Villa 1-2 MSK Zilina – What went wrong?

December 5, 2008 by Martin Banks
Filed under: Aston Villa, Match Reports

Did MON get it wrong last night? Not necessarily

Last night’s loss was an embarrassing scoreline that will not help us to rebuild our confidence after failing to score against Fulham despite such dominance. The game was won and lost (won by them and lost by us) in a 3 minute spell, just after the quarter of an hour mark. MSK started stronger than anyone had expected but it was still a huge shock when Vladimir Leitner’s cross was left by Zat Knight and it ended up in the net.

Villa were shocked and stunned, and while we were still pondering how on earth we were losing, Zilina caught us on the backfoot with a well worked passing movement and doubled that lead. Villa had to snap out of it and fast. We continued to push forward but Ashley Young’s crossing and Marlon Harewood’s positioning weren’t marrying up too well. Just before the half hour mark up stepped the new Villa youth wonderkid, Nathan Delfouneso, with a wonderful strike that was supposed to be the beginning of our comeback.

It didn’t happen.

And when O’Neill eventually brought on the likes of Barry and Milner, it was too late for our composure to return, even when Zilina went down to ten men we still couldn’t find a way through.

Team selection

The team that MON picked is no doubt to blame for the loss, but I (and I may well be in the minority here) don’t think it was a mistake. This was a game that almost definitely could be gambled with, certainly more so than any other game we will play for a long time (all season probably). It would’ve taken a very unlikely string of events for us to come fourth in our group. So it was surely our best chance to see what some of the fringe players are capable of. ‘Not much’ will be the resounding response to that.

But lets try and stay positive here at Aston Villa Blog and focus on what good came of last night, of which I can think of three things right away:

We are through to the knockout stages of the UEFA Cup.
We now know the B-team isn’t good enough.
We now know Nathan Delfouneso is.

1. Loss seals qualification

Thanks to Hamburg’s victory in Prague, it is now impossible for us not to come in the top three of Group F. Does this mean that MON will pick a similarly weak Villa team for the Hamburg game? Only time can tell. Beating Martin Jol’s men won’t help us with qualification now, but it does still have two advantages:

If we top the group we (potentially) face an easier tie in the next round.
It will do our confidence the world of good to beat the toughest team in the group at their place.

2. The B-team

Last night’s starting line-up featured just a few regular members of the first team and was largely made up of players who are supposedly knocking on the door. Last night didn’t do their cases much good.

Moustapha Salifou:

He seemed much less effective than he did against Prague but he was apparently playing at 70% fitness last night, which could maybe excuse his poorer performance but it does throw up a lot of questions about why O’Neill let him start. I’d like to see him play some more before writing him off, but I imagine many Villa fans will have done that already. Much like I bet is the case with…

Isaiah Osbourne:

Being a huge lifelong Villa fan, I really feel for Osbourne (also a huge lifelong Villa fan), but the harsh truth is that, now we are so much better, he just isn’t good enough. If he wishes to have a successful career he needs to move to a Championship team, where he could get regular first team action and probably be a very big part of the team. As for getting in the Villa team though, I just can’t see it happening. I don’t begrudge him though, if I was good enough to be on Villa’s books (which I am MON, honest, sign me!), I wouldn’t want to leave.

Zat Knight:

Another Villa fan and another who will struggle to get in the team, if you ask me. He was once in the England team but it’s very hard to see why with the form he’s been in for us. Again I feel for him and I like him, but I always get a cold shiver of fear when I see him on the teamsheet. Maybe he can get back to his best, but so far it hasn’t looked likely.

Craig Gardner:

He’s a tough one to call our Craigy is, yet another Villa fan and yet another player I’m fond of, but is he good enough? Well I’m not gonna say no but I’m also not gonna say yes. I think Gardner is just right as he is being used i.e. as a decent back up player and as a useful utility player.

Marlon Harewood:

I think the best advice for Marlon is to move on in January. Apparently Everton are now interested which would be his best chance to still be in the Prem next season but I’d advise him to go to Baggies or Stoke, where he’s more likely to stay in the first team.

Ciaran Clarke:

Who? You might say. Well he’s a defender who has very recently sneaked his way onto the very outskirts of the first team. He is squad number 47 and he was on the bench last night, presumably in case of injuries more than anything else. I doubt he’ll be breaking through anytime soon but he’s one to watch.

3. Nathan Delfouneso

‘The New Gabby Agbonlahor’ he has been labelled, even though ‘The Old Gabby’ is still pretty new. It’s easy enough to see the comparisons between the two; they both have lightning pace, they both like to go at defenders, they both have tons of ability and they both scare the shit out of centre backs. The Fonz, as he is affectionately known by the Holte End, has his own attributes too. For a start, I can’t see Gabby having scored that goal, The Fonz also displayed a great ability to play ‘off the shoulder’ of the last defender too, which I can see Barry and Petrov having a field day with. Those two could feed him neat balls to run onto all day long. Definitely an exciting prospect and the biggest plus to take from last night’s game. Let’s hope MON gives him some Premier League minutes while Carew is injured.

Comments

2 Comments on Villa 1-2 MSK Zilina – What went wrong?

Harold Cucumber on Sat, 6th Dec 2008 1:32

Good article. I agree with your comments about Delfouneso – there is no way Agbonlahor would score a goal like that, especially with his left foot.

Also, I always thought Gardner is surprisingly cultured in his passing, but I don’t think he will ever be top class as he just isn’t enough of an athlete.

Osbourne looks completely out of his depth – like a rabbit in headlights; every time he’s playing I closely watch him and am left aghast at his positioning and marking, and yesterday he even looked a little bit lazy. In all honesty, I doubt at this minute whether he’d do a good job for a Championship team.

Finally, your comments on Knight, Harewood and Salifou are spot on: Knight is way too error prone, Harewood simply doesn’t have the quality, and in my opinion, Salifou looks a little lightweight and is frighteningly casual on the ball for the Premiership.

Martin Banks on Sat, 6th Dec 2008 4:33