Play average = win games

By: Martini Extra Dry | October 30th, 2008

It’s not a formula that you’d use as the First Lesson In Football Management, but for Villa recently it seems to be working. In the last two league games we have put in very average performances but have scored 7 goals and gained six points. The pure lethalness of our attacking game has shone through, allowing us to gain results that, perhaps, are above and beyond what we deserved.

It’s not the first time it’s happened to poor old Blackburn either, last season we thrashed them 4-0 up at Ewood Park in a game that they could fairly argue that they deserved to win!

So what’s going on? Why are we playing averagely and why are winning despite it?

The last two games have both seen John Carew start on the bench, either due to minor injury/illness or as punishment for his stripclub-frequenting ways. This has lead to us playing a five-man midfield, with Gabby alone up top. In that midfield you have Stiliyan Petrov who has finally fit into the team by playing the opposing role of whoever he is put in central midfield with, ie if he’s with Barry he plays more of a holding role, if with Reo-Coker he plays more of an attacking role. But now he’s been put in with the both of them he has been wandering round the middle of the park like a bit of a lost sheep. You can almost read his mind whilst watching him: “OK, I better go over there and do this… oh Barry’s doing it, OK then I’ll go over there and do that… oh Nigel’s doing it… errr maybe I’ll just stand around and pick my nose”.

Then there’s also James Milner, who is getting better with every game and I think will be a fantastic player for us soon, but at present is not yet accustomed to our play and is sometimes looking like a spare wheel.

The five man midfield can work and it can work well but it needs to a) be practiced more in training and b) spread out; Young and Milner need to push up a little more and Coker and Barry can spread a little wider, leaving Petrov the centre circle to make his own (maybe he could urinate there, in the territorial way that cats do!).

The main flaw with the 4-5-1 though, is young Gabby. Agbon is a fantastic talent and can score and create plenty of goals, but he is nowhere near as effective without Big John up there with him. The two have now started to forge a bloody good partnership, so we need to nurture it and help it grow, not stifle it.