Andy Munro watches Blues 1- 0 defeat at Derby.
I suppose that I should be depressed – the loss of ‘talisman’ Gary Rowett, Villa now in the ascendancy and a new manager with a 100% failure record after two games. Yet, perhaps bizarrely, I’m not down about the current state of play even when, with our new attacking ethos, we failed to muster a shot on target against the Rams.
Taking the pragmatic view, we’re not going down (assuming we don’t suffer a calamitious fall from grace), we were never going to get promoted with our threadbare squad so if we finish in a comfortable mid-table position then it’s the bigger picture that is of more concern.
Good news is that some of our more talented players are back in favour like Fabrini, Caddis and Stewart, the latter again particularly impressing. Zola also seems calm (for an Italian, anyway), recognising what all regular watchers and true fans know. We don’t support the centre forward enough through a combination of lack of pace in the team and the fact that the wide (supporting) players are often too deep having funnelled back to protect our midfield/ defensive frailties.
I suppose the bad news is that Rome isn’t built in a day, as any Italian will tell you. Next up is our apparent footballing nemesis that is ‘humble’ Barnsley and that isn’t going to be a walk in the park. There again, no match in the Championship is easy as illustrated by the Birmingham Mail heralding Villa’s narrow home win against Burton as if they had just trounced Barcelona.
It’s now a matter of keeping the faith as we await the transfer window. I doubt whether we’ll get Henri Lansbury but we undoubtedly need a midfield leader which is never going to be the likes of Stephen Gleeson! Developments awaited.
