The Villa Rant: A Copy and Paste Performance Against the Hammers

Copy and Paste

It’s tough writing unique Villa Rant weekly pieces about Villa when things seem the exact same every week. It takes work not to repeat yourself. It takes work not to repeat yourself. See? I’m at it already. Maybe for the rest of the season, I’ll just paste a checklist of Villa’s regular failings, here goes:

+Only really showed intent for one half: check
+Equaliser pastes over overall disappointing result: check
+Too many soft passes in the middle: check
+Failure to clear our lines: in fairness not too bad today
+Adama introduced too late: more time (10 minutes) than previous weeks but still too little to late
+Failure to realise that we have nothing to lose but a lot to gain:check
+Desperate hope that there’s still a chance but that the NEXT game is last chance: Check

No Point in One Point

Again there’s an illusion that coming from behind to a well earned point. Villa are playing catch up. Villa need to take advantage of the rare occasions like today that our rivals drop points, again we haven’t.

20th in the table and trailing by several wins, things literally cannot get any worse. The sense of desperation does not seem to have reached the players and staff. Whether it’s 0-0, 0-1, or 1-1, Villa need to go all out.

We won’t survive by getting a point at a time. I would gladly risk holding out for one point for the possibility of taking all three every week for the rest of the season.

The introduction of Carles Gil was encouraging but it was by necessity not choice after the injury of Sanchez. The fact that Adama Traore got more than four minutes to go was a step up but the fact that our most exciting player has not even played a combined 60 minutes Premier League football is worrying for a team who needs to be taught the concept of ‘Gung Ho’ or at least the idea that attack is the best defence.

January Calling

Again Villa failed to rack up maximum points, but two wins against Norwich and Sunderland would at least mean that January’s transfer window will mean the opportunity to battle the odds and start next season with an eye toward the future.

Anything less than six points and planning must turn to buying players that will be able to contribute to a successful championship campaign next year.

The difference these two games could make is massive especially with recruitment on the horizon. As it stands we may be a historically big club but we are not the most attractive destination for potential signings. With the TV money nowadays, Villa’s former status means very little to players.

Rudy Awakenings

Gestede seems like the perfect target man to partner the movement and industry of Jordan Ayew. However the case of the towering Benin striker is a baffling one.

When the former Blackburn target man is not in the team his presence is sorely missed. When he does make the starting 11, he doesn’t quite seem up to pace. Too often when a ball doesn’t arrive directly on his head he fails to show the initiative to take a few steps to actually get in position.

The more his physical presence seems key, but his consistency remains absent, the more arguments or the inclusion of Libor Kozak seem founded.

Don’t get me wrong about Kozak. He deserves chance on the one hand but I also think that our desperation has inflated our expectations and ratings if the big Czech.

The same hope has led to us preempting the readiness of the likes of Grealish, but on previous form and goal scoring exploits he at the least deserves as much of a chance as big Rudy.

Next Up

Norwich: win or bust.

UTV

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