Why the Net has the advantage in the ‘Undies world’
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Villa blog: Back to basics
Tuesday 5th February 2008, 7:16AM GMT.
Well it was a very disappointing game on Sunday for us Villa fans, writes Villa blogger Gregg Wiliams.
To be outplayed by a team lacking in confidence at the foot of the table was just not good enough.
Without Ashley Young we were very disjointed and deserved nothing from the game. Fortunately we still have 13 games left to play, and the season is far from over, However, the Fulham game was perhaps a wake up call for those Villa fans like myself who were getting a bit carried away recently.
I think we need to get back to basics. Fulham didn’t just out play us, they out-fought us, and it’s up to the players to raise their game and guarantee 100% commitment.
We also need to keep the ball better, I’m not expecting fifty passes in a row Arsenal-style but we have picked up a bad habit lately of giving the ball away cheaply.
Reo-Coker routinely gets caught in possession as he dwells on the ball for too long, Barry tries to play eye-catching ambitious balls all the time, and our back four all seem to want to punt the ball out of play or three feet over Carew’s head.
This team can play, we know that, just look at our second half against Arsenal, the home defeat of Reading, and Chelsea away.
I see that Wayne Routledge scored on his reserve team debut.
If he shows half the enthusiasm he showed in his first press conference when out on the pitch, he will do well. I have a sneaky feeling he will do well for us.
Right now i’m praying that Ashley Young comes through the midweek international unscathed, giving us the option of playing two out and out wingers. That would provide some much needed balance to the team and no little excitement for the fans.
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Indeed Routledge will give us some much needed balance if he’s played, hopefully he wll be given some playing time on Saturday. A half match fit Routledge has got to be better than Petrov. Does anyone agree with me that Scott Carson is not inspiing confidence at the moment?
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Routledge will have about as much joy on the right as Gabby, Ashley, Petrov and Gardner have had when they have played there.
All he’ll get is Mellberg hoofing it 50 yards for him to chase. Olly is a top centre back but he should not be playing at right-back it is becoming embarrassing now.
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James, i can understand your question, but all players go through it, its only goalkeepers that appear under the spotlight more than any other player, because every other player in our team has someone else alongside him, that if required can take up the slack, you only have to look at our leading goal scorers table to see that we don’t have a potent strike force, in fact Laursen is contending for leading goal scorer this season and the way he is going he will get it, its no bad thing, i remember not so long ago that for all our set piece we would very rarely gain an advantage from it, now it is winning us games!!
A decent goal scorer, grabbing 15-20 goals a season would help, though we know all about that, and have either missed out or never where in contention for the likes of defoe, but we will never know!
What about the reserves, they are banging in the goals, with 6 last night, surely if salifou is playing and helping create the goals, why are we not looking at him, surly its worth a try rather than petrov, who is becoming stagnent, sorry, i’ll rephrase that, is becoming MORE stagnent, odd flashes of inspiration don’t make up for all the other mistakes, and it was good to see routledge chipping in with what was described as a wonder goal, and helped set-up another, i mean Nathan Delfouneso, although only 17 is banging them in this season for the reserves and is only in his first year as an academy player, maybe someone to look for in the future? Why not give him a run out??
UP THE VILLA!!!
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I hate to say I told you so Gregg but already one game after the window closes we have picked up an injury to a key player which we had managed to avoid till now.
How ironic its Defoe who replaces Agbonlahor in the England squad…. It should have been Defoe replacing Agbonlahor in the Villa team also!
We have now seen how the team performs without Young…. Very Poorly and without Gabby as well we could soon be in trouble.
I agree about James comment re Carson. He has never recovered from Croatia and inspires no confidence at all. I certainly see no improvement on Sorenson.
Anyway if Gaby makes it for Sat and Young is fit after his England debut then I am hopeful of three points against Toon. Vital we get them otherwise I can see a slump on the horizon….
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