By Richard Wakefield
Unfamiliar Feeling
Aston Villa return this Saturday to Villa Park after a long awaited away win. With the Villa fans having to wait 437 days to finally see their team record a win on the road, a sense of optimism and new found belief is starting to creep in.
However, Steve Bruce will not have an easy task ahead of them as they welcome Fulham who find themselves in mid-table due to their poor home form. Unluckily for Villa, Fulham are undefeated away from home all season.
With both teams eager to pick up three points to announce themselves as late arrivals to the promotion push party, this tight affair could be a real catalyst to begin the Bruce revolution in earnest.
Here’s three ways of making sure it happens…
1. Can’t Touch This
With such high intensity at the start of the game, this could lead Villa to tire too quickly. So if Villa don’t reap the rewards of a couple of goals, Fulham may punish Villa’s wastefulness as they capitalise on the tired legs.
However, a safer approach to the game could be the height advantage Villa possess. With Rudy Gestede standing at 6″3 and Jonathan Kodjia at 6″2, both of these strikers are taller than the Fulham centre-backs of Ream (6″0) and Sigurdsson (6″0).
Getting the ball forward quicker to these two (if chosen) and maybe being more direct especially in the early stages (as in the previous point), could cause Fulham’s centre-backs real issues.
Central to this will be an increased willingness for runners to feed off secondary balls and lay offs. This is something that has let Villa down this season, but hopefully Bruce can install more of a team ethic amongst players to work together.
It’s time for Villa to gel as an attacking force and play to their strengths. Gestede, if used wisely, could be the key to unlock the talents of Kodjia, Ayew or Adomah.
The question is though, where will the ex-Fulham man Ross McCormack fit into the plan? There is a tendency for players to score against their former clubs in their first game against them. It’s a tradition that could warrant McCormack to start.
UTV
Follow Richard Wakefield on Twitter at @_RichardAVFC
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