Aston Villa News 24/7Aston Villa polished off the final game of the season with an entertaining 0-0 draw against Valencia, showing some encouraging signs right before the new season, surely impressing the watching England manager, Fabio Capello. The only concern might be the lingering lack of a genuine threat in front of goal, Stewart Downing’s injury time free kick rattling the cross bar being the one true chance on target.
The early taking point, of course, was the unsurprising absence of a certain midfielder whose move to Man City could not look more certain now. If the powers that be get their skates on, Milner may still get his chance to play Valencia at Eastland tomorrow night. I’m joking, but the sooner the better, I’m sure all will agree now.
Some impressive performances among the midfield 5 will have gone a long way to alleviating any concerns that Milner’s imminent departure might create. In particular, Marc Albrighton once again, who was a live wire throughout, taking players on, making some incisive runs and sending some quality balls into the box, but I was also pleased to see Nigel Reo-Coker show his strengths in the middle alongside Stiliyan Petrov.
Villa pretty much enjoyed total control during the first 30 minutes, a mixed strength Valencia happy to sit back in a reasonably slow tempo game. When they did press in the final third of the half, it was notable that they focused their attack toward Habib Beye who was comfortable in defense, although doesn’t always inspire 100% confidence. He’s decent enough though and he showed some adventurous signs, looking to provide Albrighton with an overlap on a few occasions.
Dunne was partnered by the reliable Ciaran Clark who matched his performance against Fulham last year and might have troubled the goal keeper with a better delivery early in the half. Luke Young filled in at left back and put in a solid, committed performance.
One of the things I found most pleasing about the shape was the use of Petrov and Reo-Coker as the double pivot holding pair I’ve been so desperate to see for so long. Although I remain skeptical about Petrov’s ability to be as incisive as we need in that part of the pitch, coupled with Reo-Coker, it balances out rather well.
I think Ash struggled to pick up the ball as much as he would like between those two and John Carew, and was forced outside a bit more than is effective in this formation, but this remains a role that suits is talents and he’s reveled in during brief spells in the past. He’ll score goals this season from there, don’t you worry about that.
On the wings, Downing showed he undoubtedly has the talent to be a major contributor to our cause this season, while also managing to frustrate with his delivery now and again. I think many Villa fans are expecting big things from him this year and I’d count myself among that group. The manager might too, Downing closed out the game with the armband.
Carew looked like he might have one of those games where he poked in a cheeky flick or two, but in the end he couldn’t quite find the pace and drew a blank from his 45 minutes.
Heskey replaced the big man for the second half and did a typical Heskey day at the office. Stephen Warnock, who only failed to start for personal reasons, replaced Richard Dunne after the break, the Irishman looking like he may have picked up a slight knock toward the end of the first half. A concern, no doubt.
Beye filled in at centre half with Luke Young switching back to the right and it was fine, nothing else really to say. Just fine, although I’d place Habib Beye firmly as 6th choice centre half myself.
MON made a triple change just after the hour, bringing on Guzan in place of Friedel, Sidwell in place of Petrov and gave Delfouneso a run in place of Marc Albrighton. The young striker did well, looking to force an opportunity or two in the right channel, but could probably do with being a little more selfish in the danger area. That will come with confidence I’m sure.
Andreas Weimann got 17 minutes in place of Ashley Young, with Eric Lichaj replacing Luke Young for the same period. Again, both did perfectly well, but didn’t have much time to make a great impression. As far as the season goes, if we needed to call on either of these players for short periods, I wouldn’t be in the slightest concerned.
With 7 minutes left, Ciaran Clark was rested, Shane Lowry his replacement. One of the biggest cheers of the night was reserved for Moustapha Salifou coming on in place of Nigel Reo-Coker. In the limited time he had, it felt like he attempted more key forward passes than Petrov had the whole time he was on the pitch, but I’m sure that was just my bias. It was good to see him though and he showed one or two subtle signs that he can certainly do a job for us this year in rotation.
And then finally, a little spice towards the end. Alexis was booked after a double foul on Nathan Delfouneso making a typically determined charge up the right wing and then Stewart Downing’s free kick struck the woodwork in injury time, almost providing the perfect ending. Shane Lowry did his best on the follow up, but shot wide.
Overall, despite the lack of goals, a fine tonic to the Benfica defeat. The Marc Albrighton cat will be well and truly out of the bag by now, but hopefully he’ll spring a surprise or two on the Premier League opponents who underestimate him. James Who? Exactly!
I think Marc might edge any votes for Man of the Match, but I’d be tempted to opt for Reo-Coker who performed the unglamorous and easily overlooked role in the middle that provides the stability we need for the rest to function. That’s what he does best, it’s a shame it’s a difficult role to appreciate, but I’m happy he seems to be among the players who are staying, maybe bygones can be bygones and we can get him in a new contract before he walks on a free next summer.
Without wanting to appear breathlessly carried away, my final thought has to go to the system used tonight. At one point in the second half, with Delfouneso playing as a slightly withdrawn forward, Ash and Downing on the “wrong wing”, in front of Petrov and Reo-Coker in the dual holding role, I found myself wondering whether we were witnessing a false nine, with inside out wingers and a double six…
…I quickly dismissed that though, a pretentiously trendy thought on my part and, in any case, I’m constantly told Martin O’Neill is stuck in the past and is “tactically inept”, he couldn’t possibly be employing such vogue tactics.
Could he?
Well, all the rehearsals are over, we’ll find out in a week!!
UTV
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13 Comments to “Aston Villa 0 Valencia 0”
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Thanks for the headsup 2nite mate. I didn’t see the game so it’s good to be able to read someth on it. Albrighton was a star again?? I hope we don’t fall foul next season with him wanting away from Villa Pk. Sign the lad up2 a 5yr contract now on top of whayever he has left on his current one. Do the same with all our best young players now. Get them all to sign long contracts so we don’t find oyrselves in the position we have found ourselves in over the last 2yrs….Come on now Randy Lerner….Sit down with these good young lads and work it out…..Why should we be forced in2 losing another one of our bright new hopes b’cos we were inept in contract dealings. We don’t have 2 pay them a fortune now..Work off bonuses for the young players. When they play well for a whole season then reward them with a payrise added to the longterm contract!!! UTV!
albrighton got a new deal last summer as i recall when he got bumped to squad #12. don’t know the detail, but we’re covering ourselves.
milner is only half way into his deal, all the contracts do is give us a resale value. the player wants to go, he goes.
Sorry! It’s me again…
Rabbiting again as usual…I don’t expect MON to be at Villa Pk for another 5yrs so i don’t want to see him selling off our best and brightest. The next manager that comes to Villa Pk might see our youth in a different light. I’m not saying get rid of O’Neill. On the contrary, i’m happy with the job he’s done so far! He’s brought life back to our club and i for one am very grateful to him and his staff for that. I don’t forget Mr Lerner in this either. Without Randy Lerner none of this woulda been possible, FACT!!! We have the facilities at BodyMoor now to rival any other in the world so we must use them to attract the best young players to Villa in the future. We have an excellent scouting system aswell so i’ve read….Arsenal stay in the top4 every season on a shoestring budget.. When i say shoestring i mean in terms of how much money they spend on bringing players in2 the club…We have to adopt these ideals now b’cos we can’t afford to keep spending huge sums on Finished articles. What has been our highest transfer fee paid out for a player..14mil?? We can’t keep paying out those sums and we shouldn’t either!
What i’m trying to say is if Arsenal can do it then so can we…That’s the route i would love to see Villa take in2 the future. It will put the club on a sound footing financially speaking…I also wanna see us break in2 the market in Asia.and the likes. Countries like China are just waiting to be tapped…What a resourse they could be in the yrs to come. A couple of young chinese players at the club would put us on the Map over there very quickly…Have you seen how they support their heroes in China?? It’s manic all the time…Tap that resourse….Come on Villa!!! UTV!!!
we’ve done well bringing in some young lads outside of the usual scholars such as weimann, halfhuid, lichaj, forrester etc., but we’re not really famed for our scouting tbh, not sure where you’ve read that.
but i agree, that’s the way forward, it’s the long term view and i believe MON’s taken that view regardless of his rolling 1 year contract that sometimes causes people to throw their hands up and cry “MON refuses to commit future to aston villa”.
i wrote this when i first created Aston Villa Central:-
http://astonvillacentral.com/2009/01/mon-in-for-the-long-haul/
as a villa fan living in china since 2003, there isn’t any interest in football here. I work he as a full time coach and know some players at the highest level and they won’t cut it in the prem. China is fools gold, there no money from shirt sales as they are all fake and they are falling out of love with the game for basketball! China and team sports don’t mix look at any major sporting event, china do well in solo sport, the foundation here is a joke.
Villa are better of looking after local/english talent and making sure the basics are right and with former players like sid there the villa production line is in safe hands
that’s some interesting insight and matches a lot of what i’ve read. i believe the counterfeiting is one of the reasons why we’ve seen a bigger focus on touring north america over the last couple of summers.
the far east offers the quantity, but not the quality perhaps.
Thanks, Dan, for the game description, and thanks for both your comments.
Some kind of cultural change is necessary – it seems that regardless of the quality of the young players found and developed, the Barry/Milner Syndrome will keep recurring unless the club can truly foster the idea that Villa can be a top 4 club – Milner perhaps thinks not, but this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, if all the players who think not leave, then obviously it cannot. Even making a run at the Champions League this year will help, but Albrighton, Delfouneso, and others (including Ashley Young, who will no doubt be increasingly the subject of offers) have to buy in to the notion – it can happen here.
it’s such a complex beast, wherever you think of a solution, there’s a counter problem. i could write for hours, thousands of words, and just scratch the surface.
there’s something of a glass ceiling developed by the very existence of the “top four” in the last half dozen seasons or so. tottenham have finally broken though, how this season pans on out might make 2010/11 seminal in many ways.
i’m massively disappointed in milner on a personal level because, and i’ve written several times about this, i thought he was different. he’s not. they’re all the same. we’re all the same.
it’s hard not to be cynical and with that in mind, i would say one benefit, at least, of developing youth is that the local lads will be more loyal.
in theory. there are exceptions for the best though. everton were never going to be offer wayne rooney what his talent deserved. never.
but there’s also something to be said in quantity over quality approach to youth. look at utd, they churn out the kids, but look at their throwbacks….
…robbie savage signed terms at man utd. didn’t pan out for him, rightly so, but he was among the kids they absorbed into the borg that year.
we want to be self sufficient, as astonmichaeldevilla is saying, we need to be investing our resources into a scouting network to rival the best and take the long term approach.
the problem with that is villa fans have demonstrated many times that they have no appetite for the long term view.
then it becomes like a political outlook, what can be achieved with the election cycle? if it can’t be done within that time, it’s not worth doing.
It is a complex beast, and I still have limited understanding of it. All American sports (except baseball) have some reasonable system that prevents all players from simply migrating to the highest bidder. It would be good for the game if Rooney could have stayed at Everton (they could never match the money United gave him, but they could probably still give him more than he could ever spend)but the players, including Milner, apparently, are hopelessly mercenary. Milner may well get into the Champions League, but he will be enjoying it from the bench much of the time, I think.
Assuming the Premier League never goes in that direction, it seems that the ceiling will be more than glass – only Champions League money will allow the breakthrough that, well, allows access to the Champions League.
Most people I meet here (in the Washington, DC, area) who have heard of Aston Villa, have one basic thought about it – “middle of the table” English club. How much does the perception have to change to improve the play, and how much vice versa?
I was in Baltimore when Manchester City was there, and it appeared many locals were wearing their shirts. They are not in the top four yet, but obviously they have taken some step (maybe its just the name recognition of Tevez et al). I wonder what it would take to see an AV shirt, worn by someone other than me, in the streets here
Aston Villa are quiet achievers of late, but achievers, and consistent. Man City is a bit different, they are splashing the cash for success and people like to back winners, and at times “underdogs that can possibly achieve the impossible” – the type of team Man City certainly are. Villa by no means have a bad team, in fact last season saw Villa do very well against the bigger teams, notably 4 points from Man United. The fact that Villa have done it without needing to splash the cash cant be ignored, and I think you will find that if last season we had a top striker to replace Heskey we might have been in the Spurs place. And that’s the reality of how tight the top 8 teams really are. I would like to see a table of the top 8 teams matched against each other as if the league only included them. I think the results may be suprising
Here are the top 8 teams if they had a league of their own.
Team Pts F A
Man Utd 25 24 18
Chelsea 22 32 17
Tottenham 21 17 17
Arsenal 18 22 20
Everton 17 21 22
Liverpool 17 14 18
Man City 16 19 22
Aston Villa 16 14 22
Aston Villa had a lot of draws, and i think should our attack be improved we could have had 1-2 more wins, putting us easily above some of the other teams, the fact Tottenham ended so high is a little surprising. Also if you ignore the 7 points conceded to Chelsea Aston Villa would have the best defence, what surprised me was Liverpool’s poor attacking form against the higher teams.
The fact remains though, just one win separates 4-8, so had Villa won one of their draws, it could easily have propelled them higher. Once again, Man Utd have the best record vs top teams with 24 points from a possible 42, which is only one win over 50% wins, which proves how tight the top teams are in reality
that’s an interesting table. not sure why i haven’t thought of looking at that before, good work.
there’s definitely some wiggle room there, some room for improvement. on the other hand, are we likely to pick up 3 points at old trafford again?
Again, that 7-goal debacle against Chelsea was such a statistical anomaly. That threw off all the defensive statistics for the year – they had been at the top of the league in fewest goals allowed in the second half, and that one game pushed them into the middle of the pack.