Question about Villa's midfield options

[Mister E]

For those who watch our reserves, are Herd, Gardner and Johnson ready to step up and provide some additional grit to our central MF? when will they be ready, do you think?

Oh, and when is Jenas going to be ready to start a game?

[Legion]

No
Yes
No
Hopefully soon

[The Man With A Stick]

We really ought to consider getting a replacement for George Boateng.  It's long overdue.

[old man villa fan]

We really ought to consider getting a replacement for George Boateng.  It's long overdue.

I am still waiting for a replacement for Dennis Mortimer!

Gardner looked strong and confident when he came on in the preseason match against Chelsea.  We need to be starting him on the bench and bringing him into games.

[IRISHPHIL]

do people think that gardner should be replacing delph,

[Phil from the upper holte]

Fuck me I came on here to start a similar thread. I was thinking this morning when is Gardener going to get a look in? Delph isn't cutting it for me he's control isn't good enough he plays too many hospital balls and were too narrow, there wasn't any width at all yesterday. I think the whole midfield needs a re think. Bent was much better when there was service from the wings.

I'd be telling nzogbia to buck his ideas up get to that byline hug it and get some bloody crosses in the box.

[hawkeye]

We have too many lightweights in Midfield, Petrov is the only orthadox central midfield player.
The permutations involving Ireland Heskey! Delph Nzogbia just wont work. You can only get the best out of Bannan if he has a base to play from and we dont have one.
Our midfield options are piss poor. As the season goes on I think that we will have real problems as we are likely to get over run. 

[Mister E]

We have too many lightweights in Midfield, Petrov is the only orthadox central midfield player.
The permutations involving Ireland Heskey! Delph Nzogbia just wont work. You can only get the best out of Bannan if he has a base to play from and we dont have one.
Our midfield options are piss poor. As the season goes on I think that we will have real problems as we are likely to get over run. 

Hence my post; you've summed up ver well my thoughts concerning the games we've played so far this season.

[Irish villain]

We lack bite in central midfield, no question. We need a Townsend or a Boateng.

[Dante Lavelli]

Hopefully Gardner can get slowly introduced in the next few weeks as it would be good to see what he can do before January.  Either way, I still think any money we do have should be concentrated on a solid athletic central midfielder who will provide a platform for Bannan, Ireland, Nzogbia to play their football.

I suppose Jenus will help in this regard.
 

[Concrete John]

Thing about this thread is that it's hard to judge our options until we've seen them all.................step forward Mr J. Jenas.

I'm not his biggest fan, but with Delph below par this season, although I still think he's going to develop well, we need to see what he can do next to Petrov and then gio from there.  I mentioned this in a thread a few weeks ago, but I'd like to see us try a 4-2-3-1 With the following midfield:-

     - Petrov - Jenas -
N'Zog - Bannan - Gabby 

[supertom]

The English game is very physical. If we're gonna have Bannan, Delph and Ireland playing at the same time, which has happened this season, we're gonna get mullered in the middle. We most definitely do miss the Townsend and Boateng type player. We have no one who's gonna offer any bite and get stuck in and unsettle the opposition.

Coker wasn't a great player by any stretch, but his engine and aggression always proved useful in midfield. He couldn't exactly play much, but even now when playing the likes of N'Zog, Delph, Ireland, Bannan, and also Stan, all pretty cultured footballers, we play piss poor football and can't string 2 passes together most of the time. That's down to the balance. Makoun shouldn't have been loaned out. He's played the anchor role at Lyon and for his country. He didn't exactly look like Makalele, but we didn't give him much of a chance. He was good on the ball though and used the ball well. Petrov had the benefit of a lot of chances before he came good. He had similar problems too, like dwelling on the ball too much.

I don't think we're shot of one midfielder, we need at least two solid players in the middle of the park. We have no one who can allow a platform to get the best out of Bannan or Ireland.

Lack of creativity out wide is also a problem and as others have said, it's time for N'Zogbia to be stuck out wide, because Albrighton has hit the skids, and though Gabby's played well out wide this season, his goals are valuabe and we need him more central.

[N'ZMAV]

Jenas has to play.

[N'ZMAV]

It's a big ask for Gary Gardner to come in and be expected to boss the midfield.

[PaulTheVillan]

4-4-2

Albrighton Petrov Jenas NZogbia
Bent Agbonlahor