Derby have been consistently up amongst the Championship league challengers for the last 3 years or so from memory and if you’d offered me a draw away to them before the season began, I’d have snatched your hand off.
It’s as simple as that.
Having had a quick glance at the comments on here in the previous thread, you would think we’d been terrible, but that’s not how I perceived it while listening to the commentary.
Yes, commentary. Which often doesn’t tell the story completely.
But it’s all I had to go on and it sounded like we should have scored at least 3 goals, having hit the bar and the post, with a claim that the ball had crossed the line, thrown in too.
It certainly doesn’t sound like a Villa team that struggled when you add in that we were well up in the possession stakes too, at least for the first half.
Admittedly, it sounded like Derby got into it way more in the second half, but we still sounded the better side overall and I believe the Derby fans were booing at half time. That’s a point of note, in my opinion.
So while I’m happy with a point, I’m also beginning to see a common theme, which is while we now look a bit more creative, so we’re not converting those chances. That’ll improve though, when the players get into the rhythm, although it seems Gestede has at least tweaked his hamstring, which might prove a real blow.
Kozak came on to cover and while it’s harsh to judge him when he’s had so few games, it’s all about being be able to perform when you’re asked.
It would seem he showed nothing and given that the stories suggest RDM isn’t keen, I’d expect another striker in and Kozak will be off-loaded. No loss for me, as that’s the way it is. Ultimately, he’s another one who’s earned massively from the Villa, even if he’s only(!) on £10k a week.
So summing up, we’ve now played 3 very decent Championship sides and haven’t looked anywhere near the disaster we were last season.
We seem better at the back and I still see the odd one or two signings coming in this window, which should see us in decent stead until Christmas.
And then it would seem Dr Xia still has some firepower to add in the winter window, when the squads will come into play and RDM knows the players better.
While a draw might seem disappointing today, I really do think things aren’t too bad.
Mario Balotelli !??!!
May as well get Morrison. I do love balotelli but he has is world class one game then conference league the next no consistency
Two different players, not the same position. could get them both. Oh Di Matteo would have fun with that.
Mario Balotelli !??!!….rather have Drogba….
Definitely do not want Bas Dost, yet another 6′ 5″ cart horse, bad enough playing hoofball with Gestede or Kozak in the side.
Dost has more talent than either, technically speaking. But Xia said we want a pacey striker, not a big one and rejected the option to sign him.