We asked for your views on if Aston Villa’s recent mass of injuries is the reason for a recent decline or if there is more going on than meets the eye?
Here are some of your comments:
Will: Take the engine room out of any team at any level and it will suffer. This has affected our defending and attacking play. Players get used to consistent team-mates.
Shark: It is funny how Villa weren’t in a title race until the danger of slipping out of the top five becomes a threat. The media and their narratives! The truth is that Aston Villa are hindered. Look at the squad; many players are still from when we were fighting to just stay in the league. Now those injuries have hit us, taking away our few more quality players, we’re getting found out. Imagine Aston Villa under Emery if we could go out and spend £150m on three players. Thanks FFP. You rob those who dare to dream.
Graham: Ollie Watkins has to take some responsibility for Villa’s dip in form. He’s working hard, but too many big chances are going begging and he’s getting caught offside far too often at key moments. When the quality coming off the bench is making a bigger impact, it raises fair questions. Villa need their main man firing — not nearly-man performances.
Will: It’s pretty simple – lose your two holding midfielders in Kamara and Tielemans, lose your captain in John McGinn and your first XI significantly drops in quality. Not to mention the lack of depth driven by PSR and more recently SCR constraints!
Paul: I think to put it simply; the midfield trio injuries combined with Ollie Watkins’ underperforming has hampered our performances. Defence remains relatively solid but our lack of goals compared to the remainder of top six is an issue.
Charlie: There has never been any talk of being title contenders at VP. Top four or five has been the target since the start of season. We are just riding the wave. If we are still in touching distance come May, then maybe, just maybe, we can begin to believe in the possibility. But all the odds and external factors are against us. We have struggled with injuries, like a lot of clubs, but the decimation of our midfield powerhouse and leadership has hit hard. Other teams we might have expected to beat have raised their game and made it extremely difficult for Villa to break them down. Some small tactical changes are required from Emery, especially being able to play down the wings and pull those teams out of their structure and discipline.
