I hate to sound like a broken record, but a consistent theme I’ve stressed in the Statshack series is the need to look at match statistics as a whole and to be suspicious of anyone attempting to leverage a point with the use of a single metric. Passing for example.

Last season, I read many times that the number of complete passes was an indication that our brand of football was dour and failing to improve, except when the statistics didn’t back that assertion up and were conveniently ignored.

Well, if it was passing you were crying out for, it’s passing you’ve got lately. Lots and lots of passing. And losses, several losses.

Take the 2-0 loss at Blackburn. We dominated the game, we really did, totally deserved to come away with three points, but instead headed home with nothing. Villa completed 360 passes at Ewood Park, there were only two matches with more in the previous four seasons; 361 in the 1-1 draw with Wigan in September ’07 and 373 in the 2-0 win over Charlton in September ’06.

The next league game was the 4-2 loss at Villa Park to Arsenal and the home side completed 329 passes, only six games rank higher since 2006/07. It’s fair to say that the performance received close to universal condemnation.

And then there’s the last league game, the 3-0 loss at Anfield. As far as I can tell, the overwhelming opinion about Villa’s performance doesn’t venture far from disgust and anger. Guess what, Houllier’s Villa side strung together no less than 457 passes, a staggering 22.5% improvement over the previous record; that aforementioned 2-0 win over Charlton in 2006.

So, to summarise, the recent 2-2 draw against Man Utd; brilliant, thrilling, superb, etc., etc. and just 156 complete passes. The 3-0 loss against Liverpool; disgraceful, terrible, unacceptable, etc., etc. and 457 complete passes.

Evolution

Clearly, there’s an evolution in style at work here and it’s starting from the back. The trouble is, it’s not really moving to the front often enough. During 2007/08, the average number of complete passes per league game was 199. In 2008/09 it was 206, in 2009/10 it was 239 and so far in 2010/11 it’s 258.

Under Houllier, over 11 league games, the average number of passes completed is 264 and in the last three games alone the average has been an astonishing 382. But just the two wins. And five losses. Five.

It has to be said, besides the injury crisis, we’ve had an extraordinary run of poor luck and that should be remembered next time some smartarse claims that Villa is just a “lucky team”, but I can’t help wondering whether Houllier is trying to get this side to run before it can walk and right at the worst of times.

I’m assuming that he must feel supremely confident about two things; firstly, that his approach is the right one and will yield results in the long run, and, secondly, he’ll get that long run to prove it. Villa fans are not famed for their patience, those hugely scientific internet polls are already being cranked out and I shudder to think what the forums look like.

Only time will tell whether he’s right on both counts.