Aston Villa have had a tough opening few fixtures, yet we’ve managed to beat Arsenal and put on a great display in a 2-1 defeat to Chelsea. Behind these performances is a midfield trio of El Ahmadi, Westwood and Delph who sit behind the defence and also participate in Villa’s attack. I’ll try to make it short, these three have been superb recently. All three midfielders can slot into defence, should one full back engage in a counter-attack. Also, they two engage in attacks.
El Ahmadi has been put into the side following a good pre-season and he has definitely impressed, apart from his miscommunication with Lowton that resulted in Chelsea’s first goal. But apart from that, he has put in a solid display, had plenty of interventions and played better once Aston Villa had control over the game. I can’t see Sylla coming on in place of El Ahmadi, especially after his last two games.
Westwood is a tricky one, I admire his work ethic, vision and passing but as of now, he hasn’t matched the performances of Delph and arguably El Ahmadi. Still, Westwood does his job in defence and can pick out a pass from further up the pitch. What I really want to see from Westwood is more forward play, I want to see him creating more assists for the team. Obviously that might be hard if you are playing in the heart of the midfield and tend to have a more defensive role, but I think there is more to see of Westwood.
Delph has impressed me the most, very vocal, passionate and strong. Delph is starting to come of age, and rather quickly. What impresses me is the energy he puts into every game and his stamina. Delph is a box to box midfield and you often see him defence duties and in attacks. I also love his body language, when he hit the post against Arsenal I loved his reaction of him hitting the ground. It shows that he really wants to score for the club, and I have a feeling he’ll finally score his first Premier League goal this season. Some people have been calling Westwood as Villa’s future captain, I think they’ve got it wrong. Delph is very vocal, and in a weird way, one of the more experienced players in this side. It should be him carrying the armband in the future.
So there we have it, our three midfielders. There is only one thing I’d like to see them do a bit more, I’d like to see the midfield being involved more in attack and holding the ball in the opponents half for a longer duration. That might very well be the plan, but against Arsenal and Chelsea that would’ve never been easy.
Adam2231 I think they all know their jobs on the pitch and I’ve no problems up to yet the way they are all working, what I feel the system we are doing working well at the minute, not letting the opposition work the ball closing down straight away, covering gaps and finding open places, all are working at the moment. To ask a player to hold that ball gives opposition chance to close us down, no we are playing good football. IMO 🙂
Delph has really stood out in the opening 2 games, really seems to be coming on at long last, but he really needs to add goals to his game.
IMO we still lack a creative midfielder. Its fine away to Arsenal and Chelsea where we have to counter attack and break up play, but in the home games where the emphasis is on us to break down the opposition, we almost always come up short. Its been a big problem back to the days under MON, we really need someone like Kiyotake, shame that didn’t work out.
Yes, this midfield worked really well away at Arsenal and Chelsea, but when we are at home or playing lesser opposition, I think we need a more attacking, creative player in there too. El Ahmadi did a good job in breaking up play, but for home games, we will have more possession and need to make better use of the ball. This is why we still need to bring in another midfielder.
Tonev could be the man, but i think he will end up out wid, covering for either gabby or weimann.
Good point we need a creative midfielder in the Merson mould
I initially thought that Bacuna would be playing behind the attack or even Helenius with Tonev out wide.
Maybe Lambert has one more transfer target on his mind. Something could happen after the Liverpool game, remember we have no Premier League football for 21 days so Lambert will have time
As good as Delph has been, and I have been a big fan of his for years, you can not have a player with his disciplinary record as captain. I think Lowton will make a great captain one day as his work rate and ethic sets a great example. Agreed tho this midfield looks a lot more solid than we’ve had for years. Still gutted that Ireland never put the effort in as in his city form, he would have been ideal behind the front men.
Good shout for Lowton as captain. I watched him against Chelsea and he was given some good instructions to his players, sometimes they didn’t listen but Lowton seems to be more vocal than Westwood.
Bring on the pool!
Our midfield has looked very tidy so far, El Ahamadi looks a different player this year, the only thing I could say is that our midfield trio (even with the rotation of Sylla) are all a little too similar. The front 3 are working their bollocks off, notably against Chelski, dropping deeper to collect the ball, this isn’t really a problem as such because they’re more than capable but it would be nice when we’re playing a weaker team like Hull for example to have a AM who can link the play so gabby and weimann especially can just stay forward and wait for the through balls. This isn’t a crtisism ecause our whole team has looked superb. Vlaar had his best game in a Villa shirt for me on wednesday considering our opposition and everyone seems to be in tune with each other, we’ve been waiting many years now for a team rather than a bunch f individuals.
I think Lambert will be playing a different midfield against weaker opposition. Against Liverpool I think he’ll rotate for fitness sakes, but against Newcastle, I think it will be a different team.
Yeh you could be right mate, if we can get Tonev and Helenius and possibly Bacuna starting against the lesser teams, it’s us who can crate the ownness on going forward. I also think this is a must at home this season. VP was too easy a place to go last year.
I imagine Lambert is already on top of this and we played the system we did against the arse and chelski because it was the arse and chelski.
I’d like the likes of Tonev and Helenius playing as soon as possible. Because then we’ve got more options. Right now, Sylla and Okore are the only two other options I can see starting.
Midfield yea its a pretty good blend (as sir Ron used say) A runner (Delph),someone to tackler and break things up ( El Ahmadi) and your passer that pulls the strings (Westwood). It aint exactly Mortimer, Cowans and Bremner but it aint bad.
A Villa fan has done a Q&A on the Liverpool website and when asked about Villa’s weakest link, he mentioned our midfield. I could not disagree more. This midfield is the best we have seen for years and can only get better. Also on the Poo site, they seem to be bricking it about Benteke (appropriate lol). All they can come up with is ‘cut off his supply’ and that is the main reason why starting Tonev might be an idea, increase the supply routes and tie the opposition up in knots as to where the supply is coming from next. UTV
I think Tonev would be a good idea, both Toure and Agger are big defenders. They will be busy bullying Benteke. Tonev will have more room to run through the defence. I also think that Weimann and particularly Gabby will cause the most problems with Liverpool tomorrow.
Viktor Fischer.. being linked on twitter..
This guy is very very talented.. i can’t see it happening even if we are interested.. so won’t get my hopes up.. might only be 19.. but could develop into something special..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-qIvjtXK54
Looks a bit useful.
Fischer from Ajax? He is a real talent, but I highly doubt Ajax will give him up that quickly.
Left winger ? We want a solid defender.