Villa Park Woes

Time for some honesty regarding Aston Villa’s season, and more pertinently, Aston Villa’s current form – or lack of it!

Villa fans have revelled in pretty good times since Unai Emery walked into Aston - 3 successive seasons enjoying European football and battling at the top end of the Premier League have (some have said) led to a slight sense of entitlement from a large section of supporters – but is this true, or have supporters every right to demand more from highly paid players who have been praised and lorded like no Villa squad before?

A dreadful start to the current season saw the club fail to win or score a goal for a whole month and fans were asking just where Villa’s form had disappeared to – some even wondered out loud (across the usual social media meltdowns) whether a relegation fight lay ahead.

But a remarkable run of form to follow the awful start saw The Villans rocket to third place in the league, with a very healthy lead to those occupying Champions League spots below them.

Injuries to key midfield players certainly affected Villa’s form, but I don’t think this should be used as an excuse for what followed!

Supporters quite rightly adore manager Unai Emery – an elite coach who sits comfortably in the list of top 10 coaches globally. However, questions need to be asked regarding exactly how the club finds itself in its current malaise, where the significant points gap to those below them has been wiped out and frankly, Villa look most likely to be the team that drops out of those coveted Champions League spots.

In all honesty, Villa can be a tough watch for supporters. Slow, safe, possession based football is an Emery hallmark and when results are going well fans will accept and even embrace this style of football. However, when the side is playing as awfully as they currently are (and have been for several weeks) fans have every right to ask why something different hasn’t been tried and why the manager seems completely unwilling to rest players who are clearly completely devoid of form and confidence.

Villa’s recruitment during Emery’s tenure has been woeful and some fans claim that this is why Emery is unwilling to change things – ‘he doesn’t have the players to put in there’ – this may be true (in a recent game, 9 of the 11 on the field were already at the club when the manager arrived), but Emery has almost unique control of everything at the club and he must take some responsibility for the clubs embarrassing transfer activity.

In summary – Emery is a coach we all love, very few want to see him leave. But he must find a way to change the current direction and must accept some responsibility for the clubs current plight!

Image Credits: StockSnap via pixabay.com, Aleksandr Osipov_via commons wikimedia, Philip Halling_via commons wikimedia