Another underwhelming game comes and goes and the single point gained does little to help claw us up the table. Time is running out. The soundbites from the Aston Villa Supporters Trust AGM on Thursday have done little to inspire any enthusiasm for the future among the Villa Park faithful. The performance against West Brom was one that served only as a possible cure to the insomnia and sleepless night that our rapidly collapsing club brings us. The ref for the second weekend running cheated Villa out of a penalty, that would have probably won it. Without any luck or a threat up front, there’s unlikely to be any great escape this season.
SOLID
Rémi Garde has made us a more solid unit, that’s for sure, but the team still lacks any sort of imagination or a clear game plan. The team seems completely devoid of ideas in the final third and failing to take three points from the most boring team in the league (with the possible exception of Villa) who managed no shots on target and only 40% possession is not good enough from a team that needs to make serious gains to survive.
Time and time again the same failures in the final third were evident. While one can understand Villa players being haunted by calamity after calamity in their own box this season it would appear that they are also afraid of what might happen if they enter the opponents box.
TOOTHLESS
Villa will not score goals if the players refuse to get into spaces in the box and all too often crosses are delivered into an empty penalty area. On the few occasions that the team actually manage to land the ball on the head of one of the big men there are no players in support to latch onto any rebounds or knock ons.
Today further highlighted Villa’s need for a striker who is comfortable in the box and it certainly grated somewhat to see Southampton’s bargain buy Charlie Austin nod in the winner against United as he was a player that many of us had been screaming for our side to approach for some time now.
Hopefully the injury to Rudy Gestede, caused by him simply moving,(something he’s not overly used to doing) will force the boards hand when it comes to recruitment, but I wouldn’t hold my breath in that regard.
LONG SHOTS
The lack of imagination and activity in front of the goal also gave rise to another pet hate of mine, players lazily blasting the ball into row Z with little hope of ever getting their shot near the goal let alone into it. We need players to take responsibility to build and create chances but Bacuna and co hoofing the ball away in place of keeping possession or building more is something that should be stamped out immediately. At least the likes of Veretout and Westwood tend to pick and choose when to attempt long range efforts.
As suggested above I hold out little hope of an improvement in approach from those running our club. Having gone over transcripts of the event, I struggled to find anything that suggests that anything has been learned from past mistakes or any real ambition is present to at least try and equip the club to put up a fight for the rest of the season. Life in the Championship seemed to be taken as a given, and while it still remains the most likely situation next year, the sense of complete forfeit is not a comfort to followers of a club without direction.
This club will continue to rot while ‘football men’ are absent from our ‘football’ club. Let’s pray someone fancies the job of buying and investing in a Championship club, because otherwise Villa may as well start playing baseball.
UTV
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The Villa look like a spent collapsed corporation who have hired KPMG to sort out and strip assets for salvage. The Board have given out signals that presently Villa are not a club to join. Rumours must be flying about the premier and european dressing rooms that we are not a club to be building a career on. No footballer daft enough would join a ship listing heavily in stormy weather. I will be amazed if we manage to get any of our targets. The board ought to hide their heads in shame. Newcastle and Sunderland are working hard and spending money to stay in the league. The board have already indicated they have thrown in the towel. Gutless spineless and none have footballing heads. It needs the fans to really stay away. Its the only way a board understands. no seats tells of the despondent “customer” base. It means the board fail in their remit and resignations then follow. A collapsed Villa has left a vacuum of despair with the faithful. Such a sad outcome to a once brilliantly proud and honourable club. Man the lifeboats.
oops a typo Plummit ,,sorry ,well I’m still waking up to numbness of it all
The problem with the new set up and infrastructure is that it is based on an American Corporation next there will be a steering committee for projects. They will have project Goalkeeper or project Striker then run a gap analysis Risk analysis what qualifies the project as a success and it won’t be the bleeding obvious to the fan initiates and adepts. We will see ,,,,,what is obvious is we are four quality players short, Without those this current team hasn’t the quality to stay in the top flight. These executives really do not understand football because getting straight back up will be really hard, Every team in the Championship will be gunning for Villa for a scalp, They really ought to invest and go for one big last push, I doubt this will happen, Its hard for Villa to attract quality players. Garde has done well to stop the laughing stock football but its only mildly better and way too many vulnerabilities at present, The pundits favourites to go down still, In all my days I’ve never seem a club plum it so quickly and I still do not see those responsible shown the door – Paddy O whats his name and the sporting director- Why are they still here ??? 60 million pounds wasted wasn’t all the fault of one ex manager was it ?? A winning combination in the final third must be a priority.