Leicester 1-2 Villa; A decent win in the end.

I liked this result.

It was fully expected and upon reflection, my expectations were probably too high, is the truth of it.

That sort of game is always a possible banana skin, which is what I suggested in the preview, but it leads me to be in a nuts situation. I either expect us to tonk teams or get caught by the odd lucky goal by the opposition. It’s what long term supporting the Villa does to you.

So while my immediate reaction to the result was to think it wasn’t particularly good, the reality is that it was a good, dug out type of win. One where I didn’t think we played well, but where we got the result.

Which is exactly what all the top teams do; dig out the result, even if the performance isn’t great.

All that said, there were some good individual performances even if I thought we looked disjointed.

But first things first, the concern is this being disjointed. What’s happened to the free-flowing footy that ripped the league up last season? There were very few signs of it and it just makes me think we’re not playing to our strengths, of which pace and rapid passing are our fortes.

Hence the question is, is this a “needing to warm up into things” type thing or maybe instructions from Emery, so we play a slower game? I very much doubt it’s the latter and I’m hoping that we’re not experiencing second season syndrome already. Hopefully, it’s just a case of the lads getting up to speed.

So who did well?

Tielemens stood out for me. His overall work and effectiveness didn’t go unnoticed. Contrary to some opinions, I though Morgan and Ramsey did okay too. A Liverpool fan I’m working with raves about them and predicts big things. I suspect he’s right. I love lads who drive at the goal and while it wasn’t massively effective today, it will be in other games.

The brat Duran was excellent, because he got the goal, which is his job. I might actually change my opinion of him, but if he keeps scoring, it doesn’t matter either way.

Who didn’t do so well?

Ollie is missing chances he should be taking, it’s as simple as that. Yet, do I want to drop him?

No, not yet. We all know he’s a confidence/form player and he needs to be given every chance to come good again. Still, he’ll only have my patience for so long and I’ll be calling for Duran to start over him, should I think it’s the correct thing to do. Not that I think Duran is the better striker just yet. He’s just more instinctive and when we’re creating chances, a striker who puts the ball in the net is a must.

In other words, Ollie doesn’t have long to get up to speed, imo.

McGinn was invisible and it annoys me, because he’s being played where it doesn’t suit him, in my opinion. I’ve always seen him as a bigger attacking threat as against him being a defensive player, but there’s no doubt he’s versatile. I’m sure Unai appreciates him, but I wonder how much he’s playing himself into a lower profile in the team.

I still think we have weaknesses in the team and I’m not going to slate young lads who I thought did okay, but I wonder what sort of result we would have got today if we’d faced a top team?

Quite simply, I think we’d have been tonked.

You can draw your own conclusions about what I thought, but it’s safe to say, I wasn’t enthralled.