The first half was one to forget. Playing 5 at the back was a cause of concern for me. Vlaar has been selected to start Villa’s last 2 games, this disruption helped Okore to having his worst game for Villa, as well as conceding the free kick which lead to Swansea’s winning goal. Cissokho looked as if he wasn’t interested, which is why he was substituted at the start of the second half and we reverted to a flat back 4 with Ciaran Clark on the left.
Villa made it more of a game in the second half, and if we had taken our chances, then we might have gotten a point, which would have been a fair outcome. Weimann combined well with Cleverley but the strike on goal lacked any power. Benteke had a powerful header saved near the end of the match, but it wasn’t a sitter as some suggested. Gabby, God bless him, is so flat-footed it’s unreal; he just doesn’t anticipate where the ball might end up, unless it’s so blatantly obvious.
Ciaran Clark isn’t a left back, which is where Lambert put him when he substituted Cissokho. I think Clark has done enough to keep his place in the centre of defence. The constant change to the back-line is a bit unfair to accommodate players like Vlaar who want to leave us. I’d drop Vlaar for the up coming matches and keep the Okore/Clark combination that has served us well when Vlaar was out injured.
I’ve still got a problem with our midfield; we need some creativity and steel in the centre of the park. It would be great if we could get a couple of midfielders who are taller than the 7 dwarfs of Snow White. I believe that this is where we need to strengthen the most so that we can turn more losses into draws, and more draws into wins. Losing players like Delph isn’t good for the Villa, but he’s been part of the sides when we’ve been on our losing streaks and relegation battles, plus he wants to leave us, let’s not forget that. UTV