I had predicted that Villa would win the game 2-1, but what turned out was a rather frustrating 0-0 draw. The boys in the claret and blue tried really hard, but they lacked the imagination and vision in the final third. It might sound like Villa dominated the match, but the result was not harsh on us. The midfielders did their job in spreading the ball to the flanks and the wingers too tried well, but they forgot one main thing – passing the ball to the bloody striker. Darren Bent was absolutely starved of service and had to make run after run waiting for the pass or the cross, which never came. Wolves were organized well defensively and were rarely a threat but Stephen Hunt almost scored his team an unlikely goal, but his header was smartly stopped by Super Shay Given.
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Villa had a couple of chances in the first half but nothing major to write about. The second half saw Villa come rampaging through the gates. Chance after Chance was created, but due to the lack of that one bit of creativity, opportunity after opportunity was squandered. Charles N’Zogbia passed extremely well, but was guilty of shooting wildly when a better option was to look for a pass to a team mate.
N'Zogbia – Shots
N'Zogbia – Passes
Readers of this blog might have noticed that I am not a big fan of Heskey. I don’t care if the man uses his strength to bully opposition defenses, but he shouldn’t be starting a damn game. His touch is heavy and because of that he keeps squandering many scoring opportunities. I’m of the firm opinion that Heskey should play the last 20 minutes of a game. Yesterday, he vanished out of the game after the hour mark and it is a complete mystery to me why McLeish decided to take N’Zogbia away instead of Big Burly? Lets see a quick glance at what Monsieur Heskey was upto in the last half hour? zilch.
What Heskey was upto in the final half hour?
Infact, Villa themselves were over run by Wolves in the last half hour. McCarthy on seeing Villa’s attacking intent, withdrew both his wingers and brought in defensive replacements in George Elokobi and Kevin Foley. Wolves operated narrow and with high tempo, which was too much for tiring Villa. This is where I feel McLeish should have made some astute substitutions like bringing on Ireland, Bannan and Makoun on for Heskey, Petrov and Agbonlahor after 65 minutes.
a tiring Villa were almost hunted down by the battling Wolves
In the end, I would say 0-0 was deserved, even though we created thrice the amount of chances. When your finishing is bad, you don’t deserve to win. But one positive in the game was the emergence of Chris Herd. With Luke Young on his way to QPR, the RB position is up for grabs and there are four guys in the squad who can fill in – Eric Lichaj, Herd, Ciaran Clark and Habib Beye. I thought McLeish would go with Lichaj but Herd was given the nod and he had an absolutely magnificent game. He defended with intent, ran well along the flank and almost scored with a thumping header and all this after banging his head against the post. Man of the match, easily.
This match would have posted more questions than answers to McLeish. But I really hope, he has realized what those questions are.
