Aston Villa: Lay-off the Glenn Whelan criticism

Aston Villa’s Glenn Whelan is not a 20-goal season forward, nor is he a creative maestro from defensive midfield. He won’t win many beauty contests with his style of play and this renders him useless in the eyes of some supporters.

Those detractors above could not be more wrong.

He is the polar opposite to what the stereotypical football player is: he goes in where it hurts, he breaks-up the play and he’s not afraid to pick up a yellow card if it stops an opposing attack. It can seem like he is not doing anything during a game, but his best work goes unnoticed – oftentimes without the ball, where he moves around the pitch admirably in his age-33 season.

It may not seem like it, but Glenn Whelan’s work has helped Villa more than it’s hurt.

His particularly poor December, in which mistakes against Derby and Brentford arguably cost Villa points come to mind. Still, there were almost four months of football before then where Whelan made a huge impact.

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I was disappointed at the lack of respect some had after Whelan picked-up an illness that caused the Republic of Ireland international to miss a few games.

It’s really disappointing, because as Villa fans, we need to support anyone who pulls on that claret and blue shirt. The comments also revealed how short some people’s memories are. The level of criticism directed at Whelan during September, October, and November was non-existent.

You don’t make nearly 300 appearances for Stoke City coupled with 83 Ireland caps without being a capable player.

Whelan’s ability to adapt to differing styles under then-managers Tony Pulis and Mark Hughes speaks volumes to his adaptability over the years. As a regular watcher of Republic of Ireland matches, I can say that the team didn’t look nearly as defensively sound without Whelan – at least, up until a year ago.

With Mile Jedinak now fit again, I expect he and Whelan will both play their fair share of games between now and the end of the season. A rotation policy for the two of them, given their age, might be the wisest policy moving forward.

Next: Villa Battling For United's Tuanzebe

Steve Bruce can afford to mix and match according to the opponent. Aston Villa can avoid over-working a player, akin to Whelan’s December.

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