The real reasons for Villa’s big loss
Tuesday 30th March 2010, 9:05AM BST.
Villa’s Sporting Star columnist Dave Woodhall dissects the real reasons behind the team’s heaviest ever Premier League defeat at Chelsea.
I was in Belgium on Saturday, so just before six I text a friend to find out the Villa score from Stamford Bridge. Then I text again to make sure I had not lost something in the translation. Luckily one of the things the country is famous for is its range of excellent beers, so a couple of hours later I had recovered slightly from the shock.
Except that the hammering at Chelsea was perhaps not as much of a shock as it first seemed. A 7-1 scoreline is, granted, is the sort of scoreline that creates headlines but to be honest the team have been playing poorly for a few weeks.
We were unimpressive in the Wolves and Sunderland games, at half-time last Saturday in the former game the ubiqutous bloke behind me commented “I hate to think what Chelsea could do if we play like this again.” He knows now.
But what was particularly noticable was John Terry afterwards saying that they knew Villa would get tired after an hour. The opposition know it and our supporters have certainly been aware of the fact for weeks. So why has our manager Martin O’Neill not done anything about it?
The main reason for the players tiring during the game is down to them having played so many matches already. While other teams have been making changes, Villa have at least nine of the same players in the side week in, week out.
This is down to the size of the squad, for which Martin has to take the blame. He has been backed by owner Randy Lerner and has had almost four years to get in enough personnel to cope with whatever might be thrown their way during the course of the season
Yet not only did he fail to buy anyone in January, he has also seemed reluctant to give the younger players a chance.
Marc Albrighton and Fabian Delph seemed to be in the picture at the start of the season, yet have hardly figured while it took an injury to Emile Heskey before Nathan Delfouneso got a run-out. It would be good to see these three, at least, get a chance before the season ends.
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Dave,I totally agree with what you have published! I have been a Villa fan for 42 years and knew that was coming on Saturday.Why on earth was M O’N talking about injuries and scans prior to the match but he still went ahead and played those individuals! What about Curtis Davies? What about Beyer? and your correct Marc Albrighton,The Fonz and Fabian Delph.Why not introduce these players.It is going to be a lot harder now to get the confidence back in the squad.I can see Everton pipping us to even 7th position now.
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Not a lot wrong with those observations Dave, but I also have an observation.
You talk about a bigger squad, not one Villa fan will argue that one, but why is it that, other clubs with large squads, do not have a problem with player rotation, yet at Villa we do.
ie: Man Utd players dont whinge and whine when they dont get a game for a while, they are just proud to be at such a famous club and are always ready when the call comes.
It is exactly the same at all the other top clubs.
At Villa, a player gets rested or dropped to the bench and suddenly they are looking for a new club.
I know Guzan is upset about the Wembley thing, but to be honest, the last couple of games he played, he didnt fare very well, but suddenly he wants to go out on loan.
They cant all play for the top four clubs, but to become a top four contender, we have do as they do, its all down to attitude.
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I fully agree that it is a problem of too many games. But the other problem is the lack of confidence in our substitutes by MON. Why is Sidwell introduced for the final 5 minutes. Is he not capable to replace any of our players? Why is Luke Young left on the bench , is he not capable of replacing Cuellar for the final 20-25 minutes. If you compare some of the Man Utd squad players like Gary Neveille, O’Shea etc, they would not make it in MON match day 11, but still play a lot of games for Man U. It is not a case of us having a small squad, the problem is MON lack of confidence in his full squad. Players would never argue if they can play 25 matches a season, they are complain if they are left to warm the bench for 50 matches. Reo Cocker, Sidwell, Delph and Young are very good players, they should be playing regularly.Petrov has been injured for the last two months and his form has shown and still he is still playing!
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I picked up on Terry’s post match comment about tiredness yesterday. I think you can blame the lack of squad rotation, but that’s not the only reason.
Looking on the Villa Website, Villa seem to have a coach for every eventuality, except fitness and conditioning. Remembering back to the Big Ron era, he had a guy called Roger Spry who was out on the pitch with the players an hour before kick off doing all manner of exercises, some barely legal. Maybe this is a consideration for MON.
Also, I don’t think the issue of tiredness can be levelled at the strikers or defenders. It’s the midfield where our guys are flagging after 60/70 minutes, most notably Milner, Petrov, Young and Downing. The question is, are they being asked to do too much, especially when obviously carrying injuries.
Much has been made of Villa’s style of play and how they generally start like a steam train. Villa’s main strengths are pace and power and we play well to them. But if we don’t score early or build up enough of a cushion, we struggle. Maybe it’s time that MON considers a different style of play, a Plan B if you like. All of our midfielders are comfortable on the ball. Maybe if we kept the ball a bit longer, letting the ball do the work, probing for openings. A bit like Chelsea on Saturday!
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Chelsea was just one game that brought our Goal Dif into line with those around us. What’s more worrying are the results against Wolves and The Black Cats. Had those games been won we would be much better placed to wipe away Saturday as a blip.
Correct me if I am wrong, Luke Young and Sidwell played on Sat, which kind of stands out, when you are looking for reasons for the the heavy defeat. However I do agree that the team should have been rotated earlier.
They look absolutely done in now!
Only answer this late in season is to change the team almost completely for one game, giving the key players 13 days rest, see what happens on Sat, then re-introduce the first 11 when they are ready.
Nothing to loose at the end of the day, cos the way we are at the moment,4th spot is out of reach in my opinion now, sorry!
My team for Sat: Guzan, L.Young, Collins, Davies, Beye, Dowling, ReoCoker, Sidwell, Delph, Delfounso and Abondlahor.
Hope you reading this Martin…….it’s a bit like the decision Maclaren/Button made on Sunday when he came in early for freash slick tyres and everyone was saying he has made a mistake…………well they ate their words didn’t they!
I suppose it depends if have the balls to do it, but I for one would pay good money to see such an ‘out there’ decision. If it doesn’t pay off, well the first 11 will be rested up and you can intorduce them all back in again, however if does pay off then you a fabulous problem of who to play the following week, which at the end of the day is the problem you have had all season, which is that you have no confidence in your squad players.
Why always do what everyone else does Martin…….you have always been a little different…..ask yourself,’what would Brian Clough do’?
UTV!!!!!!!!!
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