‘Kodjia just managed a single assist for Villa last season’
Pass It
In the final analysis of Aston Villa’s last game against Bolton before the international break, it didn’t matter that Jonathan Kodjia failed to square the ball to his teammate Albert Adomah, who was faced with an open goal.
Moments later, Kodjia won and converted the winning penalty. Job done.
Yet, that penalty perhaps saved the Villa striker from the wrath of more than just his Villa captain. John Terry had made a point of running half the length of the pitch to give him Kodjia a bollocking about not passing to his teammate. Not doing so could have been costly.
It wasn’t the first time in the Bolton game that Kodjia had elected to shoot, when a better option presented itself.
It’s a situation that was also all too familiar last season.
‘King Kodjia’?
Some supporters understandably point to Kodjia’s 19 goals last season, but one player’s goals doesn’t make a successful team. Villa finished in the lower half of the league, just as Bristol City did the season before (18th), when Kodjia also scored 19 goals for them.
The more telling statistic is Kodjia just managed a single assist for Villa last season.
For Bristol, he managed just three (he played six more games in the 2015/16 season than he did with Villa the following season).
In way of comparison, in the 2015/16 season, Ross McCormack scored 21 goals, yet managed to notch up nine assists.
Despite the Ivory Coast striker’s undoubted talent, it’s obvious that Premier League clubs haven’t been too impressed with his selfishness, as if he was a more complete player, he surely would be plying his trade in the top English tier by now.
This season isn’t about how many goals Kodjia will score, but whether Villa will get promoted.
Kodjia will need to score plenty of goals to help make this happen, but to be his most helpful he must be an intrinsic part of the team and help make Villa more dynamic going forward, rather than being the limited one-trick pony of last season.
Old habits seemingly die hard though.
The conundrum with Kodjia is his selfishness could compromise Villa’s promotion push, while a more astute version of him, would potentially fire us to automatic promotion.
The issue of Kodjia is one of main topics discussed in the latest episode of the MOMS podcast:
Rest of the Show
The rest of episode 30 brings us up to date with Villa, after they were the top form team for the month of September.
As well as discussing Kodjia, the podcast looks at dodgy referees, Bradford City nightmares and Villa being a breeding ground for bizarre and unlikely top level left-backs
In the final third of the show, get ready for a podcast within a podcast. If Villa’s 1-0 win against Bolton under Bruce was a bit boring, we fire up the laughs by going back to 2009 to sample what this podcast would sound like discussing the more exciting 5-1 win vs Bolton, when Martin O’Neill was manager.
There’s also Negatron expressing his disappointment after 11 games into the season and also Twitter With Tony.
Enjoy
UTV
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Podcast Episode 30 features:
David Michael – @oldmansaid
Dan Rodgers – @avfc_vilr
My Old Man Said – https://myoldmansaid.com
Villa Underground – http://www.villaunderground.com
Producer – David Michael
Voices – Dan Rodgers
Portal Gun – Rick Sanchez
at last a like minded soul, as good as he is 19 wont get us promoted when a waste of 49 nailed on chances have been passed up.
Yep, Villa winning games is more important than him scoring goals. The quicker he prioritises that, the better for him and the team. It’ll only be win-win, if he doesn’t waste opportunities for the team to score.
I thought he was a one trick Pony…rather that a one.peick pony ???? subconcious slip maybe?
Moms have got a real downer on Kodjia. He’s a class act. 4 games, 4 wins. We were shit last year and that was nothing to do with him being greedy. He will be greedy this year but the team is good so we’ll go up. He is a striker not a creator. Id rather him than gabby or hogan who don’t make any goals and also don’t score any.
Don’t get me wrong, he’s the best we’ve got at the moment, although I think Davis is more instrumental in turning the team around so far this season. The Jonathan Kodjia show on it’s own will never get us promoted. The highest he’s ever finished in his career was with Villa last season, so he’s not some legend. If he can learn as a player, drop the ego, then he’ll get better, probably score more, but more importantly be part of more wins.
The only aim this season is promotion, and anything that threatens that needs addressing straight-up and asap.