same with the keepers. Same with Kojak and Helenius. Players like Carruthers and Grealish can go out on loan and get the playing time they wouldn’t otherwise.
It’s not fast, because we simply can’t afford fast. But we can afford step-by-step. And we need depth. We need to go through a number of prospects to find the gems and build out a squad. Think of this as a hastily assembled academy-replacement squad, overall.
Swansea didn’t come together overnight. That’s been a multiple-year project. Likewise Spurs. And of course we’re not nearly done yet. But we’re getting there, getting closer to that point where a window with one, two or three signings could move the team forward significantly.
It’s not an overnight fix. But it’s practical and the only choice we have. If all of Lambert’s initial purchases end up becoming second choice, we’ll be in a much better place than we were before.
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