Evidence that two heads are better than one at Aston Villa

By Ol' Sugarbag on Sep 15, 09 12:18 PM in Fans

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John Carew nodding the ball back to Gabriel Agbonlahor who heads past Joe Hart to give Aston Villa a last-gasp win in Birmingham City's back yard - it's a lovely memory of another derby day win.

But I'm also hoping it'll be a memory of the day Martin O'Neill reveals why he needs to strikers up top against the lesser sides.

Yes, the one man up top and a counter-attacking style is definitely the way forward against the big guns when you don't want to over commit, but surely we have to back our players to do the job against clubs who play in the third tier of the Premier League?

How many of those Blues players would have got into the Villa side on Sunday? Man-for-man Villa are a better outfit, but for some reason O'Neill didn't seem to have the confidence to have a go at those-less-fortunate-than-ourselves until later on in the game.

Would losing the extra man in midfield but having a target man up top alongside Agbonlahor from the off - or even half time - really have given Birmingham City the upper hand? Instead, by packing the midfield like-for-like you actually saw the threat of James Milner and Ashley Young nullified to an extent as the space dried up around them.

We've won the three points so what's the problem? Short term, there's no problem, but long-term Villa might find teams who can shut up shop more successfully than Blues did. And when you have a behemoth like John Carew on the bench you simply HAVE to use him if he's fit.

Carew is in your face, powerful and a handful for defenders. Coupled with the pace of Agbonlahor you have a potent combination who can find the net and defend from the front. Look at how far Roger Johnson went in the one Blues attack? Had Villa give him a Carew to occupy him, would he really have left his station to go romping upfield?

Yes, Sunday was a good result and a win's a win, but O'Neill needs to have faith in what is a very good Villa side on a given day.

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1 Comments

Bert said:

Up front seems sorted - odd that Heskey gets a game for country before club but better that way round for us. At the back, I'm more worried. Keeping out Blues is one thing, keeping out the others around us at the top end is something different altogether

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