Aston Villa News 24/7When Martin O’Neill says that you can often learn more from a defeat than a victory, as cliched as it’s become, he’s not wrong. Feyenoord put out a young side, we should of beaten them, we did. Benfica were a much tougher prospect and given the circumstances, they should probably have had the beating of us. They did. Comfortably. But did we learn anything?
Well, firstly, some perspective. Benfica are an extremely good team, they play some wonderful football and to describe them as “attacking” would be an understatement. As I mentioned in the preview, they tend to play a tight diamond with Saviola behind the front two – one of which usually being the brilliant Óscar Cardozo – but in practice it’s generally more of a 4-3-3 and, with the width coming from the full backs, it frequently turns into an old fashioned 2-3-5. With Luiz playing as centre half-cum-attacking midfielder, I don’t know what you’d call it. It’s impressive anyway.
And to add some further perspective, here’s what Benfica manager Jorge Jesus thought of his side’s performance:-
Aston Villa finished sixth in England and is a quality team with international players. But we made the game easy with a spectacular first 45 minutes.
Few teams will be able to stop this side playing this way. We have been improving and this was our best game of pre-season. We want to get stronger over the next week and of course we have room to improve, but we are already very strong.
Javier Saviola described it as “almost perfect”. Almost, Javier, but not quite. John Carew blotted their copy book in the second period of course and could have had at least one more if not for Luiz’s goal line clearance.
So it clearly wasn’t the most impressive Villa performance we’ve ever seen, but we have to credit Benfica, they not only carried out their own game plan, they did very well at shutting down most of what we could muster, more so during the first half, but there was no coming back from that deficit in any case. It may have been a friendly, but they weren’t shy about throwing the odd shoulder in here and there.
Did we learn anything? Maybe the odd suspicion confirmed more than anything new learned I would say. I had a few, you probably did and, I suspect, Martin O’Neill did as well. My own concern remains the middle of the park; we constantly seem to lack craft, guile, guts, creativity, the lot in the middle. Even if James Milner were to stay, I don’t think he provides the full solution, we still don’t have someone truly capable of owning the centre of the field.
The loss helps focus on the shortcomings, while the win over Feyenoord can cause us to paper over the cracks. We know Sidwell and Heskey can score those sorts of goals, they just don’t do it often enough and I saw little to make me think that would change much this season. I would love to be wrong.
I hate to dismiss pre-season friendlies, or any friendlies for that matter, I always think that winning can be habitual, but it’s important not to go over the top with the reactions either. The conditions favoured Benfica, they definitely were able to put out a stronger team and they really did score some spectacular goals. The only thing that surprised me a little was the strength of the side fielded with their friendly against Tottenham in Lisbon tomorrow night in mind.
Speaking of which, with Tottenham recently suffering a 4-1 defeat themselves at the hands of Villarreal at White Hart Lane, it might be an interesting benchmark to see how they perform against this Benfica side who will be hungry to retain their own Eusébio Cup. Kick off is at 7.45pm GMT, worth watching if it’s available where you live.
As for Villa, well we have one more rehearsal; Valencia at Villa Park on Friday. As I mentioned before, the Spanish side will also be playing at Eastlands the following night, so that’s likely to have a bearing on their team sheet.
A moral boosting win similar to the Inter Milan game three summers ago wouldn’t hurt though, regardless of who plays at Villa Park, but let’s hope we don’t get carried away whatever happens.
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12 Comments to “What Did We Learn In Portugal?”
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“they did very well at shutting down most of what we could muster”
Exactly what we always fail to do imo.
“My own concern remains the middle of the park; we constantly seem to lack craft, guile, guts, creativity, the lot in the middle.”
It’s long been a concern for most Villa fans and I would think MON knows it too.
In which case, I wonder if (as usual) we’re all barking up the wrong tree in asking for a top striker and creative midfielder?
Any takers that he does neither and goes for the meat in the sandwich?
Milner, Sidwell and NRC out and some quality (expensive) graft in the middle?
Ireland and who, I wonder?
Or is that stating the obvious? (probably is, knowing me).
mmm, yeah, the central midfielder thing is getting repetitive. i know i’ve mentioned it before, but it’s petrov that concerns me and he’s not going anywhere.
the stiker, yes, but we could come good with what we have with addition of the right man in the middle.
Good points Badger…We need some1 in the middle of the field who isn’t afraid to put their foot on the ball. Some1 who will take pressure off our back 4 and take & show control in midfield. The problem is there are very few players of that class affordable to us. If we can afford to buy them then it’s wages that become the stumbling block! I’m trying to think of a player who could do the job…What about the Belgian defender turned Midfielder Man city bought from Anderlect? i think. I can’t remember his name but he is a top player. He’s young aswell and if we could get him and Ireland in the middle with a tuff tackling midfielder also then we could get away with a 4-3-3 system. Man City have a lot of players surplus to requirements with the cut down on squads in the rules so we should use Milner to clear a path to getting 2 or 3 of theirs. Why not. We need to use our brains as a club now b’cos we can’t afford to go toe to toe with the UTD’s/ City’s/ Lpool’s.Arsenals or even Spurs for that matter. They are loaded and we’re not. I’m not complaining about the Chairman Randy Lerner b’cos he’s done a great job with the club. We as fans want success tho and that has to come in some form or other. If we can’t make Champs Lge football then we have to have a real go at the trophies we can win. Europa Lge, FA Cup and Lge Cup. These are trophies we can win. I know i keep saying it but we must cut our cloth accordingly. How much money do ARSENAL spend every yr? Not as much as we do yet they have found a manager and a formula that works for them. It’s a formula i’d like to see adopted by Villa. It would work for us. We are back in the spotlight and we have to use it to attract the right kind of top young players from England, Scotland, Ireland and all over Europe. We are supposed to have one of the best scouting organisations in Europe, haven’t we? If that’s the case then we must use it properly now!!! No more wasting opportunities. We have to use every advantage our recent run in the spotlight has given us! I seriously hope and pray we don’t let this opportunity slip this time..
it’s a common misconception that city will have to get rid of a lot of players because of the home grown rule. you might want to check out my analysis of the impact of the new rules on their squad, there’s fewer opportunities there than you imagine.
http://astonvillacentral.com/2010/07/how-does-man-citys-squad-stand-up-against-the-new-home-grown-rule/
i think it’s kompany you’re referring to. good shout, don’t think they’ll be interested in selling unless he’s looking for a way out though.
I’ve got a easy answer to our problems. Tell man city to forget about the money for milner! Let’s get Ireland, SWP and Bellamy instead! See problem sorted
easy!
oh, wait. SWP threw his toys out the pram for not being offered 100k/wk, don’t know what ireland or bellamy earn, but i do know our wage bill is bursting at the seams.
so, how do you propose to pay for those three for the next four years?
i suppose we could offload salifou, that might cover ireland and bellamy’s wages.
Rumours are circulating that Bellamy could again join Mark Hughes at Fullham, having already worked together at Blackburn, Wales and Man City.
That said i am a little unsure about him, given his turbulent relationships with fellow players, and his golf clubs.
Ireland however is a great possible addition and could be a star. I agree we need a solid spine, players who are not afraid to mix it with the big boys, it all seems a little powder puff at the moment!
as rumours go, the bellamy to fulham was a no brainer and i think it was mooted almost as soon as hughes emerged as a serious candidate. i don’t know if it was over egged somewhat, but there was also plenty said about him not hitting it off with mancini too.
i wouldn’t be surprised to see that happen and, like you i suspect, i think he can definitely be more trouble than he’s worth.
i could definitely see ireland working, but i don’t know how legit that one is. i’ve seen city fans indignant at the suggestion of even swapping him for milner, let alone handing us an envelope stuffed with readies too.
we’ll see.
“i know i’ve mentioned it before, but it’s petrov that concerns me and he’s not going anywhere.”
I actually said Petrov too, but pulled his name before I posted for exactly the same reason as you Dan.
“I agree we need a solid spine, players who are not afraid to mix it with the big boys, it all seems a little powder puff at the moment!”
I’d love Bellamy, but it would seem he’s a love him/hate him type if you’re a player in the same team.
A quick think tells me we have enough rash tacklers in our side.
I’m minded to agree with Dan and yourself that a stronger midfield would give us more goals than an out and out poacher.
I’m glad it’s not my job to decide, albeit that £55k (?) a week MON gets would be tempting
MON specifically mentioned the job he does as a sort of player liaison recently, so i think he’s untouchable. sadly.
i haven’t seen much speculation about MON’s salary, but the little i have seen puts him in the £2.5 – 3m ballpark. a lot of money, but it must be difficult to manage in this day age if you have many players earner more than you.
i’m trying to write something on player wages for a piece at the moment actually. hence my comment to james up the page there, it’s a commonly held opinion about swapping milner for 2 or 3 players, wages never a consideration.
my internet died and i missed much of the 2nd half in any case, but i saw a bit of tottenham’s game against this same benfica side.
from what i saw, benfica were far more dangerous, but couldn’t find that same lethal instinct in front of goal that they did against us.
missed tottenham’s goal, but fair play to them. does that change any perspectives i wonder?
Changes nowt for me Dan, as I don’t care how other teams do at all.
We win all our games, we win the league, simple.
Too simple, unfortunately :-/