Villa need spirit

Friday, 21/10/2011

by Steven Green, Shoot's Aston Villa blogger

The result last weekend left us with no surprises; only dashed hopes. I, like many others believed that we were in with a chance of stealing a result here. This was our first real test of the season and being unbeaten we could go into it with confidence.

What a waste of time it was. After the first goal went in we all began to hope that the score line would stay respectable nevermind positive. Villa were predictable, there is something about playing Manchester City away that makes us just roll over and cave. We started brightly and Gabby Agbonlahor should have added to his tally for the season after being put through one on one with Joe Hart but as we all know, one on one is not his strong point.

Personally I’m pleased we managed to score. We had our moments where we genuinely looked threatening but ultimately a defeat was always on the cards.

And it’s because of the way we play; we have two genuine wingers that we refuse to use and when we do we play them out of position. It’s great to have versatile players but when they’re available in their best positions surely it’s best to just play them there.

McLeish left Barry Bannan out after having flashbacks of this fixture last season where Yaya Toure bullied him in the middle. This doesn’t send out a positive message to the youngsters at the club. How are they expected to learn and improve if they aren’t allowed the chance to correct bad performances?

There is a video that is on the Manchester City website, it covers all of the activity from the tunnel on Saturday. One thing that strikes you as obvious other than all of the high fiving and backslapping was the togetherness of City’s team. Ville displayed a huge lack of team spirit and it’s something that has never really been apparent since the days when Brian Little was in charge.

I call it the ‘Villa curse’, it’s that little something we always seem to lack. We have the players and the potential but never that little extra ingredient to take it to the next step. Martin O’Neill came close but alas; the Villa curse struck again and it all fell apart during his last season.

The situation requires a radical overhaul. Of course it’s easy of me to say this from behind a computer screen but we’ve followed this same predictable pattern for as long as I can remember, having the potential to be a great time will only get you so far but after so many success starved years the fans are starting to question everything from the backroom staff to the colour of our socks.

Surely someone at the club sees this too? Someone needs to…

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