As Lady Luck helps us squeeze a 3rd win, is it time to start worrying? PLUS new transfer rumblings

January 5, 2009 by Martin Banks
Filed under: Aston Villa, Match Reports, Transfer News 

0pic4We’ve won 4 of the last 5 games in the league, drawn to Arsenal, got through to the 4th round of the FA Cup for a change, we’re in the last 32 of the UEFA Cup and we’re 4th in the Premier League… why on earth would we need to start worrying?

OK so the results have been fantastic, there’s no doubt about that, but the way in which we’ve achieved some of them does make concerns begin to fester about the longevity of our success.

West Ham dominated possession but we managed to overturn them with an own goal, Hull gave a good account and again we won with an own goal, not forgetting two refereeing decisions that could easily have gone against us. Against Arsenal and Everton we ’stole’ results in the dying seconds of the game.

Then yesterday, down at Gillingham we were very nearly embarrassed by a mid-table League Two side. Gillingham gave a very impressive account of themselves and if they played that way every week they’d storm their division. They can be very proud of the way they played. We, on the other hand, struggled to pass the ball around with confidence, looked tame going forward, played far too much route-one football and definitely didn’t look like a team who can continue winning most weeks and sustain a top four / five push. Eventually it took a very lightly awarded penalty for us to win. A draw would’ve been a much fairer result, but luck saw us through.

As the season wears on, the top sides will start to look stronger and the ‘pretenders’ will begin to tire and, unless we tighten our belt, we will be one of those pretenders. We have the quality in the team to do well (first 40 minutes against Arsenal for example), we just have to have a little more belief and a little more strength in depth.

The belief is needed to cut out this long ball game that we resort to far too often when a goal isn’t looking immediate. We would do much better to relax and pass the ball around. When we get the ball moving and wait for a space to open up, we can be very difficult to play against. We knock it around well between Sidwell, Barry and Petrov and before you know it Gabby or Ashley or Milner are bombing towards their goal and looking very dangerous. But route one is not effective for us, especially while John Carew has a note from his mom saying he can’t play.

Transfer gossip

And the need for a little more reinforcements leads us nicely on to the latest rumours surrounding Villa Park this morning…

There are plenty of them, including a former bluenose who may be swapping his current claret and blue for our claret and blue, a few on their way out and a striker who has turned down Everton but wants a piece of us.

First up then, Matthew Upson of West Ham is a supposed target of O’Neill’s, but the Hammers, in their greed / desperation / delusion (delete as you see fit), want £15m for him. If MON were to go through with this it would have to suggest that he knows something we don’t about Laursen and that he doesn’t feel too confident about the £12m he spent on Davies and Knight. If it were to happen and Upson played well, then I’m sure him and the Holte End would forgive each other for his Birmingham City stint and his apparent affinity for ‘taking it up the shitter’.

Nicky Shorey is apparently on his way to Tottenham, only months after signing for us, but with Bouma on his way back and Luke Young looking like an able stand in, his services at left back won’t be missed too much by us.

Marlon Harewood has been rumoured for a long time to be on his way out and now the list of his possible destinations is just getting longer. Southampton want him on loan, West Ham want him as part of a Bellamy deal and Wigan, Stoke and the Baggies all want  him for £3.5m. With so many rumours floating around surely one is true, so farewell Marlon, we wish you well.

Finally, a transfer rumours list couldn’t be complete without a link to a striker and today’s turn is Milan Jovanovic. The tall Serbian striker has apparently turned down Everton already and is choosing between us and Stuttgart. He currently plays for Belgian title holder’s Standard Liege and has a goal ratio of almost one in every two games for them, but whether he could be so prolific in the Premier League is yet to be seen.

Back tomorrow and I’ve no doubt there’ll be a new cast of players being linked to us.


Comments

2 Comments on As Lady Luck helps us squeeze a 3rd win, is it time to start worrying? PLUS new transfer rumblings

  1. James I on Mon, 5th Jan 2009 21:51

    2. First off, the Gillingham match exposed our woeful lack of strength in depth, by the fact that our bench’s most recogniseable name was Harewood. I think we need another four players to maintain a push in the league, and not suffer one of our trademark inexplicable lapses (the ship took a battering in November, but the crew have kept her on course for the New World of Champions League qualification).

    I really don’t understand why the players keep resorting to hoofing it long. It’s a known fact that we are a ball along the ground team. Even if we string fifteen passes together without penetrating, we still have the ball, and that will eventually frustrate the opposition into doing something rash. A leader on the pitch who will wrest a situation like that is what we need here.

  2. Martin Banks on Tue, 6th Jan 2009 6:49

    3. It’s infuriating to see us playing the long balls, because we are finally a side capable of playing attractive football (and often do). Petrov and the centre backs were the main culprits in Sunday. Why O’Neill didn’t tell the team that he didn’t want to see a single long ball played is beyond me. We were up against a League Two side, we should’ve just kept the ball until they got frustrated and made mistakes. With Barry and Agbon on the pitch I think it would’ve been a different game. Petrov didn’t take to the game without Bazza and Delfouneso let himself down big time, after making such a big buzz in the UEFA Cup.

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