Time to blood O’Hare?

Aston Villa’s Jekyll and Hyde performances continued with underwhelming displays against Fulham and Preston in the last few days. Whilst there was a strange calm and almost acceptance after the tough trip to Craven Cottage on Saturday, the panic has set in much more quickly after the draw with Preston and fans are starting to question why young Callum O’Hare hasn’t been given a chance.

A home fixture with the Lilywhites on paper seems like a missed opportunity to get a valuable three points. However, in truth, North End have lost just six games all season, including just three away defeats. The game wasn’t quite the gimmie some expected.

Crucial injuries to Jack Grealish and Albert Adomah have certainly had a major impact upon the side in the last couple of games. Adomah’s goal threat is a loss in itself. However, the Villa faithful are in no doubt that it is the absence of Grealish that is being felt most keenly.

It’s no fluke that Villa’s surge to seven straight victories coincided with the return of the mercurial youngster. Grealish has been in the form of his life, controlling games and more importantly allowing Steve Bruce to finally play a system that suits the players at his disposal. We’ve looked much more dangerous going forward.

With no Grealish, the attacking guile isn’t there. And Bruce has been forced to reshuffle the tactics that were serving us so well.  If only there was a replacement for Grealish on hand.

Step forward, Callum O’Hare.

Now, first of all, I must say that I don’t usually get on board with the clamour that sometimes occurs for youngsters to be thrown into the side when senior players are underperforming. And I’m not even saying that O’Hare is definitely the answer to this particular problem.

However, what I am saying is that surely the current situation, all things considered, merits a chance to be given to O’Hare and try him out at least?

If ever we had a player similar to Grealish, it appears to be O’Hare. A technically gifted player, with the skill and vision to unlock opposition defences. The role they play is pretty much the same.

After clearly missing Grealish’s creativity on Saturday against Fulham, there were strong hopes that O’Hare would be drafted in for the Preston game. However, these hopes were dashed as he lined up on Monday for the Under 23’s league games against Wolves. O’Hare, of course, shined and grabbed himself a goal and an assist in a 6-1 mauling of Wolves.

Which only gave fuel to the fire that was already beginning to smoulder. Here is a kid who is seemingly doing all he can to force himself into the mix for a chance in the first team, yet still seems a fair distance from being given an opportunity.

Now, I don’t know the lad. And likely, neither do you. Bruce is obviously best placed to make the judgment as to his development. However, some clarification on the situation would be welcome. Because from what we’ve seen, and what we know, it doesn’t look a ridiculous suggestion that the current situation with injuries warrants giving O’Hare an opportunity to show what he can do.

Of course, it would be foolish to think that just because they are similar players, that O’Hare could simply slot into Grealish’s role and have the exact same impact. It has taken Grealish several years to marry his natural talent with a professional work ethic. O’Hare would likely be rough around the edges and make a few mistakes perhaps here and there.

But for me, the reward and risk balance seems worth the punt. As mentioned, Bruce has had to reshuffle his pack and the fluid football of late has given way to two poor performances. This is in part due to several round pegs being jammed into square holes. We can all see that it isn’t quite working. So why not at least try-out O’Hare in Grealish’s role and keep the same system that brought us seven straight league victories?

The Under 23 Premier League Divison Two isn’t of a great standard from the very little I’ve seen of it. O’Hare, however, is clearly ready to make some sort of step up. Obviously, the club can’t just throw in players who are performing well in the youth set-up straight into the first-team action, as the gulf in class is huge. However, at the same time, I do think that Villa has all too often left certain talent to stagnate far too long in the development set up rather than blooding them. We simply can’t wait until the player is twenty-one or twenty-two anymore. It may sound harsh, but we need to find out sooner if these kids can sink or swim.

O’Hare is currently nineteen years of age. Whilst he is still a very young man, I think that is the age where a player really needs to be exposed to first team opportunities. At the very least, O’Hare needs to be sent out on loan to a lower league outfit. Grealish was eighteen when he spent a very successful season at Notts County. Running rings around kids his own age aren’t aiding O’Hare’s development enough at this point.

The arguments against bringing in O’Hare is that he won’t be ready to handle games of such importance and his lack of experience could hinder our promotion push. I would argue that with each passing game that we drop points, that aim is already being hindered to an extent anyway.

It very may well be the case that O’Hare doesn’t sparkle as many of us think he will. Fair enough if so. But at least we will know and at least we tried a solution which made sense and had merit to attempt.

The glimpses we’ve seen of O’Hare in the first team looked promising. If Grealish’s absence through injury is prolonged any further, I would seriously urge Bruce into considering using O’Hare even off the bench rather than trying to force a system that nullifies our attacking strengths. The kid has done all he can up until this point. It might seem that keeping him out of the potentially hostile environment of first-team football is protecting him, but at the same time, it may also be detrimental to his long-term development.