Aston Villa News 24/7Howard Webb didn’t bother playing the minimum five minutes the fourth official had indicated should be added and he won’t get many complaints for bringing this laborious goalless derby to a premature end. Preventing the winning streak being extended to seven games will feel like a big victory for City, but we’ll be left looking at the performances of Ciaran Clark and passion shown by Nigel Reo-Coker for positives.
The teamsheet suggested that Houllier was going to set the home side out in a 5-4-1 and look to Warnock and Luke Young to provide some width to get behind Birmingham, but in the end it was a far less adventurous 4-5-1 with young Ciaran Clark anchoring Reo-Coker and Steve Sidwell in central midfield.
As it happened, Birmingham City controlled much of the first half and were in Villa’s third frequently enough that Clark did indeed drop into the back line creating a five man defense. At home. To Birmingham City.
The first half was particularly uninspiring, aside from Emile Heskey just failing to get on the end of a lovely through ball from Ashley Young, Villa created precisely nothing during the opening 45 minutes. Not a single attempt on goal. Zip. City even managed to swing the possession in their favour during the closing 15 minutes of the half.
The second half was much more positive, but a couple of niggly tackles, mostly featuring Nigel Reo-Coker and Craig Gardner, reminded us of some simmering tensions bubbling below the surface, threatening to boil over.
Curiously, with the game crying out for an injection of creativity as Villa finally started to show some purpose in their approach just shy of an hour, Barry Bannan was brought on to replace the persistently ineffectual Steve Sidwell. The diminutive Scot played very well and managed to unleash a lovely curled effort on goal that forced a decent save from Ben Foster, but it speaks volumes about where Stephen Ireland is right now.
Houllier made one final change; Carew replacing Reo-Coker in the 83rd minute purely because Coker’s booking five minutes earlier for lashing out a rogue boot at Craig Gardner’s derriere might have received harsher punishment from another referee.
Strange finish to the game, then, who would have predicted we’d finish this one in a 4-4-2 with Ciaran Clark and Barry Bannan as the central midfield pairing? Seeing Bannan challenge Nikola Zigic, the tallest player in the league, for a ball in the air at least provided a little light entertainment.
Clark will probably be many fans’ Man of the Match and deserved a goal from his brave header that bounced just wide and left him with a bloody nose after taking Foster’s fist full on in the face. Amazing how goalkeepers can get away with these things with impunity, but do more than breath on the keeper and it’s a free kick all day long.
Ashley Young went the closet in the end with a driven effort, darting into the box from the right and striking the outside of the woodwork. A late winner would have been extremely satisfying, of course, but hardly deserved.
Ultimately, aside from an assured, confident performance from Clark out of position in midfield, there are few positives to be highlighted from this one and I’m just glad it’s over, but disappointed with the approach.
The biggest concern right now: the last goal Villa scored in the Premier League was Marc Albrighton’s at White Hart Lane and three shots on target all game today, all of them in the second half, and the first effort on goal of any kind being Reo-Coker’s smart attempt in the 56th minute, there’s no great hopes of the trend changing radically any time soon.
Oh, and we’re in the bottom half of the table, but we’re as many points away from being in the top five as we are the bottom three. It’s tight still.
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7 Comments to “Aston Villa 0 Birmingham City 0 – A Dire Derby”
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Are we seeing evidence of the players missing MON?
The defence look disillusioned. Young looks lost. I think they may be a bit like kids on an overnight trip: all excited and then realise they’re missing mum.
Nan,
I think just the opposite. With Clark in the midfield the first half looked extremely defensive. We sat back deep and invited them on us. Almost every time Friedel got the ball he launched it long toward Heskey.
We looked brighter in the second half when Sidwell at least began to try to push forward and link-up. Friedel started rolling balls out to the defenders to work their way up the pitch. And Young/Downing made some good runs down the flanks.
I think the look lost just because no one knows exactly what their roll is on the team. Is Young a striker or a winger? Is Sidwell a defensive mid or should he be more aggressive?
I don’t know if it is a lack of clarity in training or just a matter of GH finding “his team” but they do look out of sorts a bit.
One positive was the clean sheet. We may not have a cutting edge but we were able to grind out a draw and keep us from dropping further down the table.
transitional season. at the moment i’ll be over the moon if we qualify for europe again.
but without rising to some significant challenges in december, we’ll be fortunate to finish in the top half this season.
it’s not unrecoverable, but it’s a pretty poor show right now.
We are so predictable.
Option 1 Ball rolled out to LB. Plays ball into midfielder. He plays ball to fellow midfielder who returns ball to CB who launches to Heskey.
Option 2 Ball played to RB who plays ball to midfielder. Midfielder plays in Young or Downing who run very fast down the wing until the meet a defender at which point they stop and play the ball back to a CB who launches the ball to Heskey.
Option 3. Keeper launches the ball to Heskey.
So how do we improve? Well the simplest solution right now is surely to ask while are the best passers of the ball in our team? Dunne? Collins Brad? No, thought not, so let someone else hoof it up to Heskey. I’m sure Young, Downing and Sudwell can hoof it. Even Coker could have a dabble.
It does my head in, we have all these playmakers in the team and yet it is usually Collins who ends up trying to play the killer ball. This makes him look shit, but it’s not his fault, others are shirking the responsibility.
Oh and finally. Coker is proper mental.
I am cross and apologise for all the errors in that rant.
good rant, not an unfair characterization either.
but…
are they launching the ball long because that’s what they’re told to do or because the midfield players aren’t providing the movement and options to give them a shorter outlet?
if it’s the latter, is it also under instruction, or are they just poor players?
i think NRC’s movement and reading of the game is much improved this season and clark was pretty good today. in fact, he was quite the chatty organiser, pointing out where the ball should go all game.
petrov, as you can probably guess, i think is poor. the times i’ve seen him lay the ball off to one of the backline and simply turn his back and walk away i can’t count, but it pisses me off. then again, is he doing so under instruction, knowing that collins has been told to hoof the ball over his head, or because he’s a lazy, poor player?
both
we do not have the players for tippy tappy stuff so why play it until we do, Houllier is trying to impose a style onto players who are not suited to it, results show that.
If we do not win at Fulham the pressure for the Blackpool game will be enormous,