Aston Villa’s dreadful, dreary, disgraceful 6-0 loss to Liverpool this weekend re-opened the wounds of an awful season. Marooned at the bottom of the table, this result simply served as a timely reminder that the club are doomed, whilst simultaneously wiping away any budding optimism regarding survival.
Heading into the game, only three Premier League clubs had picked up more points than Villa in the last five matches. They’d accrued more than their opponents, Liverpool (eight compared to five), and had managed two wins in that period. Things were, definitively, on the up.
But Villa, while admittedly awful, were extremely unfortunate to be the first side this season to face Philippe Coutinho, Roberto Firmino and Daniel Sturridge on the same pitch at the same time. The first team to do that were near-guaranteed to take a beating, and Villa drew the shortest of straws here.
That fact must be recognised when panning Villa. The team gave up at 3-0 and some of the lifeless performances stand inexcusable, but the hosts were on a hiding to nothing the moment Coutinho, Firmino and Sturridge were all named starters.
Some of the criticism of the club that has followed the result has been, quite frankly, nonsensical; it’s been completely over the top in many areas—not least from Sky Sports, who covered the game, and aired Jamie Carragher’s extreme, over-the-top views on Super Sunday.
“They are an embarrassment and they have been for a few years.”
Labelling a team “an embarrassment” is strong, and it should be noted Villa staved off relegation in three successive seasons despite wage cuts and a complete lack of funds for transfers while reaching an FA Cup in 2015. That’s not the form of an “embarrassing” side.
“If that team is in the Championship it will be closer to the bottom than the top – there’s no doubt about that.”
Any team lacking confidence this severely, as Villa are, would struggle in any league. This squad of players’ morale has been crushed over the course of a torrid six months, and it’s probably unfair to speculate on how they’d do in a different division given all of the factors influencing play would be different. If this team started the season in the Championship, they’d be chasing promotion— there’s no doubt about that.
“I can’t imagine one Premier League manager looking at that team and thinking there’s one player there he’d want to take into his squad. That’s how poor they are.”
This is actual nonsense, sadly. It’s difficult to tell the true talent level of any Villa player due to fragile mentality of this beaten team, but to suggest no Premier League club would touch any of the players? All that statement has done is reinforce the strong belief that, regrettably, you haven’t paid enough attention to Villa this season.
Jordan Ayew has shown desire, determination, genuine ability and the propensity to score a wondergoal; his red card threat is a small price to pay for such a talent. Jordan Veretout is a good player who could flourish in the right environment, Idrissa Gueye is a workhorse many would snap up without question, and Jack Grealish’s stellar form under Tim Sherwood proves there’s a player in there one manager could truly benefit from.
It’s easy to level scathing comments at a side in such a poor league position following such a poor result, but it must be made clear that there any many mistruths to Carragher’s comments. This is not to absolve a poor Villa side of a shocking performance and season—no one in their right mind would attempt it—but the post-match punditry went past “over-the-top” and breached “inaccuracy” territory.
It’s a shame, because Carragher’s comments will (falsely) shape millions of opinions on Villa’s predicament and assets.
http://www.umaxit.com/index.php/columns/aston-villa-criticism-over-the-top-factually-inaccurate?
