Gerard Houllier has told Marc Albrighton and Barry Bannan, both regularly involved in the opening half of the season, to be patient for their chance to regain a place in the Villa starting line-up. Albrighton in particular was one of the sides, very few, shining lights under Houllier at the start of his tenure, but the manager has dropped the winger in the New Year, preferring instead to deploy Gabby Agbonlahor in a wide role to frankly little effect. The 21-year-old was consistently one of the sides top performers and is hugely unfortunate to be out of the side with the French boss favouring mis-firing experience rather than exciting youth. The Villa manager admitted that the pair were growing impatient in their time out of the side, but stated that this is something which he values, “Their impatience is reassuring but it must not hold them back. If you overplay them you burn them out.” I agree that the youngsters were playing too much at the start of the season but still think that they should be more involved with the likes of Petrov, Agbonlahor, Downing and even Ashley Young not really producing of late. In 2011 Marc Albrighton has started just 4 of a possible 10 games, having contributed to more goals (14 goals/assists in 20 starts) than any other player in the squad and at a far superior rate (every 0.70 games) than closest rival Ashley Young who has the same amount, 14 goals/assists, but in 28 starts, at a rate of 0.50 (1 every 2 games. The signs look even more bleak for wee Barry Bannan at the moment, who since the turn of the year has not even been named among the substitutes in 4 of the 10 games possible. In the remaining 6 games has featured from the bench twice, been an unused substitute twice, and started twice, albeit in the sides two FA Cup clashes this month. So do they deserve to come back into the reckoning more often or should either, or both, be dead certs for a starting berth? Is Houllier right in resting the club’s young talent or is he missing a trick?

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