Aston Villa 4 Brentford 0

 I went to Birmingham for the weekend and visited the Villa game against what I thought was my better judgement, but this was one of the best games that I have seen in a very long time. After a 3-0 defeat to Fulham on Thursday Steven Gerrard and his poor tactics and team choices were long and over duly kicked out of the club. The game on Sunday saw Aaron Danks take over as interim and what a job he did.

I optimistically predicted a 3-0 win before the game, but after just 14 minutes Villa were already 3-0 up. Brentford must have questioned their wisdom of swapping ends so that Villa were attacking the Holte End in the first half in front of an invigorated crowd and team. Leon Bailey opened the score with a  shot from distance in the second minute. In the 7th minute Bailey turned provider as he set up Danny Ings to make it 2-0. At this point Villa were attacking like mad and on 12 minutes Tyrone Mings was fouled in the box and Danny Ings got his second and Villa's third from the spot. The rest of the half was more of the same as Villa carried on like they had been possessed and in massive contrast to anything that we had seen under Gerrard. 

The second half carried on with Villa in the ascendancy and on 54 minutes Watkins finally ended his goal drought when Bailey got another assist and Watkins had a few bites of the apple before tucking it away.

Without a doubt the move from a narrow 4-3-3 to a 4-2-3-1 played real dividends. Mc.Ginn and Ramsey were dropped, although they both came on when it was already 4-0 and in their place we saw Luiz and Buendia actually played in their proper positions. They were both really positive, but the best change of all seemed giving Bailey more freedom and allowing him to play as more of a wide man. Watkins also looked more comfortable wide and was probably the first time he had a good game in the same team as Ings.

The good news is that Gerrard is going to be replaced by Unai Emery, who favours a 4-2-3-1 formation.                                     









Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Boca Juniors shirt history

Image
The first game that I will be at on Sunday sees Boca Juniors take on Paris Saint Germain. I have always wanted to go and see Boca Juniors and I can't see me getting over to Argentina any time in the near future, so I am going to have to make do with seeing them in North London. On my travels I have met plenty of Boca fans, but funnily enough they have all been Russian or Ukrainian. I am a bit disappointed that Martin Palermo has now retired, but I am still looking forward to it. Obviously to do justice to the club history of Boca Juniors I'd probably have to write a book, so here's a quick history of their kit and colours instead. When Boca were formed in 1905 they originally played in pink, but obviously came round to thinking that this was a bad idea and changed to a light blue colour later in the year. They didn't stick with this shirt for very long either and for the 3rd time in a year decided to change the shirt colour, this time to black and white stripes. The fol
Read more

shirt history AS Roma

Image
Roma were the club that I followed in Italy and although they are most famous for wearing red and yellow, hence the nickname giallo rosso the club didn't always wear those colours. AS Roma were formed in 1927 by a merger between SS Alba-Audace and Fortitudo-Pro Roma SGS with Italo Foschi being the driving force behind the merger. AS Roma could also trace their lineage back to FBC Roma who were formed in 1901 and who wore red and yellow, but the first shirts they wore took the red, white and blue of Fortitudo-Pro Roma. Roma soon established themselves at the top table of Italian football and in 1931 finished runners up to Juventus and by now had settled on red and yellow as their colours. However, you'll have to take my word for it because the picture below shows Attilio Ferraris in black and white. In 1942 Roma went one better and won their first Scudetto with Amadeo Amadei scoring 18 goals to help them secure the title. Pictured below he is wearing the change shirt with a repl
Read more

Sud Tribune, Dortmund

Image
The Sud Tribune at Westfalen is famed for the noise and support that it gives the BVB team. They started up early and carried on until well after the match had finished despite the poor result. At the end the team looked suitably disappointed when they thanked the fans. Nobody apart from the Hannover fans probably expected 96 to win. Hopefully better times for the Sud Tribune are just around the corner.
Read more