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The somewhat light pre-season fixture list gets underway for us tomorrow with a familiar trip to the Bescot. It’s a game that Shay Given expects to play in and should provide the first clues about Alex McLeish’s thinking in terms of tactics and style of play.
It’s highly unlikely that we’ll have recruited a new left winger by then, so perhaps we’ll see how innovative McLeish is too. Will he ask someone like Gabby or Bannan to fill in on the left? Might he push Warnock up to midfield and plug the gap at left back with Eric Lichaj? Maybe Albrighton will play on the left and someone like Stephen Ireland will play on the right. Will he abandon the flanks all together and use a 4-3-3 or some variant?
I don’t think I can cover this game, not in enough detail to answer those questions first hand, but if you’re going along and think you can, I’d be thrilled to hear from you. Drop me a line using the contact page, I’d love to hear the views of anyone in attendance.
Last year was a comfortable 2-1 victory with both goals coming from Andreas Weimann, you can read the report from last summer here.
Hong Kong: Barclays Asia Trophy 2011
With the Walsall game out of the way, the squad will be jetting off to Hong Kong to take part in the Barclays Asia Trophy next week. It’s a simple four team competition with two rounds.
We’ve been drawn to play Blackburn (very funny whoever did that), and Chelsea will play Kitchee FC; champions of the Hong Kong First Division and also winners of this year’s Hong Kong Soccer Sevens
The two losers will play each other to determine third and fourth place, the two winners will compete for the trophy. The first round games are on July 27th and the second round games are on the 30th; all games will be broadcast on Sky Sports. I may do a live blog, I’m not sure just yet, still working on some in-house developments.
Colombia: U-20 World Cup 2011
Three players who should be missing the trip to Hong Kong on account of representing their countries in Columbia at the end of the month, and into August, are Andreas Weimann, Nathan Baker and Gary Gardner. However, I’ve just discovered that Gardner was withdrawn from the England squad by the club and will not be travelling to South America now.
On the one hand, that’s obviously positive news for us, pretty much confirming his mooted breakthrough into the first team this season. On the other hand, it has to be disappointing to withdraw him from such a big competition and the experience that offered. I can’t imagine him playing such a significant role in first team affairs over the next couple of months that we couldn’t have let him go.
Perhaps Gardner himself had a say in the decision, I don’t know, and I’m unaware of any injury, but I know England manager, Brian Eastick, had specifically talked about him being a significant part of the team this year after being on the edges in Egypt in 2009 as a youngster.
It’s not a situation unique to Aston Villa though and I’m not pointing the finger of blame. Nine players have been withdrawn from the original squad, at least six at the request of their clubs. It was the same in 2009, which is really why Gardner was involved at all as a replacement. Hardly a recipe for national success.
Still, Baker and Weimann will be in Colombia when the tournament kicks off on July 29th, both presumably hoping to go all the way to the final in Bogotá on August 20th. England will do well to emerge from Group F after taking on Argentina, Mexico and North Korea. Austria are in Group E with Brazil, Egypt and Panama.
If it can live up to the recent U-17 and Women’s versions, it will be a World Cup worth watching. Good luck to the two Villans involved, I hope they enjoy the experience and perhaps come back better players as a result.
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10 Comments to “Walsall, Hong Kong, Colombia, and Gardner withdrawn from the U-20 World Cup”
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FA decided not to risk the rath of the clubs and withdrew lots of the players who were going to be in the squad like gardner meaning our squad isnt as good as what it was or could be
well, not quite. england picked the players, their clubs then withdrew them.
the six players withdrawn by their clubs:
Scott Wootton (Manchester United), George Thorne (West Bromwich Albion), Jack Robinson (Liverpool), Andre Wisdom (Liverpool), Gary Gardner (Aston Villa), Nicholas Ajose (Manchester United)
obviously all too important to their clubs to let play in the world cup. we should expect big things this season then i guess.
We’re pinning so much hope upon this young man, i just hope one so young can take the burden of weight being placed on his shoulders.
So how good is gary gardner anyway? Some have drawn comparisons to steven gerrard. They say his range of passing, engine and eye for goal is exceptional. Should we really be getting excited about young GG? I would like to know the thoughts of people that have seen him play…
precisely.
and that’s one of the reasons why i was looking forward to seeing him in the world cup, the chance to see him against quality players of his own age from around the world in full games.
still, the odd few minutes from the bench and reserves is almost as good.
right at this moment he’s playing in the reserve friendly against boldmere (they’re now losing 3-2 btw). weimann’s in austria and will fly out to colombia on friday. i presume baker will be doing similar from england.
Anybody got the Villa match? listening to BBC WM online but not got it live just updates.
REMEMBER A VILLA TEAM WINNING 14-O INCLUDING A MOORE DOUBLE HAT-TRICK IN 2005, IT WAS A PLAYSTATION SCORE …. WE FINISHED 16TH.
A SUBTLE 3-1 WITH THE FONZ MISSING A HAT FULL OF GOALS SUITS ME FINE (I’M WRITING THIS BEFORE FULL TIME) UTV … YES WE CAN.
well there’s a blast from the past! hello, PM!
yeah, a decent win. not getting carried away, but a promising start. baby steps.
Hiya mate, started getting annoyed with a lot of the negative stuff on various Villa sites and stopped reading them, forgot all about yours…. glad I’ve found it again.
ha, so did i! a long time ago.
glad you found it, mate.
Fifa U-20 World Cup schedule, dates, match details and more information here..check this
Fifa U-20 World Cup 2011