Could A Sporting Director Be The Solution To Our Situation?

Sporting director, technical director, director of football, general manager. Take your pick, all the same thing. I elected to avoid the director of football tag in the headline as it’s frequently been used in England and without success enough that just the mention of the term leads to assumptions of unavoidable failure.

It’s a system that’s been used in Europe for many years though and in places is regarded as the norm. Quite why it hasn’t taken hold in the UK, I’m not sure, but it possibly comes down to egos and tradition. I mooted the idea as being about the only way I could see Bob Bradley being able to step into the void MON left behind.

If I’m honest, I haven’t been overly convinced by KMac in terms of confidence and authority in relation to taking on the biggest of jobs at Villa, but like Bradley, maybe assuming a head coach role alongside a more experienced man acting as a sporting director could be the solution.
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Premier League Squad Analysis – All Clubs

All 20 Premiership clubs were required to submit their squads for use in the Premier League today and they were all pretty much as expected, although Luke Moore was left out of the West Brom squad, so we won’t be seeing him playing Premiership football this side of January.

Clubs were required to list up to 25 players over the age of 21 on January 1st and within that list, no more than 17 could be players not classed as “Home Grown”. Clubs can use an unlimited number of players under 21, regardless of nationality, and also submitted those names.

Stoke submitted the highest number of home grown players in their squad (17). Chelsea and West Ham had the highest number of players not home grown in their squads (15). Only eight clubs submitted full 25 man squads – Birmingham, Fulham, Man City, Stoke, Tottenham, West Brom, West Ham and Wolves.
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Villa Among First To Name 25 Man Premier League Squad

No one should be surprised that Aston Villa have been able to name their squad under the new “home grown” rules well ahead of today’s deadline as it was as straight forward as it can be. I took a look at the squad back in July and listed 23 players who would have to be named under the new rules. Since then, James Milner and Nicky Shorey left, Stephen Ireland joined, so here’s the 22 player who were left and named today:-

Goalkeepers: Brad Friedel, Brad Guzan.

Defenders: James Collins, Carlos Cuellar, Curtis Davies, Habib Beye, Richard Dunne, Eric Lichaj, Stephen Warnock, Luke Young.
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Window Shuts – This Is Your Aston Villa Team For Next 4 Months

That’s the Summer 2010 transfer window done then.

Out: Marlon Harewood and Andy Marshall were both released at the end of their contracts. Stephen O’Halloran went to Coventry on a free, while Nick Shorey joined West Brom for £1.5m and James Milner joined Man City for £26m.

In: Stephen Ireland joined from Man City for £8m.

KMac has confirmed that he would like an interview. Make whatever you will of the inclusion of a two minute video recap of his four game C.V. embedded into the official announcement.

This, then, is the “player palette” I’ll be using during the next few months:-
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Statshack – Aston Villa 1 Everton 0

Tactical analysis seems almost pointless, if ever there was a display based on mental qualities such as determination, commitment and spirit, this was it. The stats will speak for themselves, so I’ll just throw in a couple of factoids, tug my forelock and bid you good day.

Firstly, Stewart Downing. Not the best use of the ball when he saw it, but he struggled to get involved in the game. For once his central position in the average position map is more a reflection of where the action was instead of him playing roughly equal time on each wing. Villa focused 55% of their attacks down the right, Everton 41% down their left. With Downing spending most of the time on the left, he didn’t see much of the ball.

Secondly, Villa had very little possession in general, just 32%. That led to completing just 139 passes, which was 27% of the total passes completed in the match. That’s the least number of passes Villa have made in a Premiership match since the same number were completed during the 3-2 loss to Utd at Old Trafford. And the 27% CPS was the lowest since the 26% during the 1-0 win over Utd last season.
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Faulkner: Management Candidates Must Have Premiership Experience

Excerpt from an official statement just published on the club website:-

We are conscious that we have steered clear of openly communicating our thoughts on the search for a permanent manager until this time, as we felt that to do so would undermine both Kevin’s and the players’ efforts to focus on preparing for these games.

To date, we have immersed ourselves in the process of appointing a new manager and clearly identifying the key criteria this person must meet.

Two of the traits we believe are of crucial importance are that candidates have experience of managing in the Premier League and a strategy for building on the existing strengths in our current squad.

We have thoroughly researched potential candidates and have reached out to a variety of contacts we have within the game for advice and guidance, as well as keeping key staff at Villa Park informed and focused.

If you hadn’t ruled Bob Bradley out in your own mind for his lack of UEFA badges, you can rule him out for his lack of Premiership management experience, which is now an explicit prerequisite.

Aston Villa 1 Everton 0 – Three Vital Points

Aston Villa carved out a vital three points today in an absolutely enthralling battle against Everton at Villa Park with Luke Young providing the only goal of the game in sublime, if unlikely style.

The day didn’t get off to the best of starts when Stephen Ireland pulled a hamstring in the warm up, but his replacement, Nigel Reo-Coker, probably provided that little extra steel that would prove vital in the middle. Nathan Delfouneso took Nigel’s place on the bench.

Everton started brightly, moving the ball around well, but Villa opened the scoring against the run of play in the 9th minute when Luke Young latched on to Ashley Young’s superbly weighted through ball and delivered an inch perfect left footed shot, curling around Tim Howard into the top corner.
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Ash And Gabby Talk Positive, As Does Koeman And Blackburn In The Cup

Among much speculation regarding Champions League bound Tottenham trying to get their hands on no-longer-cup-tied Ashley Young, he’s talked up the team’s desire to bounce back against Everton and also his own determination to re-establish himself in the England set up.

Ashley Young
I’m a positive person. You can’t carry defeats around on your shoulders, because you would be going into the next game having too many negative thoughts. You have to look forward.

Of course, the Newcastle result crushed us. We just crumbled. It hasn’t been a good week, with what happened in the Europa League as well. But it’s the way you bounce back which shows the character in the squad.

I’m very determined. You always want to win things and do everything to the best of your ability. I’ve a lot of hopes and dreams. I’m a winner. Any time I lose, I hate it. I want to play at the highest level, win the big tournaments, win the big trophies – and I still believe we can achieve great things at Villa.

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