Winners and Sinners!!
The winners were clearly Aston Villa, over a very ordinary Portsmouth side, and, of course, Martin O’Neill over Nigel Reo Coker after their little spat last week. NRC is now back in training and has apparently said sorry for the kerfuffle.
Portsmouth had a few shots on goal without really testing the new Villa defence that much. I like the way the partnership between Collins and Dunne is shaping up. From five games, Villa have the best defence in the Premier League, clean sheets are coming thick and fast. Let’s hope that continues. Carlos and Warnock are also doing their bit as well. Maybe, MON knew what he was doing after all. Ordinary players, or so we thought, but he has them playing really well as a team.
At the minute, Villa need Nigel Reo Coker as much as he needs us. He joined the club with a bit of a bad air hanging around him from his West Ham days with the Hammers scapegoating him for just about everything but the writing of the match day programme. NRC has been played out of position a hell of a lot and it was refreshing to see how well he was performing earlier in the season when he moved back in to the centre of midfield. He still gets taken off too much for my liking but MON clearly sticks to a game plan and this has to be accepted by Nigel. That said, I think he’ll be gone come next summer as there can be only one winner in issues such as these.
We entertain Cardiff City tomorrow night in the Carling Cup. I hope we take the competition seriously as I think we have a great chance to do really well in it. Apart from the likes of Spurs, Man City and Everton, the other, so-called big four clubs tend not to take it that seriously in the earlier rounds. If we can beat Cardiff and then get one of those four clubs at home in the next round, we’ll be laughing all the way to the final!! A repeat of the last two years, particularly with no Europa Cup to think about, would be a massive waste of an opportunity. It’s a day out at Wembley and a guarantee of european footie next year regardless of our finishing position.
Great to see Gabby finding the net. He can be a bit of a glut scorer. Will bang in four or five in quick succession and then go seven or eight games without a goal, but, he seems to be working very hard at his game and, for once, is over-shadowing John Carew.
Solid.
There’s a very solid look about Aston Villa going from the result and performance against Birmingham City. Brad Friedel had a couple of long range shots to take care of but I can’t remember him having to do anything else of note. James Collins and Richard Dunne look to be a tower of strength in the middle of our defence. Blues only played with one up top for the whole game and would have been the happier side with a point, anything to stop the domination eh? I never got the feeling that Blues had it in them to breach the back four with Cuellar and Warnock both as solid as their middle men. We looked comfortable from start to finish and I guess there will be bigger tests to come.
Interesting that MON went for Carlos at right back instead of Beye. A clear indication that he rates the Spanish defender very highly. Cuellar isn’t that great a player, he gave the ball away on a few occasions but he is a very solid and steady defender and throws his body in the way on a regular basis. There was one passage of play down our left when no less than three Villa men threw themselves at a shot from the edge of the area. With that sort of passionate defending, we’ll be keeping a good few clean sheets.
Also interesting was that we never really looked like scoring when we 4-5-1. It was only when Carew came on that we had our first shot on target, Sidwell’s header at the far post. It is easy to argue the point that we need to be defensively solid with that third central midfielder protecting the back four, unlike the Barry/Petrov partnership last season that you could have driven a coach and horses between. With Dunne and Collins together, MON may now want to give Gabby that extra bit of help with Carew also up top and hope that we can stay as solid defensively when we play 4-4-2. One for further debate.
Milner and Young are still taking plaudits for being England’s young guns. Neither were that impressive yesterday in my opinion as their distribution wasn’t as good as it could have been. That said, Young’s free kick led to the goal and we won the game. They can’t play brilliantly every week, and we did, as said, win the game, again!! Bring on Pompey.
Onwards and upwards
The transfer window has finally shut, more with a creak than a slam for many clubs as they will look back on their buying with a sigh. Not so for Villa boss O’Neill though as he says he couldn’t be more pleased with his purchases. I tend to agree with him. The signings of Downing, Warnock and Dunne are good to great buys. The others were very necessary and look to be better than everage in my opinion. Also, with the collapse of the Shorey to Portsmouth transfer, Villa have two players for every position.
I’ll try to be consistant and tell you that I would have liked another central midfielder, especially if MON is to stick with the 4-5-1 formation, which certainly looks to be working well at the minute. We were linked heavily with Van Der Vaart and Jenas throughout the window but by not buying another midfielder it shows that MON has faith in his men. I just think that we are weak without the three names below, until Delph is up to speed and Downing returns that is.
NRC, when played in the centre of midfield appears to have upped his game recently. Sidwell is finally showing the type of form which persuaded Chelsea to sign him, and then for Villa to pay £5 mill for his services. I’d like Ginger Sid to score more goals but maybe that will come when he gets a run of games this season. Petrov can play his holding role and, knowing that the middle of the park is packed, his 5 yard balls here and there will undoubtedly find a man in claret and blue, not a criticism, I think that’s his game and he’s very good at it.
So, in all we DO have a stronger squad than last season despite us not replacing Barry with a like for like player. Perhaps MON accepted early on that he couldn’t replace him and we have to play a different game. Barry DID have his faults. He couldn’t defend in a 4-4-2, just like Petrov. Time will tell whether we miss his passing. MON has a right to be pleased with his buys. Solid, rather than spectacular, that’s what I’ve come to expect from the man in charge. It’s a waste of time asking for MON to sign Matt Upson when we all know he’d rather sign the bloke next to him. That said, MON has a habit of somehow making it work. With a weeks break for the internationals, we’ll have to wait for the ingredients to be put together on the pitch before we take on Birmingham City.
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