Aston Villa’s Squad Imbalance is Dropping Points

Aston Villa dropped two more points from a winning position on Wednesday–the fourth occurrence in their first seven matches. 

 Aston Villa Football Club once again dropped more points at home, this time against Brentford FC. Two minutes from time, Brentford’s John Egan finished from the right-hand channel after being left unmarked by Aly Cissokho.

The match finished 1-1 with new signing Jonathan Kodjia opening his Villa account inside twenty minutes.

From the onset, Roberto Di Matteo started with this squad (shocking, I know, but it’s unbalanced–a theme we seem to reiterate here at Claret Villans).:

Four center forwards starting the match with two of them playing on the wing. Jack Grealish’s absence did not help the cause as he is dealing with a hamstring injury.

Aston Villa were hardly the more dominant team at home yesterday. Brentford controlled possession 53%-47% and out shot Villa 13-9.

From most reports, Jonathan Kodjia drifted in and out of the right wing. His brilliantly finished strike happened to occur when he cut in on his left foot. However, don’t expect more of the same like that. He is a number nine striker and should be the first man leading the line.

Sorry Rudy Gestede, but you are more of a weapon being deployed from the bench. The lack of versatility Roberto Di Matteo selects for his match-day bench is really rather appalling.

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• Aston Villa draw Hibernian or FC Luzern for Europa Conference League play-off
• Aston Villa sign winger Moussa Diaby from Bayer Leverkusen
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This seven man team consisted of: the backup goalkeeper, two center backs, a left back who should be in the starting eleven, the ghost of Gary Gardner, Leandro Bacuna, and an eighteen year old Andre Green.

To compound complications, Ritchie De Laet and Ross McCormack came off injured; only adding to the list that also contained Jack Grealish and Albert Adomah.

For Aston Villa to quickly and efficiently climb up the Championship table they need wins. To claim wins, manager Roberto Di Matteo must cease this maddening trend of starting every single first team striker possible.

The squad needs to find balance. In order to find balance, players like Rudy Gestede need to supplement the bench while more natural wingers make their way into the fray.