On the face of it, the Villa is not doing too well after gaining points from just one game out of four. And of the games lost, one of them was to Spurs on the opening day, who have since failed to win.
Rather than wanting to stimulate panic, however, there is the good side - well, good-ish - in that we have only conceded six goals in four, and three of those were on the opening day. So we're hardly getting a pasting.
The fear I do have, though, is that although I can see some good signs of quality in pretty well all the players brought in to the club, the current outfield players all lack Premier League experience and are sometimes showing naivety. And they are going to take some time to gel, I feel.
To continue losing matches is not a valid option. Will they - can they - pull together to start climbing the table to a respectable (less worrying) position?
To be frank, I think there is an adjustment needed, and that is to bring back one of or both Conor and Henri to bring in a better level of experience at possibly no loss in quality. I feel they could provide the maturity that's needed to steady the ship. It's not an ideal option, but a necessary one I feel.
Or even bring in Elmo on the right-wing.
Against Palace I felt that from the start we seemed to be half-a-pace behind our opponents, with our old castigated discard Jordan Ayew making a monkey out of our hero Mings on at least two occasions. Ayew and Zaha really did have an edge that we did not have - or were not allowed to reveal. So for John McGinn to assert that Villa deserved a last-minute 'equaliser' - from, effectively, Villa's only decent attempt on goal in the match - was surely an over-the-top statement. I have no trouble in condemning the referee's un-Friend-ly decision on Jack, and the goal should have stood, but we honestly can't say we deserved a goal. In fact, we were somewhat lucky to lose by only one goal.
If we had left Palace with a point salvaged I feel that it might have glossed over our problems. Better, I think, to face up to the situation that we are short of something, and that possibly boils down to commitment. I don't think the team have yet measured up to just what is needed to stay in the top-flight, and the fight/effort required to achieve that.
My mind also goes back to just about four years ago when even then we started bringing in a lot of young-ish overseas players like Veretout, Amavi and Gueye, and expected them to gel and keep our club going at the top. But collectively they were not up to the mark. It is telling, though, that since those players left Villa they have gone on to success with their new clubs, and Everton fans are expressing their sadness over Gueye's expensive departure.
We can look to Jordan Ayew, too, and Robinson and Stevens at the Blades, and Albrighton at Leicester - to name a few - that have left Villa for better things.
Well, perhaps what happened in the final seconds at Palace will make the Villa players all fired-up and ready to hammer the Hammers in the next match! They really do need to do that, as the next match up after that is rapid fire from the Gunners on their patch.
UTV!
Rather than wanting to stimulate panic, however, there is the good side - well, good-ish - in that we have only conceded six goals in four, and three of those were on the opening day. So we're hardly getting a pasting.
The fear I do have, though, is that although I can see some good signs of quality in pretty well all the players brought in to the club, the current outfield players all lack Premier League experience and are sometimes showing naivety. And they are going to take some time to gel, I feel.
To continue losing matches is not a valid option. Will they - can they - pull together to start climbing the table to a respectable (less worrying) position?
To be frank, I think there is an adjustment needed, and that is to bring back one of or both Conor and Henri to bring in a better level of experience at possibly no loss in quality. I feel they could provide the maturity that's needed to steady the ship. It's not an ideal option, but a necessary one I feel.
Or even bring in Elmo on the right-wing.
Against Palace I felt that from the start we seemed to be half-a-pace behind our opponents, with our old castigated discard Jordan Ayew making a monkey out of our hero Mings on at least two occasions. Ayew and Zaha really did have an edge that we did not have - or were not allowed to reveal. So for John McGinn to assert that Villa deserved a last-minute 'equaliser' - from, effectively, Villa's only decent attempt on goal in the match - was surely an over-the-top statement. I have no trouble in condemning the referee's un-Friend-ly decision on Jack, and the goal should have stood, but we honestly can't say we deserved a goal. In fact, we were somewhat lucky to lose by only one goal.
If we had left Palace with a point salvaged I feel that it might have glossed over our problems. Better, I think, to face up to the situation that we are short of something, and that possibly boils down to commitment. I don't think the team have yet measured up to just what is needed to stay in the top-flight, and the fight/effort required to achieve that.
My mind also goes back to just about four years ago when even then we started bringing in a lot of young-ish overseas players like Veretout, Amavi and Gueye, and expected them to gel and keep our club going at the top. But collectively they were not up to the mark. It is telling, though, that since those players left Villa they have gone on to success with their new clubs, and Everton fans are expressing their sadness over Gueye's expensive departure.
We can look to Jordan Ayew, too, and Robinson and Stevens at the Blades, and Albrighton at Leicester - to name a few - that have left Villa for better things.
Well, perhaps what happened in the final seconds at Palace will make the Villa players all fired-up and ready to hammer the Hammers in the next match! They really do need to do that, as the next match up after that is rapid fire from the Gunners on their patch.
UTV!
2 comments:
Let's hope they are fired up. I did suspect Villa would be slow out of the block. It's natural given the lack of PL experience you mentioned. They didn't start that well last year, either.
Yes sir, good comment. But there are, of course, people who have been claiming we'll finish in the top-6 or at least in the top-10. All I am doing is commenting on the reality of where we are at, and currently we look a long way off getting to such a status. Not saying we can't get there, but we need something of a more potent attitude upfront to achieve it i.m.o.
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