The dust has settled on another pitiful performance at Villa Park last Saturday, but two days on after leaving that negative hyperbole, I'm still confused about a few things that just don't add up with our manager in his squad selections!
So we have what the manager would call our number one and two centre backs (Dunne & Collins)injured (and sitting in the naughty boys corner!) but thankfully we have King Carlos, centre back number three (or is he four?)back, which is great timing because as well as Dunne & Collins, centre back number four (or is he three?) Clark is suspended. On top of that emergency centre back Luke Young back after a long term injury is, yes you guessed it, out injured again! So here's the starting block. How do we fill the rest of the back four so depleted in numbers? Now I have to admit I don't attend reserve games, so would love some input about Nathan Baker. I was under the impression that his primary position is at centre half, but so far in his fleeting first team performances, he has played at the problematic left back position. So if he has previously played in the centre before for the youth team and reserves, why does he not get the nod? I have to say on opening glances I'm convinced he is not a natural left back. A very young player and don't want to be over critical, but he shows no ambition to get forward in support (something it seems the modern full back must possess)and he looks very nervous in his defending when faced with a one on one. Do we know yet whether he was withdrawn so early on Saturday because of injury, or did it cross Houllier's mind that the combination of Jarvis and Hammill etc were already causing us too many uncomfortable moments? So he gets replaced by another very young player, also out of position, and much as I admire Fabian Delph's attitude and vigour, again it's apparent he is uncomfortable in this left back role.
Looking at the rest of the defensive dilemmas, again I found it very odd to see Chris Herd thrust into the key position at the back after having a few minutes as sub on previous first team outings, plus a torrid 90 minutes in the Manchester City farce, just a few weeks earlier. Again followers of the reserves and youth will know more about this player, but he is listed as a midfield player. I actually think he did well on Saturday in what was a massive ask in the tense circumstances and would not single him out for any of the blame. Was this Houllier's only options to try to fill gaps in a leaking defence bereft of confidence?
So I wonder why Baker did not take the 2nd centre back slot alongside Carlos, and then the left back role could have been looked at differently.
Missing players? I find it very odd that in this injury crisis we have Shane Lowry, who is without doubt an out and out big, old fashioned centre half, plying his trade on loan at Sheffield United (and previously at Leeds) when we new that Saturday was crisis time? I would have thought last Monday, Lowry should have been summoned back to Bodymore Heath and told that he was in the frame for Saturday. Now maybe the extended loan spells in The Championship are saying that he's not really a Premier League player, but in these extreme circumstances, surely having him around would have been worth it?
Warnock and Beye? Something is drastically wrong when you have two experienced players, on massive wages, kicking their heels in the reserves, or not even that on some weeks, when they maybe could have been used for benefit of the club, the manager and themselves? What was needed was a bit of grown up behaviour on all parts and an end put to this cold shoulder nonsense. Habib Beye I will admit that, after his dreadful performance at left back in the Vienna game, would have been happy to see him leave the club the next day, but unless we know what and why, we will never know if anything more could have been got out of this player, who was deemed a success at Newcastle and others previously.
When Warnock signed I was really happy as I thought he was just the type of character we needed in the team. His previous two games at Villa Park for Blackburn, he had been superb, not only playing wise, but in the way he displayed a very competitive attitude. Don't know what has gone wrong but he has admittedly been appalling for the best part of the season when he was playing every week. It looks like point of no return , but again I stress in this situation we find ourselves in, isn't it the manager’s job to motivate and deal with difficult situations like this?
To conclude; all the above leaves me baffled as to what goes on behind closed doors, then if you add in the other head scratching stuff from Saturday; Albrighton has as a good opening thirty minutes on the right, in a right old battle with Elokobi, and was linking well as usual with Walker. So what tactical genius follows the actions of our only player looking likely to create? Of course, SWITCHING SIDES WITH DOWNING...AGAIN! Now I know this paid off against Bolton, but there just seemed no need to do it at that stage of the game, and then 2nd half, no change back, with the inverted wingers still the preferred choice. We all new that when the changes came to be made, it was poor Mark that was going to be sacrificed. I would not have complained if any of Young, Downing or Bent would have gone off instead, all three were abysmal. The other galling things was that, again I say it, our most likely to create player was replaced by Agbonlahor, who probably touched the ball about five times when he came on, and added exactly what I thought he would, absolutely nothing! How can they sit there and see a brilliant right footed, but excellent left winger (Young), playing so poorly in the number 10 role, that he quite obviously can't play, and a supposed centre forward (Gabby) floundering around on the left wing bringing nothing to the party? Sounds stupid, but even the introduction of Heskey made more sense to me than Gabby and Pires using up our remaining subs, and I have never been Emile's biggest fan, but I'm sure Berra and Stearman were quite happy to only have to deal with our ineffectual 18 million pound striker!
Finally I still see no point in Delfouneso and Bannan being out on loan. Fonz has been better, even in his limited performances this season than Gabby and Man City FA Cup apart shows more endeavour and effort, and Barry Bannan has that eye for a pass and surely deserves a chance, even just as sub, in the Young creative role? Has even started for Leeds yet?
Very frustrating all round and I have feared for some time that this was our lot for this season. Obviously, sincerely hope I'm proved wrong, but it will only be the even more ineptness of others that will save us this season.
Excellent post. In which some valid points are made. I'm very puzzled as to what is happening with some things behind the scenes at VP. Fair enough Houllier has stamped his authority on the place, banishing Beye & Warnock in to the worlds biggest black hole maybe the right things to do, however, we don't really know why? OK, Warnock was terrible in that awful hammering up at Man City, but who wasn't? Warnock had a poor 2010, but surely after his spell out of the picture, giving him an opportunity, to at least put himself in the shop window for the summer is a risk worth taking. Especially as we knew Wolves were going to play 2 out and out wingers which were always going to trouble either of Baker or Delph.
ReplyDeleteAs for Beye. It seems that he hasn't been given any sort of chance at Villa by any of the managers who have been here since he joined. I was all up for Beye leaving last summer, let alone January, but as he's still here, and picking up huge wages, surely it's worth us using his experience in some way. We're depleted in regards to defensive numbers, so why is Houllier cutting off his nose to spite his face? I don't think Beye has the sort of quality needed to get us out of the mess, but playing him instead of a young player playing out of position surely makes sense?
I was narked by Houllier for making those changes on Saturday. Changes were needed, I give him credit for knowing that we wasn't making any sort of progress on the pitch, and for at least trying to make something work. We all knew how frustrating it was watching Martin O'Neill hardly ever making changes, or taking a full back on and shifting 10 players round to accommodate that. But, I feel (and the result backs me up) that he got the changes completley wrong. Makoun and Ashley Young would have been the two players I would have taken off, and I would have bought on Heskey & Agbonlahor, and really gone for it. Heskey would have bought Bent in to the game a lot more. I don't think Bent is going to work by playing up front on his own. He doesn't have the physical presence to hold the ball up for us, and on too many occasions the ball was coming straight back at us from long punts up the pitch where we couldn't get it to stick. Heskey would improve this.
As for Gabby, it's a huge few months for him. He's been pushed aside, and now out the team in preference for Bent, rightly so in my opinion, as Bent's output of goals is something we've been crying for. Gabby has either got to prove he can play in a partnership in attack with Bent or develop his game in order to play wide, which is where Houllier has played him in recent weeks. Personally I don't think Gabby has, or ever will have the quality to play out wide. His 'get your head down' type of game won't provide enough chances for any forward players. Maybe it could be the summer when Gabby (reluctantly) moves on.