The situation at Villa Park is one that the Aston Villa faithful are becoming fairly used to and the relegation scrap is real, with Garde’s Villa side currently rock bottom of the Premier League table and already five points off safety.
A poor start under ‘Tactics Tim’
Tim Sherwood was dismissed as manager with the Villans sitting in the relegation zone.
The start of the season looked promising, with the boys picking up three points in the opening game of the season and following that win up with a convincing performance against Manchester United despite defeat.
After performing so well in the opening two encounters, nobody expected the form that soon followed. The Villans haven’t won since the opening day of the season. Perhaps the most disappointing of performances came in a 3-2 defeat against Leicester City, when the visitors should have claimed all three points.
The tactics deployed by Tim Sherwood were shoddy and mismatched. In truth, he was as inept as Paul Lambert was when in charge at B6. The squad, on paper, looks strong enough to survive but the reality was that Sherwood really didn’t have a clue what to do with his squad.
‘Lavish’ spending brings no success
Aston Villa Football Club spent more than £50 million during the summer transfer window. With the squad needing a total re-jig it seemed enough but time has shown that the money invested did not even paper over the cracks.
Mark Bunn came in and has applied no pressure on the woeful Brad Guzan. Micah Richards has arguably been solid, if you can say that about the leader of the team that is bottom of the Premier League table. Joleon Lescott looks like a man who is ready to retire. Jordan Amavi, arguably the best signing of the summer, is out until the end of the season. José Ángel Crespo hasn’t really appeared. Who is Tiago Ilori?
Going into midfield, it is a similar story. Jordan Veretout isn’t quite there yet. He needs more time, time the Villans do not have. Idrissa Gueye looks fairly solid but is he good enough given the predicament the club is in? Adama Traoré has all but disappeared after bursting onto the scene.
Up front, Rudy Gestede has been about as much use as Gabriel Agbonlahorhas been in the past six years. Jordan Ayew is proving to be a workhorse but with no real success for show for his efforts. The need for a striker is as clear as the blue skies over the Sahara.
The infamous committee
The transfer committee has became an infamous part of Aston Villa Football Club thanks to Sherwood’s attempts to pass the buck. Paddy Reilly is the head man along with the former Arsenal numbers man, Hendrik Almstadt.
The committee’s ‘moneyball’ tactics haven’t borne fruit. Aston Villa Football Club is no better off than it was one year ago or two years ago. The ‘moneyball’ strategy has been discussed at length and Lerner’s lack of interest, and investment, is essentially ruining one of the greatest clubs in England.
Who is to blame?
You could say it is far to easy to pass the buck at Villa Park. It is clear the issue is far deeper than management and players. The backroom set-up is too experimental.
The situation is dire and it will not get better any time soon without some common football knowledge. Here’s hoping Garde can put his foot down in January and sort out the awful goalkeeping situation and pathetic forward line.
The journey Aston Villa Football Club is a depressing one and I can’t see our fortunes taking an upward turn in the near future. Randy Lerner needs to take a serious look at himself. He is ruining my club, our club, the famous Aston Villa.
This goes back well beyond this season. We have been knocking on the trap door for 3 years now. The truth is our purchase strategy was flawed in the summer, we failed to buy any players who can dominate or change a game. We have no spine, weak keeper, no leader at the back, no central midfielder who dictates play and no decent striker. We have plenty of peripheral players and flash in the pans, but you can’t build a team around what we have. Unfortunately January won’t come around quick enough and no-one will want to come then anyway because we’ll be further cut adrift.
Our transfer policy has been nothing short of poor , in three seasons under lambert we purchased 28 players and only one was worth the cash we payed for him (benteke) . Sherwood spent 50 mill plus on another 12 that’s 40 players in just over three seasons and we still can’t score defend or take a free kick proplerly , I haven’t even thought about how much they’ve. Cost us in wages all money wasted . Although in the defence of some purchased by sherwwod some will turn out to be okay now I’m not defending sherwwod who hadn’t got a clue when it comes to building a team .
Gatdes job is without a doubt massive if he can mould somethink like a team out of this mess he just might pull of a mirracle .
I do hope against hope that Lerner moves us on as quickly a possible ,because once we iron it all out this man has crippled this club with poor judgement and bad investments in poor players and managers his lack of footballing knowledge and absenteeism has made him a poor custodian. Of our club he chooses not to want to learn what it really takes to run a club in the premiure league .