I’ve been a constant critic of Westwood, I’ll say that from the off.
I think he’s far too negative and quite simply goes for the easy pass, which is generally sidewards or backwards.
While I’d happily agree that you need a calm mind in front of the defence, someone who can calm things down when we’re under pressure, I can’t say I’ve ever seen Westwood as being the answer.
And if he doesn’t do that, what’s the point in him playing?
So, to what was seemingly tried to answer some criticism, he was pushed forward more and even though he scored a couple of goals in some game, he couldn’t keep it up.
He isn’t a goalscorer, simple.
So in my opinion, he does nothing except be decidedly average.
No doubt his stats might be good, passing-wise, but if that’s what we’re looking at, we need to sack the stat bloke.
Passes and touches need to achieve something and to my mind Westwood doesn’t cut it.
Fortunately, we’ve now got a new DOF in, who will no doubt look at this, but it is an interesting question.
I can’t recall how long Westwood has been at the Villa now, but it’s a fair while (3-4 years?).
But the most important point is that as far as I remember, every manager has stuck with him, even though it would seem most fans don’t rate him.
Why do we think that is?
