Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Mister E on July 29, 2015, 12:25:55 PM
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Here (http://www.theguardian.com/football/who-scored-blog/2015/jul/29/aston-villa-surprise-package-premier-league-season)
Any team that loses their two key players will be expected to struggle. When that side finished just one place above the relegation zone in the previous season, they will be tipped for the drop. That’s the scenario Aston Villa find themselves in, having lost their top scorer from the past three seasons, Christian Benteke, and their player of the season from the past two, Fabian Delph. That there is a slightly unnerving sense of optimism surrounding the club before what is set to be their first full season under Tim Sherwood (http://www.theguardian.com/football/tim-sherwood) may be confusing to some. The fact of the matter is, however, that Villa have diced with death for too long and were in desperate need of an overhaul.
Losing key players may not have been the ideal way to force Randy Lerner’s hand in the transfer market, with the American owner still looking to sell the club, but it has restored a sense of excitement before of the upcoming campaign. Believe it or not, Aston Villa are well placed to be the surprise package of the Premier League (http://www.theguardian.com/football/premierleague).
The reinvestment of funds accrued from the sales of Benteke and Delph were always going to be key and Villa’s approach has caught many by surprise. Following in the footsteps of Newcastle United – who had some degree of success with the strategy before their spectacular collapse last season – Villa seem to have scouted extensively in Ligue 1. The new approach follows the arrival of former Arsenal board members Tom Fox, as CEO, and Hendrik Almstadt, as their first ever director of football.
The signings of Idrissa Gueye, Jordan Amavi and Jordan Ayew – who join Micah Richards, Scott Sinclair and Mark Bunn at the club – have given fans cause for excitement. The club will reportedly tie up a deal for another midfielder, and their third Jordan of the summer, in the form of Nantes midfielder Jordan Veretout. With versatile defender José Ángel Crespo also putting pen to paper and controversial frontman Emmanuel Adebayor tipped to sign before the end of the week, it will be interesting to see how Sherwood lines up his team this season.
Of the new arrivals from France’s top flight, Gueye looks to be the most ready-made for the Premier League. The Lille midfielder’s high-energy approach makes him an ideal replacement for Delph. The announcement of his arrival came before the former captain’s unexpected decision to stay at the club; a decision that stuck for just six days.
The two are comparable in a number of ways. They have similar frames and are both very athletic, but where Delph was given more of an attacking licence under Sherwood, Gueye will add extra bite to the midfield. The 25-year-old Senegal international was Lille’s star performer last season, earning a higher rating than any of his regular team-mates (7.41). With a solid 86.4% pass accuracy from 63.6 passes per game, he is well equipped to make the transition to the Premier League both technically and physically.
Veretout, at just 22, is understandably more of a raw talent. Nevertheless the Under-20 World Cup winner, fielded in a midfield alongside Paul Pogba and Geoffrey Kondogbia for France in 2013, is the talisman for an improving Nantes side. With a more modest rating of 7.07 last season, that score was still only just shy of Delph’s 7.08 and a significant advance on Tom Cleverley’s lowly 6.64.
Veretout is more adventurous than Gueye and would probably be given more of an attacking role. He scored seven goals and provided six assists last season, and is capable of driving forward with the ball and carving out goalscoring opportunities. His average of two key passes per game in 2014-15 was significantly better than any Villa player.
Amavi looks set to be the solution to a long-standing issue at left-back, where he should usurp Aly Cissokho and Kieran Richardson in the ranks. The 21-year-old had a sensational campaign with Nice last season, earning a place in our Ligue 1 team of the season (http://www.whoscored.com/Regions/74/Tournaments/22/France-Ligue-1#) courtesy of a rating (7.74), which was second only to Zlatan Ibrahimovic in France’s top tier. He made more interceptions (165) than any other player in Europe’s top five leagues, always looks to play on the front foot and is able to instigate attacks from deep.
The signing of Ayew from Lorient perhaps represents the biggest gamble for Villa, with most observers in France suggesting that they were forced to pay over the odds for the Ghana international. He may have ended the 2014-15 campaign with a respectable 12 goals, but that doesn’t really tell the whole story. Given that Ayew attempted the second most shots in the league (112), a conversion rate of 10.7% was pretty weak. The 23-year-old was dispossessed (four times per game) and conceded possession due to a poor touch more often than any other player in Europe’s top leagues.
He’s still very young and has plenty of potential but Ayew is far from the finished article and may both frustrate and delight in equal measure. The fact that a loan move for Adebayor is picking up pace comes as little surprise then, with the experienced striker likely to lead the line and mentor his junior team-mate in the process.
If, as expected, Villa complete the signings of Veretout and Adebayor in the coming days, Sherwood has every right to be happy with his lot and will be aiming to offload any deadwood before dipping into the market again. It will be a new-look side regardless, and a real departure from the days of Paul Lambert. That, for Villa fans, is just what the doctor ordered, even if it means losing the players that kept the club afloat under the former manager.
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Good article and pretty much spot on
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Good confidence boosting article...lets just hope all the new players and those returning from injury can gel as a team.
The potential lineup doesn't include Ayew but does assume that the Veretout deal is all but signed, sealed and delivered...and our squad is looking much stronger when you consider the likes of Sinclair, Gabby, Ayew, Crespo and Kozak will be on the bench.
Having been to Walsall and Wolves, if we complete the signing of Veretout then I'd still like to see another CB and RB being to tighten and improve things at the back, and I'm not entirely convinced by our forward options even with the potential signing of Adebayor.
I'd say the overall squad is looking stronger than last season, but the first XI is still mid table-ish, but if we could get a few more experienced players down the spine of the team and at RB, then we could be pushing top half.
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Agreed Mr E and a good summary of the transfer activity thus far. I would add to the air of optimism that I certainly have by looking forward to the developing talent of Jack Grealish and more game time for Gil. The latter could be the surprise package giving us a similar play maker that the top 5 teams seem to have in their ranks.
However probably the most defining difference will be a structured and measured approach to coaching and taking players beyond their normal competence. It will be at the very least a very interesting season.
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Good read - agree with pretty much all of that.
I was happy when we didn't manage to persuade Cleverly to stick around and, unsurprisingly, those stats (and my memory) seem to support that view.
If nothing else, the summations of the incoming French players give me cause for optimism.
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It is another voice in the 'hmm, is ayew the answer' camp.
Good article tho he is a villa fan
I'm really uncertain how this is going to pan out. Could finish anywhere between 8th and 20th
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Positive comments from City fans about Richards Too (below the main article).
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Just the sort of article which hasn't been written about us since the MON era. Reading it make me salivate and get excited in equal measure. Its all great PR for us and sends out a message they we are really trying to improve. Im sick of reading all other fans saying we are a joke club and deserve to get relegated. They are right, but it hurts.
just hope we make all the signings suggested now or it will be a let down
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I will be happy with 40 points by mid April 2016. The forthcoming season is a transitional one, probably more to expect in 2016/2017.
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I think one thing's for certain; it's not going to be boring this season.
The nature of the signings, looking at their attributes, suggests he's going to try and take the high tempo play that gave us the run that saved us up a notch. If it comes off and he manages to get the team playing as he appears to want to, we could be giving quite a few teams a bloody nose or 2.
Flip side is I don't think that there'll be much middle ground, it will either be a joy to watch, or watching through your fingers, possibly from half to half.
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Interesting article and its made me a little less pessimistic about the season ahead.
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Just a note of caution, the author is a Villa fan, so likely to have a little bit of bias!
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Laurence is a fan, and a good follow on the tweeter.
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I spat out my tea with laughter at the headline. Now it makes sense, it was written by a Villa fan. A hugely optimistic one. I sometimes wish I thought like that when it came to Villa. I guess years of crap has beat it out of me...
Interesting statistics though.
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Well, it might be true or it might not be. The team does feel a bit refreshed though, and it's nice to have interesting signings to look forward to seeing.
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Their season preview seems much better informed than most that you would find in the nationals as well:
Guardian writers’ predicted position: 16th (NB: this is not necessarily Stuart James’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)
Last season’s position: 17th
Odds to win the league (via Oddschecker): 2,500-1
Whether reaching a first FA Cup final in 15 years or listening to Fabian Delph declaring his loyalty for the club, it must feel as if it is the hope that kills you as an Aston Villa supporter. Throw in the news that a proposed takeover is dead and that Christian Benteke has joined Liverpool and it is hard to pick up much of a reading on the optimism gauge at Villa Park these days.
Then again that has been the case for a while. This, after all, is a club that has spent the last five seasons flirting with relegation. The ninth-placed finish under Gérard Houllier in 2011 hid a multitude of sins. Over the four seasons since, Villa have finished 16th, 15th, 15th and 17th. You get the picture.
Tim Sherwood has spoken confidently about breaking that cycle. “I am allowed to sign whoever I want as long as I can justify the signing,” the Villa manager said at the start of May. “But I believe even if we didn’t make a signing we wouldn’t be in this position again.”
Those comments were made after Villa beat Everton 3-2 at home to pull clear of the mire at the bottom of the table. Benteke scored twice that day, Tom Cleverley got the other and Delph impressed in front of the watching Roy Hodgson. All three players have gone.
Cleverley, well as he played after Sherwood took over from Paul Lambert as manager in February, can be replaced. Finding a natural successor to Delph, the captain and heartbeat of the team, will be more difficult and it remains to be seen whether Idrissa Gueye, a £9m signing from Lille, can be that player or if Sherwood has someone else in mind. As for Benteke, the void is huge and there is no point in trying to claim otherwise.
Villa scored 105 Premier League goals since Benteke made his debut against Swansea in September 2012. Benteke was responsible for 42 of them and set up another eight. In other words Benteke had a hand in almost every other Villa goal across the past three seasons – and it is worth bearing in mind that he missed 13 league games across the back end of the 2013-14 campaign and the start of last season with a ruptured achilles tendon.
Small wonder that Sherwood was so desperate to keep him. Benteke, however, had seen enough. After three seasons of fighting relegation, the Belgium forward had made up his mind the time was right to move on and join a club competing at the other end of the table. And who can blame him?
The search for a successor has been under way for a while. Jordan Ayew, a 23-year-old Ghana international with a maverick streak, looks like being the man tasked with stepping into Benteke’s boots. Now on the verge of signing from Lorient for £9m, Ayew, the son of Abedi Pele, broke into double figures for the first time in Ligue 1 last season, scoring 12 goals. He has a reputation for being a little surly, with a touch of attitude. Perhaps more significantly for Sherwood is that Ayew is a powerful runner, decent in the air and capable of bringing other players into the game. Time will tell whether he can be a prolific scorer.
While Benteke’s departure seemed inevitable, and Sherwood must have suspected as much when he made it public knowledge there was a release clause in the striker’s contract, Delph’s situation was more curious. It is easy to criticise Villa for the release clause in the England international’s contract being so low (£8m), yet it was a minor miracle that they managed to get anything for the player, given he had fewer than six months left on his contract when he signed a new deal.
Of course, that four-and-half-year contract and all the nonsense that accompanied it at the time was a bit of a charade. On the afternoon the news was plastered across the big screens inside Villa Park a journalist asked whether there was a release clause – a perfectly legitimate question in the context of what had gone on – and was accused by Lambert of being negative. As for the fiasco with the Manchester City move, all that can be said for certain is that Delph made a right pig’s ear of the way he handled it.
Sherwood needs to pick up the pieces and move on, which is pretty much what he has been doing from the day he walked into Villa Park. Villa, it is worth recalling, were in a hell of a mess at that time. They had scored a pitiful 12 goals in 25 league games, won only two out of their previous 21 top-flight matches and, make no mistake, were heading for the Championship under Lambert. The football was dire, the tactics clueless.
Brought in on a long-term contract with a short-term objective to keep Villa in the Premier League, Sherwood rubbished the theory that nobody could do any better than Lambert with the same group of players. Pointless possession with no cutting edge gave way to a more vibrant, dynamic style of football, culminating in the stellar performance that Villa delivered in their FA Cup semi-final victory over Liverpool at Wembley.
That was also a day when a teenager with slicked-back hair and socks rolled down by his ankles announced himself to the wider football world. Jack Grealish, a 19-year-old from Solihull, played like a free spirit and was a joy to watch. His emergence under Sherwood provided a silver lining in a troubled campaign and it will be fascinating to see how Grealish performs in his first full season in the Premier League, whether he can add goals to his game and how he handles the media spotlight.
Being photographed lying asleep in the street in Tenerife in June was not one of Grealish’s finest moments but nor was it a hideous crime. He is, after all, a kid, not a role model (that is your job as a parent). The question for me seems to be not so much what Grealish was up to – he will learn and Sherwood will make sure of that – but where the hell were the “mates” who left him in that state. Anyway, that is a discussion for another time.
To date, Sherwood has made five signings, including Scott Sinclair, who has joined permanently after spending the second half of last season on loan from Manchester City. Sherwood used Sinclair sparingly – something he largely attributed to the system he played last season – while Carles Gil, who showed some real promise after being brought in by Lambert in January, had even less of a look-in.
Whatever the reasons behind that decision with Gil – Sherwood has suggested that it was because Villa were embroiled in a relegation battle – the gifted Spaniard is set to be an important player this season and it looks as though he could end up being deployed in the No10 role.
The problematic left-back position has been addressed with the arrival of Jordan Amavi, a 21-year-old Frenchman signed from Nice for £10m. Micah Richards, brought in on a free transfer from Manchester City, offers versatility but will almost certainly start the season in central defence, possibly as the captain now that Ron Vlaar has departed. Vlaar was something of an enigma, one of the best defenders at the World Cup last summer but a man who spent too much time on the sidelines at Villa (he has just confirmed he will be out for four months after undergoing knee surgery).
With Jores Okore recovering from injury, Ciaran Clark looks the favourite to start the season alongside Richards, with José Ángel Crespo – who is due to complete a move from Córdoba – or Alan Hutton playing at right-back. That is assuming Sherwood prefers Leandro Bacuna in a more advanced role (the Dutchman performed well as a makeshift full-back across the final few months of last season).
As things stand – and it would be a surprise if another midfielder does not arrive between now and the end of the transfer window – Sherwood’s options in the centre of the pitch revolve around Gueye, Carlos Sánchez and Ashley Westwood. Where Charles N’Zogbia, who got a new lease of life as a second No10 alongside Grealish at the end of last season, and Kieran Richardson fit into the plans is anyone’s guess.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record the biggest problem for Villa this season is likely to be where the goals come from, even if there was a marked improvement after Sherwood’s arrival. Look back over the last three campaigns and the next highest Premier League scorer for Villa after Benteke is Gabriel Agbonlahor with 19 goals. Andreas Weimann, who joined Derby in the summer after his Villa career fizzled out, contributed 15 goals over that time.
Then the numbers fall off a cliff. Bacuna is the fourth highest league scorer with five goals in three years. Libor Kozak, who has not kicked a ball in a competitive game since December 2013, following a lengthy period of rehabilitation after suffering a broken leg in training, is next on the list with four.
Tied on three goals are Cleverley, Delph, Darren Bent – who has also left – and Westwood. It does not make for brilliant reading and highlights the need for Sherwood to find a way of getting midfielders and wingers to chip in and share the load with Ayew, assuming he signs, and whoever else plays up front.
One positive for Villa is that the fixture list appears to have been kind in terms of their start. A visit to Bournemouth on the opening day will not be easy by any stretch and Manchester United tend to regard trips to Villa Park – the two meet the following Friday – as a guaranteed three points. But in the next four matches Villa take on Crystal Palace, Sunderland, Leicester and West Bromwich Albion.
Quite what Sherwood’s starting XI will look like then is difficult to say. With so many significant incomings and outgoings, Sherwood faces quite a task to mould a new team quickly and successfully in what will be his first full season as a manager. If he ends up delivering on that promise to keep Villa clear of the relegation scrap – albeit a vow that was made before Delph and Benteke packed their bags – the 46-year-old will have done one hell of a job.
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@villasnake what's his Twitter name, please?
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imacuntanddontiknowit
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We're gonna win the league
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I agree with the last article, even down to where we will finish.
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Well, with all the effort that has gone into the transfer dealings, I am surprisingly optimistic.
After all the shite of recent years, we are due a change and a positive one at that.
Top-half finish for me.