Aston Villa played against Luton yesterday and lost 2-0. Shaw scored after Culllen’s cut back cross met the forward. And John Howells scored after miscommunication between Clark and Vlaar saw the forward escape the defence and go clear on goal, chipped the ball passed Guzan. Benteke played his first pre-season game and came close to scoring. Just missing after Delph’s slide pass. Gary Gardner came close with a free-kick. Callum Robinson came on for Benteke at half-time and came close to scoring on two occasions. The 18-year old played his first game for Aston Villa after a very successful NextGen campaign. Robinson missed a close range header and had a spinning shot, which was saved. Grealish and Gardner were the players that impressed the most during the game.
Villa (for first hour): Steer, Donacien, Baker, Herd, Webb; Delph, Sylla, Gardner; Carruthers, Benteke (Robinson 46), Burke.
Villa (for the final half hour): Guzan, Lowton, Vlaar, Clark, Luna; Westwood, El Ahmadi, Johnson; Bacuna, Robinson, Grealish.
Aston Villa will be playing against Crewe this weekend. Later, the team plays against Shamrock Rovers and Malaga before Aston Villa plays against Arsenal.
Aston Villa are yet to win a pre-season game, but let’s not forget; these games are all about fitness and we have a lot of first team players out injured. But I still think that defence is a worry and I personally think that Clark and Vlaar should not be playing together. You can argue that Vlaar and Baker was a much better partnership and I’d like Lambert to try in the next game.
Highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtKHMudHYK8
Image Courtesy of Daily Mirror
I don’t know what to think.
I’ve always rated Clark as our best upcoming defender, but now I’m not so sure.
I’d definitely agree that he doesn’t click with Vlaar though.
That said, I’ve always tried to stay posoive about Vlaar, but I’m not madly convinced there either.
He needs to step up a gear, which hopefully he will., this term.
I think the actual result is not a problem, like ive said before freindlies often see 20+ players taking to the pitch you cant really worry about results. the Malaga game may see a more settled line up and give us a real idea of where we are at.
im sharing concerns on Clarke though, he’s displaying exactly the same problems as he did last season, dithering and getting robbed, lack of communication and this holding and hugging players allowing him to be turned easily and potentially giving away free kicks and pens.
im also sharing concerns on Vlarr too, personally I didn’t rate his performances last season and am still no where near convinced about him(although he did improved toward the end of last season). I think the problem with Vlarr is he just looks like he should be great and a great captin too but the performances don’t match up.
all that said please don’t worry about these results, we’ve got a really tough start to the season and im expecting a shit storm before the end of September.