Aston Villa: Player Grades against Colchester United
By Josh Tonti
Aston Villa dispatched League Two competition, Colchester United, in a 2-1 victory. Featuring a fresh selection of faces, the claret and blues advance to The Carabao Cup second-round.
Thanks to a goal from Scott Hogan and some incisive stuff from Albert Adomah, Aston Villa advanced in the first round of the newly dubbed, “Carabao Cup.”
A wild opening ten minutes saw Villa take the lead from O’Hare-to-Hogan. Subsequently, Chris Samba conceded a penalty in a late tacke. But no worries! Deputy goalkeeper Jed Steer came to the rescue!
The match featured a lot of end-to-end stuff. It was really exciting to watch, but the rain stopped a lot of good chances from converting. Aston Villa was able to see out the second half with a tightly-contested last fifteen minutes.
Both clubs could have scored five goals in the match.
7.5. Jed Steer continues to claim he’s every bit Sam Johnstone’s equal in net. That’s a great problem to have for Aston Villa. Saved a penalty conceded by Chris Samba in the first ten minutes. Not at fault for Frankie Ken’t deflected goal, but nearly got to it anyway. Spilled an innocent free kick in front of net, but we’ll let it slide because Zeus opened up a monsoon of rain. Man of the Match in my opinion after an absolutely stunning second half save.. GK. Aston Villa. JED STEER
RB. . JAMES BREE. 6.0. James Bree was decent for his first time out this season. The 19-year old got forward quite often, but his passing was a let down. His deeper crosses caused Colchester problems; especially one Callum O’Hare flicked on for a streaking Scott Hogan.
6.0. Solid match for Chester and the Villa defense as a whole. The Welshman had to cover a lot of ground next to Chris Samba. Chester came up huge in the second half with a pair of blocks.. RCB. Aston Villa. JAMES CHESTER
Tough match for “The Beast.” Samba conceded a penalty inside ten minutes and struggled thereafter. Lack of pace was really exploited by the Colchester attack. Flipping sides to his preferred foot helped in the second half. Good call from Steve Bruce.. LCB. Aston Villa. CHRIS SAMBA. 5.0
Another “yikes” in the Villa defense. Birkir Bjarnason was shoehorned into playing left back for the day. As Amavi is on his way out and Neil Taylor can’t be risked, Bjarnason saved the day. The Iceland international looked like a player not playing his preferred position, as expected. To be fair, it’s not Thor’s fault.. LB. Aston Villa. BIRKIR BJARNASON. 4.5
Aston Villa. ALBERT ADOMAH. 6.0. Good first match back for the previously injured Albert Adomah. His incisive running created chances – credited with the assist on Villa’s second, a Colchester own goal.. RM
7.5. Really, really impressive match from Josh Onomah. Always on the ball and contributed in box-to-box fashion. Probably completed over 85% of his passes. Watch the replay of his diagonal cross-ball to Adomah as the first half ended.. CM. Aston Villa. JOSH ONOMAH
CM. Aston Villa. CONOR HOURIHANE. 6.0. Conor Hourihane was Villa’s ball recycler on the night. Held possession pretty well, but not too much going forward.
5.5. A step down from his bench appearance over the weekend, but not bad by an stretch. Andre Green was booked early in the second half. He and Bjarnason were raided all night on the left flank.. LM. Aston Villa. ANDRE GREEN
Aston Villa. CALLUM O'HARE. 7.0. A revelation among our midst. Callum O’Hare was absolutely fantastic – a true attacking number ten. Nearly scored on the second half and could have had 3+ assists on the night. It will be hard for Steve Bruce to not include the 19-year old moving forward. One downside is he struggled in the air and got beat around physically; as to be expected from a teenager.. CAM
6.5. Good match from Scott Hogan, who got the surprise start. I say surprise because I figured Bruce wouldn’t want to risk him in a cup match. Scored Aston Villa’s opener and nearly scored another in the second. Hold-up play decent.. CF. Aston Villa. SCOTT HOGAN
The Carabao Cup second-round draw takes place Thursday at 10PM U.K. time. Aston Villa is one of the seeded clubs. As such, another League One/Two opponent or a lower-finishing Championship club will be the opponent.
A match-up against Birmingham City is very much alive.