Tuesday 13 April 2010

Hero or villain?


Why Martin O'Neill may need to change his style if he wants to take both himself and the club to the next level

It seems that over the past couple of weeks Martin O’Neill has been taking quite the kicking. To me there’s been a slight undercurrent of unhappiness bubbling away beneath the surface for a while, but ever since the 7-1 reversal at Stamford Bridge, O’Neill baiting appears to have become a popular pastime.

In a way he’s almost become the victim of his own success, that’s what happens when you raise expectations; people just want more and more. You would be hard pressed to deny that the job he’s done at Aston Villa has been a very good one, yet the suspicion is that any upward momentum has been somewhat stalled. Indeed, people are beginning to ask whether the Northern Irishman has taken them as far as he can.

It’s clear Aston Villa want to try and crack the top four and get into the Champions League. Last year, with Arsenal on the ropes the club looked in a really strong position to achieve this yet fell away alarmingly in the New Year. The squad wasn’t big enough people argued; they didn’t have enough strength in depth. Certainly they didn’t have strength in certain places in the squad, but then that’s arguably the manager’s fault. See, Villa are not paupers. Sure they don’t have the capacity to go out and spend £30 million on a player and obviously they don’t have the seemingly bottomless pits of cash that Manchester City do, however in recent seasons the midlands club have one of the highest net spends in the Premier League.

A potential reason behind the fact that Villa seem stuck at a certain level at the moment to me comes a lot from their recruitment policy. Rather than this be an issue of how much they’ve spent, it’s more an issue of what they’ve spent it on. Whilst their squad may contain a number of hardworking, fast, direct players, it’s conspicuously lacking in any genuine creativity, imagination and guile. Most of the midfielders at the club, whilst talented, do not possess the real quality to unlock a defence or provide that one moment of invention when it comes to a really tight game.

Petrov, Milner, Reo-Coker, Delph, Sidwell, Downing – none of them are really what you could call a playmaker. Ashley Young creates chances and excitement, but that’s more through his pace, directness and the ability to deliver a good cross into the box. Villa badly lack a player like an Arteta or a Modric, and this comes largely down to the manager himself. Throughout his entire managerial career, O’Neill’s teams have very rarely ever featured an artistic creator, a classic No. 10 or what the Italian’s like to call a ‘trequartista’.

Which is not to say he has not been successful, he patently has. His achievements at Leicester were outstanding, and before people say that anyone can win titles in Scotland just ask Tony Mowbray or Paul Le Guen what they think. His job at taking Villa to the cusp of the next level (both in terms of Champions League qualification and taking them to cup semi’s and finals) also does him credit, but all this success has been built on sides that like to counter attack at pace, play directly and that will work industriously. Indeed, whilst he’s been at Villa, a lot of the problems have come in the games when the team has been required to take the initiative and open up a team sitting back and defending deep.

This is perhaps another reason why Villa (and indeed by extension O’Neill himself) may be incapable of taking that next step. The fact is that the side is also very limited when it comes to passing and keeping the ball. A notorious trait of British football, but it’s the often maligned pundit Paul Merson, who to me accurately pointed out the fact that a number of Villa’s problems when they play the better teams was their inability to pass and move and let the ball do the work for them. Instead they are required to chase and harry which is both exhausting and not conducive to creating chances.

Plenty of successful teams have been designed around their ability to move the ball forward quickly and be direct, and certainly there is no ‘right or wrong’ way to play, but given the continued evidence of Barcelona and what we see at international level, it’s clear that when it comes to competing at the very top, where both the club and manager want to be, ball retention and having players who can play that final, killer, fantasy ball are the differences between success and failure.

Many are arguing that taking Aston Villa to the next level will require a huge investment of cash but to me it seems like a rethinking of the team philosophy is more pertinent. They shouldn’t give up on all the traits that have served them well yet taking some steps to introduce a little more creativity and ingenuity would give them far more options. Developing his offensive style may also be the key to O’Neill’s personal development if he ever wants to take that jump to managing at an Old Trafford or an Anfield.

1 comment:

  1. A very good read. I was actually at the Chelsea – Villa FA Cup semi-final last weekend, and was alarmed by how one dimensional Villa were. They may have been a little unlucky to go 1-0 down but as soon as they did, heads dropped and there were no ideas. I’d particularly question O’Neill’s transfer policy – focussing on young English players is admirable, but some of his signings must be questioned, especially considering the fees paid. Downing looked woefully average and the midfield really lacked creativity and control – I don’t remember Petrov actually touching the ball…

    I don’t see O’Neill getting a better job than Villa anytime soon, so he must be looking to make a serious push with them for 4th place next season. One of the issues seems to be that he plays the same 11 every week, meaning Villa have badly faded towards the end of the last two seasons. If they’re going to improve next time out, I agree that they need a creative midfielder desperately, in addition to a goalscorer. Perhaps O’Neill should also look beyond these shores – he actually might get decent value for a change.

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