The Good, Bad and Ugly as The Wheels Loosen
Of all the column inches and time devoted to the current downward spiral of Aston Villa, the group left out are the fans, of course they knew it was not going to be plain sailing, it never is.
The Good
Despite everything, somehow Aston Villa are still in the race for Champions League places, while they have lost a few pieces of the engine and the driver appears blind at times, the ineptitude of the teams around them means that Villa and Unai Emery still have a chance to buck the negative trend of recent weeks.
Sitting in fourth, level on points with next opponent Manchester United and three ahead of Chelsea and Liverpool, is a vertical slice of the season that is still positive, no matter how you analyse it.
There’s no time to wallow in the misery that has descended on Villa Park, as many have said; other teams get injuries and find a way. Villa desperately need to find their way before it’s too late.
Villan of the Week – Tammy Abraham
It’s a tough gig for Tammy Abraham. Coming into a side as a striker in form and not being allowed to replace a misfiring forward. It isn’t easy, just ask Danny Ings, Jhon Duran and even Marcus Rashford.
Being voted Villa fans’ player of the month despite only one league start is a veiled shot across the bows of Unai Emery, who has been previously unquestionable.
Now it will be down to him to either slot Abraham in beside Watkins or replace him.
The Bad
Where do you start?
The first few games of the season were terrible, and there was a sense of unknown and morbid curiosity over how bad things could really get.
This time it’s more a feeling of anger as Aston Villa had put themselves into the perfect position over a very tricky Christmas period.
While a drop off was expected after the loss of their three regular midfielders, there were few people who expected an instant return to the form of the first five games.
Surely Villa had learned their lesson from that period?
Unfortunately, it seems like the answer is no. Currently, Villa look more likely to go the rest of the season without a win rather than kick on and recover from their wobble, and the problems have all been foreshadowed.
Ollie Watkins’ performance level has fallen off a cliff this season. While his big chances missed were always cause for concern, he was making half chances into big ones with sharp movement, good touch and determination.
None of those traits have been on show this season.
Douglas Luiz and Leon Bailey were both surplus to requirements as Villa evolved, now they are first names on the teamsheet.
The previous defence splitting Pau Torres and the defensive coolness of Ezri Konsa, is missing or on the bench.
It’s a collective loss of confidence, ability and belief that’s come out of nowhere.
This team, with only the addition of Tielemans, did a job on Newcastle on the 25th January. Granted, Tielemans is a massive loss, but there’s no excuse for what’s happened to the rest of the team since then. Emery talks about structure, surely in some respects you can slot players to at least maintain that basic functionality, as the better teams do.
Villa were in a position where just achieving par would’ve been more than enough to be sitting pretty, and they’ve not been able to get near that.
Perhaps that feeling of only needing to do enough hasn’t been enough when teams step up their levels against Villa.
There is still time, but with trips to Lille and Old Trafford coming up fast, there’s the potential to go from bad to worse.
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The Ugly
There’s a problem with success. Consistent relative success like Villa have had under Emery breeds a complacency in both the fan base, the players and maybe the manager himself.
While fans were upset at a draw at home against Leeds or a defeat against Everton, players looked like they expected to win away at Wolves and at home to 10-man Brentford.
Neither is correct; every point has to be earned. Everton and Leeds, with their respective records this season, are games where points could easily be dropped, so fans shouldn’t be too disheartened, but at the same time, the players didn’t do their jobs against Brentford and Wolves.
Those four games are what will cost Aston Villa this season if they can’t turn things around.
But the third element is Unai Emery himself. Has he become too complacent with how he can turn failing players’ careers around?
His pursuit of Joao Felix has always been laughed at as ‘I can fix him’.
Morgan Rogers was played back into form early this season, but he is young and raw; the Emery magic can only work so often on broken players.
Now the same principle is being applied to Ollie Watkins, Leon Bailey, Douglas Luiz, and others.
Is Emery being blindsided in terms of his ‘better the devil you know’ approach to the January transfer window? Thinking that he can turn them around again, while better options for the here and now were there to be used or bought?
It’s a question that can wait a few weeks for the answer; the same can’t be said about the ugly performances. A few more and this season will be swiftly filed away as a big underachievement.
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