Thoughts and issues regarding the past and present of a great football club by "The Chronicler".

Monday 26 January 2015

Did Someone Find A Spanner?

The machine was in need of fixing, so someone found a good engineer and now everything's fixed - some might say!

Having scored two goals, and fine ones at that, and again seeing a Villa defence being mostly well-organised and well-led by Clark, we could be forgiven for thinking that the season has turned. For goodness sake, even Delph has put pen to paper and will be with us until at least the end of the season.

At least we had a day that ended with Villans having a smile on their faces.

Now for the downside.

The match yesterday was against lower-level opposition, but an opposition that has got a reputation for scoring. And eight against our Small Heath neighbours (earlier this season) can't exactly be sniffed at. Not only versus lower-level opposition, though, but a performance from Villa that did not auger well at the end of the first half: the sound of boo-ing was discernible at the end of the first 45

It took a magical goal from our new signing to put life into Villa and their game. And when it became 2-0 there was a temptation to relax and say everything's fine now.

But ... and there has to be another 'but' ... our supposed star talisman is not clicking. Christian Benteke seems not to like being a conventional striker, to put himself in where it might hurt. There were two occasions in the first half when he could have done better - he should have found the anticipation (the sign of a good striker) to get in there and at least make it difficult for the opposing defence. Some say he's lost his confidence, but why should that be the case? He has scored three goals since he came back from injury - and fine ones at that - but in the last few games has shown signs of being moody and wanting the ball exactly where it suits him. And not exactly using the benefit of his height and weight to good effect either.

And though Gil looks promising, he hasn't yet shown much sign of an understanding with Benteke to bring the best out of him.

Villa's next two games - against the Gunners and then the Pensioners - will be big testers for this renewed Villa. I await with baited breath to see the outcome of those two fixtures. From those games we will be better able to gauge the club's outcome this season. For me, I feel Villa are still short of a quality player - and need Benteke to be scoring once more.


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