No Rompy v. Pompey
Ian Symes - October 20, 2008 @ 3:27 pm
Well, that was a poor game. Us and Pompey are at about the same level at the moment - let’s not forget that if they hadn’t have given up on the league as soon as they got to Wembley last season, they’d probably have finished above us. Pretty soon, they’ll go into decline and we’ll continue to improve, but at the moment we should look at it as progress against a side we haven’t beaten at home since O’Leary’s days, and an improvement on last season’s result.
But I’m not happy with the performance in a game that was there for the taking. Here’s why.
When the team was announced before the game, we assumed they’d be lining up in a 3-5-2 formation - Cuellar joining the usual centre backs, Young and Milner on either wing and Barry, NRC and Petrov in a packed midfield. That would have been a bold move, but an exciting and logical one. Why else would he drop the full-backs? Why, to play Gareth Barry at left-back, of course! What the fuck? What a waste of Barry’s creative talent, and hardly the best way to make sure he stays past January and beyond. The poor bloke’s been pushed from position-to-position for his entire career, and it’s only under O’Neill that he’s been kept in the same role… until now. Stupid. And it can hardly do Shorey and Young’s confidence much good - they’ve made slow starts to their Villa careers, but they were just starting to gel. Now it’s all up in the air again.
Throughout the game, we struggled against Portsmouth’s physicality. We kept trying to win the ball in the air, which wasn’t going to work against anyone other than Defoe. We suffered from some bad luck as well, with a lot of 50-50 balls going against us, but that’s no excuse. Some players just didn’t perform. Milner in particular failed to live up to expectations, displaying the type of form that makes me worried that he’s not as good as he looked amongst a team that finished 16th the last time he was here. Cuellar looked great at times - popping up all over the pitch and commanding the right wing - but towards the end of the game he made a few sloppy mistakes. Gabby had a very poor game, but then he should never have been playing in the first place, having picked up a knock in mid-week. Up front is the one area of the pitch where we lack strength in depth, and I’m worried it’s going to bite us in the arse. If Gabby and Carew both get injured, our strike force will be Marlon Harewood and a 12 year old boy.
Harry Redknapp took a fair bit of stick during the match, and quite rightly so. It all stems from last season’s game - played just a few days after he was questioned for dodgy transfer dealings - in which he responded to the inevitable ribbing by moaning to the press about our disgraceful fans. Yes, that was a sensible way of calming the matter down and ensuring it didn’t happen again. Not that there’s any excuse for what happened on Saturday, with some twat in the Trinity Road throwing a coin at ‘Arry, missing and hitting the linesman. What a small-minded, moronic, pathetic thing to do. He should never have missed. Aha.
Oh, and while I’m on the subject of ‘Arry, he deserves everything he got for his comments about the Under 21 squad during the week. Now that the senior side are doing well, there’s no opportunity for him to feel smug and superior about them. So he laid into the U21s, claiming they had no consistency (despite going unbeaten for 27 games), and that there was no signs of the next Beckham or Rooney (despite the existence of Theo Walcott, and the fact that Rooney himself is still only 22). Thank fuck the FA had the sense to go for a foreign manager this time round.
There were some positives to come out of the match. Petrov had another very good game, and like I say, it was an improvement on this time last year. But we really should have pushed on and won the game after they had a player sent off. This is my one and only criticism of O’Neill - he fails to make decisive changes when they’re needed. We desperately needed to shake things up during the second half - even Harewood would have done - but no changes were forthcoming. It was only in the dying minutes that Barry was finally released from defensive duties, by which point it was far too late.
My dad has a theory that this performance is part of a ploy to give Ajax a false sense of security. I hope to God that’s the case.
Am i to assume that Arry is not on your christmas card list Ian? A very good report as usual. Up THE VILLA.