In tonight’s Russian test; Is it all down to Delfouneso now?

February 26, 2009 by Martin Banks
Filed under: Aston Villa 
nathan delfouneso

The hopes of many Villans rest on this young lad's shoulders

Villa’s squad for this game has been a hotly debated topic this week, with many Villa fans disappointed and disgruntled and even some of my Villan blogging allies voicing their understandable frustrations; AVFC Blog and Aston Villa Mad, to name just 2.

For those who are traveling to Russia to watch the game, the emotions are running even higher, as they have invested a lot of money in it. But even right through to the armchair fans and the fair-weather fans, the opinions on this squad selection are impassioned. Every Villa fan has, and deserves, a voice and on this ‘apparent lack of ambition in the UEFA Cup’ those voices are loud and clear.

On the plus side

The team that starts will have the strongest defence we have fit, so hopefully they can do a solid job and allow us to see some of the fringe players and youngsters stake a claim for more regular action.

“They’ve tried before and failed” I hear you say, so many will be putting all their eggs in one basket and hoping the Fonz man can pull out some of his magic and continue his European scoring campaign.

Delfouneso didn’t even begin his European journey until the Slavia Prague game, when he came on for all of a few seconds, but then in the next game (the embarrassing loss to MSK Zilina) he started and scored a terrific goal. The Hamburg loss saw another start and another goal, this time that superb ’strikers instinct’ goal that I was so enamoured by.

The next game in the UEFA Cup saw the Fonz back on the bench to watch us draw to Moscow, but tonight the majority of Villa fans will be hoping to see him get the nod ahead of Marlon Harewood and start alongside John Carew.

The midfield is where my main concerns lie, after having seen how well Moscow could hold onto the ball, I fear that we will struggle to get the game by the scruff of the neck unless Salifou and Sidwell suddenly pull out the kind of performance we hoped they were capable of when we signed them.

All in all, it’s mainly going to be wishful thinking for us till 5 0′clock and then it will be fingers crossed time.

Good luck to the lads who are out there, do us proud.

Up the Villa.


Comments

2 Comments on In tonight’s Russian test; Is it all down to Delfouneso now?

  1. hitman83 on Thu, 26th Feb 2009 11:09

    2. Could we see an all out long ball attack tonight? At the end of the day we need to score to stay in.

    —————————Guzan—————————

    Young———Knight———Davies———Shorey

    ————Osbourne–Sidwell–Salifou————–

    ———Delfouneso–Carew–Harewood————

  2. wins4villa on Thu, 26th Feb 2009 12:42

    3. No hitman83! How could we play that midfield and leave out Gardner?

Tell me what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!