Andreas Weimann is quickly becoming Aston Villa’s most disappointing player of the season. He is a shadow of the player he was last season. Weimann scored 12 goals in total last season from 38 appearances, he often played out wide on the right side and also provide a number of assists. He offered a lot of energy up front and had excellent communication with Benteke. At one moment Liverpool were even considering making a bid for the young Austrian forward. Fast-forward today, he currently is contributing very little to Aston Villa with only 2 goals this season and 2 assists.
You’d think that Weimann would get dropped to the bench and perhaps see himself in a similar position as Lowton. But no, he has currently played more minutes of football than any other striker at Aston Villa (1115). We’ve got players that could fill his position easily, Albrighton would do a terrific job on the right hand side of midfield and I felt as though Bowery even added more of a threat upfront then Weimann. I’d also believe that Weimann is taking his starting 11 position as granted. As the back of his mind, he knows that he doesn’t have to play his best to start next game. And is the problem! Give his position to Albrighton or Bowery for example, and I bet they’d try harder, they’d try to get more involved in the game in an effort to impress the manager.
So what has gone wrong? Perhaps it’s not only Weimann because Benteke and Agbonlahor haven’t scored too many goals either. Is it self-confidence, or is it the system that they are being forced to play in? The last option could easily be Benteke’s and Agbonlahor’s problem but Weimann’s? Impossible, I can’t recall a single game (in the Premier League) where I felt he was ‘unplayable’. He doesn’t make decent runs out wide, he doesn’t create space nor get into any decent positions and worst of all, his finishing hasn’t improved at all. It’s gotten worse in fact!
I really didn’t want to tear apart our players but I hope that Lambert has taken note of his performances because they are just not up to standard. I want to see Weimann do well, but it’s just not clicking together for the young Austrian.