Marc Albrighton

[Rudy Can't Fail]

It's mainly down to confidence. Knowing that he'd have to step up this season to replace Young/Downing seems to have weighed him down so far this summer. An assist or goal will see him flying again. He has the talent, I guess he's just trying too hard. As long as the fans keep off his back, he'll be fine.

[Chris Smith]

It's mainly down to confidence. Knowing that he'd have to step up this season to replace Young/Downing seems to have weighed him down so far this summer. An assist or goal will see him flying again. He has the talent, I guess he's just trying too hard. As long as the fans keep off his back, he'll be fine.

It's not just this season though, it was the second half of the last one too. As I said earlier too often he makes the wrong decisions, giving the ball away needlessly and conceding stupid free kicks. I think he's slipping down the pecking order so needs to sort it out soon.

[JJ-AV]

Can't keep hold of the ball, his delivery has been erratic since Christmas and he's struggling to beat a man now.

I do worry because his bad form has gone on longer than his good form now.

However, what he was doing the first half of last season was fantastic so I'm optimistic he can get back to that.

[UsualSuspect]

If its a confidence thing then we have coaches on a big wedge who need to sort it out.

If he is still in shit form come the new year then I would start to get worried

[Tuscans]

I think he needs to calm down and stop trying too hard. He runs around like a headless chicken, diving into tackles he knows he isn't going to win. He's never really had a trick to beat a defender but he needs to work on getting himself in the right positions without doing that as his delivery is usually spot on.

[WALTERS WARRIORS]

I am sure the coach`s are working very hard with Abie. He has got to make more use of the ball when he has it. Sometimes when there is nothing on he has to play simple and wait for his chances by getting into the right positions. Hope he gets this right as we are going to need his input ......

[Phil from the upper holte]

Quote from: Phil from the upper holte on Today at 10:50:30 AM
It wasn't just last night, I haven't seen him play half decent all season

It was only the 3rd game, and he came on as sub in the other two.


It's not really surprising that he will go through dips in form, and in fairness he was given too much adulation last season from fans and press and that creates a pressure. On top of that he probably really needed a good break after last season, but was involved with U21s Championship in the summer has now come back to another new manager he has to impress.

It can't be easy for these young lads to have had so many managers in the last year or so, whose styles of play and man management seem to go from one extreme to the other.

A bit of patience required, but he'll be fine.

I wasnt just refering to League games, he was also poor against Derby, I know its only a friendly but I was hoping he'd shine a bit, Im not writing him off im just saying so far I aint been that impressed and I know im not the only one

[Mister E]

It was always going to be a risk replacing the experienced and reliable Young and Downing with N'Zogbia and Albrighton.  It's early days, but so far I think the evidence is pointing to the fact that the latter pairing aren't going to be so effective this season.  However, if Delph and Bannan can continue to impress from the middle of the park, maybe we'll be less reliant on wingers anyway.

You may be right but from what I've seen so far McL is looking to play narrower, and so we shouldn't expect the sight of flying wingers burning a track down the edge of the pitch. More often than not, N'Zog so far has cut inside or moved inside to support the front-runners.
Re Albrighton, he seems to be having an extended "second-season" trough in form. It'll either be sorted by persevering with him as a second-half subb player or by a decent run in the reserves. Either way, he has enough talent to get over it (I think).

[Phil from the upper holte]

Sorry wanky quoting there, its the work pc

[TheSandman]

Too much pressure too young. The burden of expectation is upon him following his explosion on to the scene last season and this pressure has lead to him trying too hard and a loss of his confidence. What he needs is to be taken out of the firing line. Rather than starting games he should be coming on as a sub. He'll need an arm round him and that hopefully with a few good appearances from the bench will help him improve his confidence and his form.

I'm not going to write him off yet but nor am I going to guarantee that he will make it. Plenty of young lads have exploded on to the scene, had a clutch of good performances and then fallen away badly. What I will say is that Bannan and Albrighton are the two most exciting talents I've seen coming through at the club and I dearly hope they make it and amount to their considerable potential.

[Risso]

Just to put things into perpective, we're talking about our young player of the season from last season, which was his first essentially. He scored 6 and created 6, which is very respectable for experienced players never mind kids. Those stats are superior to, for instance, Young and Downing at a similar stage.
In fact Albrighton created a few of the much celebrated Downing's goals.

He can cross, he CAN beat players, he can score goals. This is a kid who tore the champions to bits less than a year ago and had Fergie admitting such. We're 3 games into the season, give him a break.
I think he just needs to keep playing, keep his cool and he'll reach his best form again and improve on it. We don't have the luxury, never mind the sheer stupidity, of neglecting our more promising prospects.

Indeed Maz.  In respect of his tackling, the problems arise because if anything, he is over eager to battle for the ball, which is not something I would ever have accused Stewart Downing of.

[Ger Regan]

It's mainly down to confidence. Knowing that he'd have to step up this season to replace Young/Downing seems to have weighed him down so far this summer. An assist or goal will see him flying again. He has the talent, I guess he's just trying too hard. As long as the fans keep off his back, he'll be fine.

It's not just this season though, it was the second half of the last one too. As I said earlier too often he makes the wrong decisions, giving the ball away needlessly and conceding stupid free kicks. I think he's slipping down the pecking order so needs to sort it out soon.

That's my worry too. He's been ineffectual for pretty much all of 2011, and the longer that goes on, the harder it will be to stop the slide. The free kick concessions are bad though, and he's not learning his lesson. He gave away an almost identical free kick to last year at Fulham a few weeks back. Luckily this time it didn't come to anything.

I really want him to do well, and he certainly has the talent, but something's not right with him at the moment, and it needs to get sorted fast.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

It's mainly down to confidence. Knowing that he'd have to step up this season to replace Young/Downing seems to have weighed him down so far this summer. An assist or goal will see him flying again. He has the talent, I guess he's just trying too hard. As long as the fans keep off his back, he'll be fine.

It's not just this season though, it was the second half of the last one too. As I said earlier too often he makes the wrong decisions, giving the ball away needlessly and conceding stupid free kicks. I think he's slipping down the pecking order so needs to sort it out soon.

Did he actually play that much in the second half of the season? I recall he came back in around April/May and looked off the pace. It's a big step up, not only on but also off the pitch. Twelve months ago he could probably walk around anywhere in Brum and nobody would know who he was. He's a very down to earth lad and I'm guessing it's all been a bit of a shock for him. However, he's not the first and most certainly not the last player to break through, so there really are no excuses, he needs to just concentrate on his football and he'll be fine.

Anything less and we should threaten to sell him to the Rags.

[Caiphus]

The gulf between reserve football and the top flight is huge now, and academy players are making their debuts later and later for everyone not just at Villa.  Everyone is still holding onto times past where 18-19 year olds were signing professional contracts and getting games in the first team not too long after.  He may be in his twenties, but this is only his second year as a first team regular.  I'd like to think the later starts aren't down to a lack of talent or ability, but actually waiting for the youngens to mature a bit more before having to deal with all the trappings of footballer fame that have ruined so many promising youngsters in the past.

[theleftside]

we all tend to big up these players then when they go off the boil jump all over them.  concerns about him recently are justified, he played poorly last night (my first game of season) he really should not have struggled against L2 players who double mark him, but he did.  lets not forget his age - I feel he lacks at present a real top pro to look upto at the club, even the likes of AJ and SD could be examples of young players who applied themselfs and reaped the rewards. 
do AM tatics allow for a young wide player to flourish? Does he have the cover from full backs to allow him to just run at the player??? will he have quality coming from the midfield allowing him that split second on the full back to get the cross over?? is it that easy just to say he ain't got it? before we look at other issues...