Aston Villa Star Players of the Week
3rd Place – Fabian Delph (1pt)
Delph wins the third place award for coming through his operation successfully with no complications. It is said that he still won’t return until the turn of the year. The saying, ‘You don’t know what you’ve got, till you lose it’ could not be truer here. The gaping hole in the middle of the park left by his absence is remarkable. The team’s build up through the midfield lacks urgency and penetration, and the sooner the England international is back the better.
2nd Place- Joe Bennett (3pts)
The pure fact that two of the three top performers of the week are players that were not involved in Monday night’s game says it all. The young left-back scored for Brighton against Rotherham to earn the Seagulls a point. According to reports, Bennett has been relatively consistent at left-back which is an improvement from the erratic performances he was known for at Villa Park. We can only hope he continues to improve and develop, especially defensively, and maybe challenge for the Villa first team once again.
1st Place – Carlos Sanchez (5pts)
Finally! The Columbian midfielder puts in a performance we expected to see from him. In the aid of trying to keep this as positive as possible, we will ignore the laughable pass which led to the second QPR goal. Apart from this mishap, ‘The Rock’ was exactly that throughout the game; winning absolutely everything and stopping anything that came his way. At times it was like watching a one man team as he got his head to absolutely everything and dominated. Hopefully this is the turning point and he will now string together performances we saw during the World Cup. With Delph’s injury it is even more important that this is the case.
Stat of the Week
16 managers been sacked since the Villa last scored a goal. Even in the managerial merry-go-round that is modern football, this stat tells you all you need to know about Villa’s form right now.
The Player that has to Pick Themselves Up and Go Again
Ron Vlaar
In my mind, Concrete Ron was at fault for both goals. The first goal was a straight ball which should be gobbled up by a centre-half. Vlaar was bullied and out muscled way too easy by Zamora and then didn’t react to the second phase quick enough. Then for the second goal, although it was great movement by Austin, Vlaar allowed the striker to get across and in front of him way too easily.
Both these goals were easily preventable and both were down to poor positioning and not reacting quickly enough. Since rumours have been rife about his contract situation and links with United have grown, he has not looked as solid as normal. We can only hope his mind is not elsewhere.
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It was largely due to off field activities by Gabby & Fabs that Villa avoided relegation last season . But at times this season I’ve dispaired at the 2 of them , but at other times it has been them driving forward that has driven the team on . And I think that lass of Delph has been a blessing in diguise even if the results have suggested other wise . As Delph has been it would seem has been one of the 1st names on the team sheet . And in the modern world of footie where the whole squad is important it has enforced changes . Problem is no players seem able to step up and make their mark
Fans have been calling for greater possession & against QPR we certainly got that , but still no goals and I was not sure what sort of change might create them as we certainly attacked their goal . However by the hour mark I was wondering when Lambert would bring Cole on as in the previous match against Everton he seem to add something to the team , although I was not sure who should make way for him
And that seems to be the problem for Lambert in that he has players but how does he get them to produce the results we all want ? It’s easy to say that another manager would get them performing but is it what is needed ? Somebody like MON probably could but indoing so he’d probably drive them into the ground with fatigue and where would that leave us if it happened before the season ended ? Because as Luke Young said he did not realise how badly he had been performing untill he returned from his enforced break . And I think that’s Lamberts dilema should he drive the players on to perform hoping they can keep going until they can be replaced , or does he wait untiil they are ready to perform and bring us success ? Certainly on past performances a fully fit Benteke = goals