Aston Villa Star Players of the Week
3rd Place – Gabby Agbonlahor (1pt):
The 60-yard lung bursting run in the build up to Villa’s second goal was truly sublime and something that Gabby has to do more of. He breezed past two players as if they were running through mud. His link up with Benteke is getting stronger every time they play together and united they really are a handful for defences.
2nd Place – Jores Okore (3pts):
As mentioned earlier Okore’s partnership with Clark is growing every minute they play alongside each other. I feel like we are starting to see the quality young defender we were promised over the summer. He very rarely gets beaten in the air and is quick on the ground, which is good because he can switch off occasionally. His ability on the ball is exceptional as he showed on Sunday many times as he shifted the ball from one foot to the other to pass on rushing attackers and bring the ball out of defence. I really sense we have got ourselves a gem of a defender here. Now please Lerner please do not let his contract run down in a couple of years!
1st Place – Alan Hutton (5pts):
Yes our favourite Scotsman is Aston Villa Star Player of the Week again. It was yet another brilliant performance from the flying full-back. He was not exposed once all game, even against the returning Albrighton. It generally went unnoticed that to score his well deserved goal, Hutton ran the length of the pitch parallel to gabby to be in space for Benteke to brilliantly pick out. To then have the composure of an experienced striker in lashing the ball into the net after such a run was truly amazing. The Scot has been the player of the season by a country mile and long may it continue!
The Villa Man That Has to Pick Himself Up and Go Again
The Backroom Staff
It is no secret that Villa is in the middle of an injury crisis, especially in midfield and defence. In the week where former Man United assistant Mike Phelan called into question Van Gaal’s fitness methods following their injury crisis I think maybe it is time to look at Lambert’s.
It has been an ongoing theme at Villa ever since the reign of McLeish where injuries were always an excuse. Last season under Lambert the forward line was hit with lengthy injuries throughout the season and the start of this season it was the turn of the defence and now the midfield is having time off.
I know that these days there are fitness coaches and specialists that coordinate set programmes for all the players and injuries like Westwood’s can’t be helped, so it is not necessarily Lambert’s fault. However, as the manager of the club, is it not in his job description to at least pose the questions such as: Are the players being worked too hard and therefore more susceptible to picking up muscular injuries? Are they getting enough rest before and after matches? Does more fitness work have to be done to help prevent injuries? Whatever the reason for the injury plague, something has to be done to buck the trend, particularly with the festive period upon us.
Let’s keep this run going against Tesco’s finest on Saturday!
UTV.
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Villa actually have 2 fitness coaches Michael Watts & Chris Lorkin .
However from both personal & professional experience when players are injury prone as Vlaar, Senderos & Baker are ,no matter how hard the fitness coaches work ,injuries to such players are unavoidable .
However there are some things that can help but it can take time to deduce what is needed as perhaps could be best explained by Freddie Bouma’s need for high protein drinks to enable him to become a stalwart of the Villa team after his poor start at Villa due to poor fitness/injury .But sometimes it’s just not possible to prevent frequent injuries and partly explains why we were able to sign Vlaar & Senderos . It’s also a reason why perhaps fans should welcome Vlaar’s replacement, if in fact he wants to leave , assuming the club can find a suitable player to fill his boots