Dave Woodhall sees Villa do the same thing yet again.
A lot was said in the media about last Monday’s gate being the lowest Villa Park league attendance for fifteen years. Much less was said about Saturday’s level of support, when Villa took the biggest away following for some time to Burnley; 4,100 tickets, all sold out. Of course, we had to find a big day out to replace Fulham this season but it’s still not a bad feat a month before Christmas given the team’s recent record and the certain knowledge that no matter how enjoyable the rest of the day might prove, the match itself will be 90 minutes of tedium with a good chance of being kicked in the teeth at some stage.
And of course that’s what happened. For the third match in the last four Villa were leading after 80 minutes. Any decent team would have got nine points and would now be reasonably safe in mid-table; Villa got two and continue to look nervously towards the relegation zone.
To throw away a lead in such circumstances once is bad enough; for it to happen for three times so quickly, two of them against sides looking at getting into Europe, makes me think that the players at Paul Lambert’s disposal are decent enough to achieve safety and respectability even if they’re a long way short of what Villa should be aspiring towards. The problem comes when they’re put together by a manager whose tactical acumen seems to be lessening by the week.
You’d have thought that by now Lambert might have worked out that when Villa attack they don’t actually look too bad. They were certainly good enough to be beating with some comfort a Burnley side who themselves had found some recent form, until they abandoned adventure for defending ever-deeper, with predictable results. You’re supposed to learn by your mistakes, not repeat them and hope for the best.
Off the field there have been two talking points. Darren Bent has gone on loan to Brighton, which is sadly about his level these days. It’s incredible to think that the best natural goalscorer England could call on a couple of years ago can’t get a game in the Premier League now, but that’s the way football has moved on. There isn’t room for a player who has to have a side built around him.
The other big news was in its way equally predictable. Roy Keane came, saw, and left; after a bust-up with a player if you believe the press, because he needed a relatively high-profile job to launch his latest book if you believe the conspiracy theorists. He’ll hardly be missed but the difference between the casual demeanour of his final matches and the don’t-mess-with-me look he employed when things were going well in the opening weeks of the season was marked.
Keane’s resignation means Lambert will be looking for yet another number two. He could do what he’s done before, and employ someone not good or experienced enough to be a manager, but how about a radical idea? What about kicking Lambert upstairs to act as the Football Man whose presence at Villa Park has become a cause celebre bordering on obsession in some quarters, and bringing in a new, forward-thinking coach to sort out the tactics and get the best out of the squad Villa already have? We’ve gone through enough varying types of manager – old-fashioned British, foreign elder statesman, Premier League journeyman, up-and-coming young boss rising through the lower divisions – without any great success that such a change in approach might work.
And so on to Crystal Palace on Tuesday night, with the inevitable ‘advice’ if you haven’t started out already you’d better get a move on if you want to see the kick-off. Selhurst Park, midweek, watching a team sent out by Paul Lambert to play to his instructions. All it will need is a relentless downpour for the misery to be complete.
