Steven Gerrard takes charge of his first away match with Villa, looking to follow up on last week’s 2-0 victory over visiting Brighton to open his tenure. A win today would make Gerrard the second Villa manger to win his first two games, John Gregory being the first.
We’ll soon see what Smith’s sacking and the Gerrard effect will have on the players. There’s not been a lot of time to take new things on board or evaluate players, so one assumes this will be a work in progress.
We’ve all gone out and heard about a narrow 4-3-3. Forcing attacking play wide. Wide forwards tucked in and driving the channels, fullbacks overlapping for width. Wide midfielders tasked with pressing fullbacks, and a back line that supports attacking play. A ‘solid’ defense. Now, apart from the nominal distribution of players, I’m not seeing a huge difference in philosophy from the way Smith wanted Villa play. Perhaps the biggest difference will be that Gerrard can put a rocket up them and has no loyalties.
Smith returns to his favored 4-2-3-1 with Ollie Watkins leading the charge as what appears to be a mix of illness and injury sees Danny Ings and Morgan Sanson absent from the bench, and Tyrone Mings on it. Oh, and Leon Bailey finally gets his first start.
The international break felt like a lifetime, but they always do. Sadly, that wasn’t enough to see Bailey fully fit, and of course Traoré picked up a quad injury himself with Burkina Faso. So, it’s 3-5-2 again for visiting Wolves, which will probably send some into a frenzy.
