Aston Villa Midfield Woe
There’s a hole in Villa’s midfield, dear Lambert, dear Lambert, there’s a hole in Villa’s midfield, dear Lambert, a hole.
If Villa had to play a midweek fixture this week Paul Lambert would be scratching his head as to who to pick in midfield. Basically, Carlos Sanchez is the only out-and-out Villa midfielder currently fit.
Tom Cleverley and Ashley Westwood both joined the growing Villa injury list, victims of tough-tackling Leicester on Sunday, making it three midfielders to hit the medical bay in a week after Joe Cole did his hamstring against Crystal Palace.
With the Cleverley, Westwood, Cole all joining the long-term injured Fabian Delph, it could be argued that Villa are currently missing its first choice midfield and it’s far from ideal to have it sitting on the sidelines with the busy Christmas fixture list on the horizon.
Add that to the fact that Villa are missing their original first three choice centre-backs and the club has some fundamental injury problems to contend with.
Aston Villa Midfield Estimated Returns
Fabian Delph – Mid-December
Ashley Westwood – New Year.
Joe Cole – one to two weeks (but who knows with him)
Tom Cleverley – all being well, against West Brom
Some times though there can be silver linings. In the case of the centre-back problem, injuries to Vlaar, Senderos and Baker gave Okore and Clark the chance to blossom and potentially claim first team spots as their own. The midfield injuries could have opened up an opportunity for Gary Gardner to finally prove himself but unfortunately he finds himself out on loan at Brighton.
Midfield Solutions?
Left to fill the midfield void will be Kieran Richardson, Leandro Bacuna, Chris Herd and potentially Jack Grealish (who gave a good account of himself when he came on against Leicester).
Tom Cleverley is at least expected to overcome a bruised foot to play against the Baggies, and hopefully he’ll be fully recovered as he’ll be essential to give the Villa midfield a bit of energy and fight in what will be an eagerly contested game in the middle of the park as usual.
While Kieran Richardson is perhaps the conservative choice to join Cleverley and Sanchez, I would be tempted to utilise Grealish. He took over set piece duty against Leicester after Westwood’s injury and was progressive in his link-up play going forward (ala Cole against Burnley).
If Lambert is to believed when he professed this week that there had been a change in the mentality in the approach of his team (after his midweek trip to Munich), then Grealish maybe the way forward to cover Westwood’s absence.
The Lambert 4-3-3 might need some tweaking in how it sets up, with the wider forwards having one eye on supporting the midfield when the opposition have the ball, but certainly Grealish would be the positive choice.
There’s no doubt that Villa are on breaking point now with injuries as they could ill afford to lose another midfielder or defender to injury. The return of Christian Benteke to the starting line-up certainly makes up for a lot of injury woe, but the Christmas period as is becoming traditional under Lambert will no doubt serve up some tough medicine for Villa to swallow.
More on Gary Gardner and Villa’s midfield here
More on what Westwood brings to Villa here
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If Lamberk had bought one decent midfield player with wages to suit instead of wasting £3 and 10,000 wages a week 17 times We would be much better off . As long as he wasnt injured of course!
how would buying one midfied player instead of enough players to fill the squad have helped ?
Must get the cheque book out and restructure the squad
Would recall Johnson ,even SYllA, who’s been bombed
out like Hutton was. But will lerner open the wallet
Recalling Robinson was not a problem but recalling some of the over 21’s becomes problematic due to squad size/numbers as limitations on numbers may prevent Villa recalling some players although I think there may be slots into which recalled players might be fitted but that might be dependant on the status of the loanees . But certainly the club needs to review what players it has available for the 2nd half of the season before the end of the month
Nah. Gardner is already allocated a slot in the present squad. If he’s not recalled, it’s because Lambert doesn’t feel the need to.
Strange then that it was Johnson not Gardner who was central to last seasons staff changes !
There was a time when I’d have suported the idea of Gaz Gardiner being pushed into the 1st team as he was by far better than big brother Craig . But that was before his injury ! Whether he can make it all the way back to that level after what was a few years ago a career finishing injury only time will tell . But even after successfull surgery there are those who do not have the confidense to perform as they are capable of doing , and I’m not sure if Gaz will make it
But Lambert has talked of wanting a number 10 and Villa do have such a player in the shape of Daniel Johnson currently scoring goals for Oldham and prior to that clocking up several assists for Chesterfield who were sorry to bid him farewell at the end of a loan spell with them . . Might DJ be recalled ? Or will Villa let him see out the month at Oldham remains to be seen but he certainly might be a possibility to plug the gaps in midfield !
do we not have a recall option for Gardner ? Need options on the bench as well as on the pitch.
Richardson should be up for this one, lets not forget he was a big player for the baggies when they escaped relation on the final game of the season a few years back.
I completely agree with you, but I just as completely expect Richardson to be the one who plays.