Villa – Brighton; I really don’t know what to expect here.

So after the complete waste of time that was the World cup qualifiers, we’re back to proper footy and welcome Brighton.
And with it being Steven Gerrard’s first game as our manager, I really ought to be looking forward to it.
Yet I don’t know if I am. The big question for me is what, exactly can Gerrard change or modify, from what we’ve done recently?
I can’t say I’ve watched much of Rangers under the manager, but from what I’ve been reading, he likes to play a 4-3-3 setup with a narrower midfield. Given that that was pretty much the system we play anyway, I don’t see he’ll be changing that. Indeed Gerrard has stated that he’s going to retain Tyrone Mings as our captain and talked about he doesn’t want to change things up immediately.
The interesting part about Gerrard’s Mings being captain comment was that he emphasised “for now”.
I see that as very encouraging, as it suggests that choices will be made on merit. Of course, all managers have favourites to some extent, but it was a criticism that was oft thrown at Dean Smith and hopefully now, that’ll be lessened. Which should be good for the very youngest in our squad, as it suggests they’ll get plenty of chances to feature, something the vast majority of us want to see.

So in the very short term, it would appear that we’re mostly going to be relying on a new manager bounce, where it would seem this is an ideal game to take advantage of it. Next week’s game at Palace looks like we could definitely benefit there too.
Unfortunately, looking at our next few games (Man city, leicester and Liverpool) things look a bit grim.
So if we can get three points tomorrow, it would be pretty monumental, in my opinion.

Squad news then and the bad news is that Luiz and Sanson are both out. Luiz is an obvious miss, but you have to wonder what’s going on with “sicknote” Sanson.
The Evening Mail say the following;

“It’s understood Sanson has picked up a knock having spent time in Paris on a family holiday last weekend.”

What on earth does that mean? That he got the knock boarding the plane, or something?
The whole vagueness of everything surrounding Sanson is really strange, but I can’t see it as being a good thing at all. That said, he’s hardly featured for us since he came to the club, so it’s not like I’m going to miss him in the team. An incredibly disappointing signing so far and there’s no more to be said.

Trezeguet is being integrated back into training, but he’s probably still weeks away, which is a shame because he strikes me as a perfect type of Gerrard player, given his workrate.

Traore (thigh) and Nakamba (groin) are both doubts, with Nakamba being another big miss if he can’t play.

As for our guests, Brighton have goalkeeper Robert Sanchez suspended and Steven Alzate and Danny Welbeck are both out through injury. Enock Mwepu has also been ruled out, but Brighton are more hopeful over the fitness of Dan Burn, while Aaron Connolly has been passed fit.

So we have quite a few talking points. Dean Smith subbed Nakamba off and replaced him with Jacob Ramsey in the Southampton defeat. Does that mean we can expect to see Ramsey in the holding midfielder role? I hope not, as I really don’t feel he’s that type of player.
The only other option though is to ask McGinn to do it, but that blunts his bigger threat of him going forward.
I suppose we could get one of the defenders to do it, with Tuanzebe being favourite, but that would really smack of desperation. Which, to be fair, is just about where we are.
I suspect if Nakamba is anywhere near fit, he can be looking forward to a big fat needle full of painkillers.

And then Gerrard pointed out a few facts.
We’re the 8th highest goalscorers, which surprises me.
But we’re 18th when it comes to conceding, which doesn’t in the slightest.

So the future aim will be to tighten up, with a view to becoming a possession based team.
Hmm, good luck with that Stevie. We’ll need to learn to pass the ball accurately first.
Then again, perhaps a fresh injection of enthusiasm and a threat of losing your place will focus minds, leading to a better standard of play? I certainly hope so.

Will Gerrard play both Watkins and Ings up top? That’s another debating point, but it doesn’t really fit with a 4-3-3, does it?

And then there’s a few facts about Brighton.
They haven’t won a game in their last six, which is worse than us. But they have only lost to Man city in that same six games. Thin dividing lines, isn’t it?
A couple of facts I find fascinating are that only Chelsea and Liverpool have lost less games than Brighton, this season.
The exact same applies when it comes to goals conceded.

So it’s not difficult to see where we’re going to find it tough.
If I also say that Brighton are also one of three teams to be undefeated in away games this season and it’s not hard as to what I’m going to predict.

I don’t see us winning this.
On paper and historically, we ought to, but I don’t think it will happen.
Our biggest problem is going to be scoring against a team that it’s so difficult to get a result against.
Our second biggest problem is going to be trying not to concede, given that on a good day our midfield is ridiculously weak.

The optimist in me says it’ll be a 1-1 draw.
But a loss wouldn’t surprise me.

1-1 then. UTV!