Aston Villa’s Proper Man of the Week
With not much happening last week in terms of games and more depressingly in the transfer market, this week offered up two games. It was nearly one of the Villa’s best this season after winning the football circus of a Midlands derby and showing signs of pulling off another smash and grab performance away at Everton.
Villa’s Proper Man of the Week
This time the already coveted award (I heard Christian was delighted on receiving the accolade) goes to Fabian ‘the chopper’ Delph. He has been arguably man of the season so far with his consistent performances; Fab has been the beating heart for the whole team. Even the Liverpool old boys club, or as it is better known Match of the Day, were touting him to be a part of Roy Hodgson’s squads for the upcoming friendlies before the World Cup in Rio.
His terrific week started with an absolute stunner of a goal against Tesco Albion, his second screamer of the season. Goals are exactly what he needs to add to his game to step up to the upper echelons of central midfielders. Fabian continued to impress against Everton at the weekend as he made the critical tackle that lead to the goal (it makes a difference now Delph gets the ball and not his man). He again worked tirelessly in the middle of the park and as a result kept Ross Barkley quite all game.
Stat of the Week – Amazingly, chopper Delph has never been sent off in his professional career.
So with all this in mind; well done Mr Delph on achieving the award of Villa’s ‘Proper Man of the Week’. You are definitely now above the likes of Tom ‘provides absolutely nothing’ Cleverley in the England pecking order.
The Villain Who Has To Pick Himself Up and Go Again
The irony of this award grows, as yet again this award goes to the man whose quote gave us its name, Mr Paul Lambert. Right, I am definitely not an anti-Lambert Lambertnite fan and have backed him and his philosophy from the start. Even in the darkest times I was behind him; such as the depressing Tuesday night against Bradford, where his tactical solution was to forget width and throw on four strikers.
PL gets this award in terms of his transfer policy in the last couple weeks. Villa were linked with Steven Defour at the start of the window, who could of provided an extra bit of creativity in the middle that Villa have been crying out for. The likes of Tom Ince and Wilfred Zaha have both gone to Premier League teams and could have supplied much needed support for big Christian up top. Instead though, our Paul seemed to put all his eggs in the basket of a 31-year-old Irishman with no backup plan. Now I’m not saying that Hoolahan would not have provided something different for us, but for him to be the only real target in the last couple of weeks is poor management in my opinion.
There is no doubt in my mind that the current squad will sit very comfortable in the league this year and a mid-table finish is still very much in reach. Let’s just hope that Lambert is holding out for the summer where a bit of extra investment is used.
Three of the bottom six in the next four games though Villa fans, so a run of wins could be on the cards. Don’t let us down this time Lambert!
UTV.
Who was you player of the week? Comment below.
*The column picture features former Villa skipper John ‘Jack’ Devey pictured here in 1895. As well as captaining Villa and being capped for England, he was also a top cricketer for Warwickshire, a decent baseball player, cyclist and runner. An all round proper man!
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Graham not that desperate??? Have you seen our defence we have 1 CB worthy of a premiership team and he is always injured he just gets patched up like Laursen used to..Yet our joke Manager brings in Grant Holt and lied through his teeth about having 15 things on the go. People say we parked the bus against Everton i wish we had a bus to park more like parked the moped.
Delph kept Barkley quite all game? Barkley went off at half-time.He really shouldn’t be playing and is having injections in his toe so he can. Considering the amount of injuries Everton have,I’m surprised Villa didn’t make a better fist of it.
Agree with Delph comments, he has been immense this season. regarding Jan transfers, prices are inflated as everyone knows there is only a short time for clubs to get players in. I don’ t think we are that desperate that we needed to get bodies in at these prices and would prefer to wait for summer and do business at a more sedate pace. Lambert did get Bertrand in on loan, who rate i very highly, so very happy with that. Would prefer 2 loans to the 7 or 8 players Cardiff and the Ammers bought in!! UTV