Jores Okore

[Villa in Denmark]

At 23 Okore stills has time on his side, but he does need to improve if he's to hold down a place in the side. He has all of the physical attributes, but his touch is often heavy and I'm not sure that his reading of the game is particularly good. That said, he reminds me of Ugo Ehiogu at the same kind of age, so I haven't quite given up on him yet.

Given the improvement in the defence when he played with Lescott I'd say that indicates he's pretty decent.

Defensively, our most solid period last year was also him paired with Clark.

He gets caught out pushing up if he's harassing the guy with the ball backwards, but that's the way FCN played under Kaspersky Hjulmand with a Sanchez type player dropping in and his distribution isn't fantastic but I think that's confidence more than anything. Anyhow, it's no worse than Clark and infinitely better than Baker's

[SoccerHQ]

Probably our most underrated player.

Is it a major co-incidence our defensive stats improve yet again when he gets a run in the team (also remember he didn't play the Norwich and Swansea games).

Yes he was poor end of last season but anyone could see he was near enough playing on one leg at Southampton and in the cup final, he could barely run.

An important player to keep and build the team around next season I'd say.

[SheffieldVillain]

Probably our most underrated player.

Is it a major co-incidence our defensive stats improve yet again when he gets a run in the team (also remember he didn't play the Norwich and Swansea games).

Yes he was poor end of last season but anyone could see he was near enough playing on one leg at Southampton and in the cup final, he could barely run.

An important player to keep and build the team around next season I'd say.

Yep. Eight games he's played this season including today. Only one defeat which given we've spent most of the season being defeated can't be a coincidence.

Southampton   1 - 1   Aston Villa   
Aston Villa   0 - 2   Arsenal   
Newcastle   1 - 1   Aston Villa   
Aston Villa   1 - 1   West Ham   
Wycombe   1 - 1   Aston Villa   
Aston Villa   1 - 0   C Palace   
Aston Villa   1 - 1   Leicester
WBA 0-0 Aston Villa

[old man villa fan]

He needs to do the simple things more.  The number of times he tries to do too much rather than just clearing the ball.  I thought he got no help from the ref today as there were a number of times when an Albion player just barged into him as he was about to play the ball.

[SheffieldVillain]

He needs to do the simple things more.  The number of times he tries to do too much rather than just clearing the ball. 

I do agree with that, but he's still only 23 - I think there's a lot of improvement left in him yet.

[old man villa fan]

He needs to do the simple things more.  The number of times he tries to do too much rather than just clearing the ball. 

I do agree with that, but he's still only 23 - I think there's a lot of improvement left in him yet.

Certainly.  With a strong experienced player alongside him, I think he will develop into a very good player.  It shows having even Lescott next to him, how it helps.

[supertom]

Jores is looking very good at the moment but still has at least a couple of heart in mouth moments per game, but fairs fair, he's still young and hopefully he'll learn. He's got everything in his locker though. I think he'll be immense in the Championship for us. I expect him to stay and I'd expect him and Lescott to be key players.

[Phil from the upper holte]

I think he was my man of the match today

[ozzjim]

It is no coincidence that we have improved since he came back. His record in the side this season is startling compared to the rest of the side I think.

[LeeB]

Lescott has also impressed me in recent weeks, he's looked very solid.

[Clampy]

I thought Okore was great against Palace as well. Him and Lescott seem to have struck up a bit of an understanding. Cissokho's made a difference as well.

[Chris Smith]

The defence is looking decent now, they are unlikely to be bullied by anyone. Okore does occasionally show a touch of inexperience but it is more than compensated for by his all round game.

[Villa in Denmark]

Don't forget he also missed 12 months of development at what's usually a critical period around 21 when he did his cruciate.

[SamTheMouse]

I really like him. He tries to defend pro-actively, which sometimes leads to him making mistakes, but it's what marks out the best defenders.

I would suggest that if we look more solid at the back, it's essentially down to Garde. It looks to me as if he has relieved the full-backs of some responsibility for creating all our attacks, and told them to be a bit more circumspect about going forward. Particularly Cissokho, so Lescott's lack of pace doesn't get exposed too much.

[olaftab]

Okore is not really helped by having Richards on the pitch in whatever position due to amount of arse covering he has to do.