Aston Villa endured a 3-1 Championship loss to Fulham. Here are three takeaways from the disappointing defeat for Steve Bruce’s side.
Consistency in formation
Aston Villa boss Steve Bruce has fluctuated in personnel and set-up since taking charge of the Midlanders during the early stages of the season. Bruce’s spate of January transfer window dealings saw Henri Lansbury, Scott Hogan, Conor Hourihane, James Bree, Birkir Bjarnason and Neil Taylor all join the squad as Bruce aimed to arrest a poor start to the campaign. However, Villa have been a fine example of inconsistency as they have battled to adapt to the climate of Championship football.
Bruce has experimented, but not settled, with many formations in an attempt to find that desired consistency of results required for any promotion push. Indeed, fans of the Villains have seen their side set-up with 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1, 3-5-2 and 3-4-3 systems in recent months.
Aston Villa’s Jonathan Kodjia clashes with Ryan Fredericks before Kodjia is sent off
Bruce’s latest deployment – the 3-4-1-2 seen against Fulham – can only realistically be judged on the first twenty minutes of the encounter at Craven Cottage, as striker Jonathan Kodjia’s dismissal denied Villa any opportunity to assess the system’s usefulness.
However, considering that Bruce is seemingly eager to fit the partnership of Kodjia and Hogan into his line-up, the emerging evidence to suggest that vital midfield cog Mile Jedinak struggles to play as part of a central midfield duo, in addition to the poor cohesiveness of Bruce’s forays into utilising a back three this term, it becomes abundantly clear that Villa lack that buzz word ‘identity’ and are in need of some kind of consistency in formation.
Aston Villa’s Mile Jedinak looks dejected after the game
Indiscipline is key
Whether it be key man Kodjia’s early dismissal against Fulham, Jack Grealish’s varied suspensions throughout the season, Leandro Bacuna confronting an official, or anticipation of Alan Hutton’s next ‘agricultural’ challenge, Villa may possess an underlying issue regarding indiscipline.
Indeed, against Fulham, Bruce witnessed needless cautions to Jordan Amavi, Scott Hogan and Gary Gardner in addition to his goal-getter’s petulant indiscretion that left his team mates facing an energetic Fulham side, with ten men, for more than 70 minutes.
Aston Villa’s Leandro Bacuna confronts the assistant referee before being sent off
What to do with Jack?
The silver lining to the cloud that was the disappointing Fulham defeat was the wonderful equalising goal scored by Villa’s Jack Grealish. The maverick 21-year-old has shown glimpses of his undoubted talent that once prompted former manager Tim Sherwood to rate the England under-21 international at £60m, but Grealish’s inability to establish any routine output has led to a somewhat stagnated career to date.
Grealish made his first start since January against Fulham – and was deployed in a free roaming role behind a front two of Kodjia and Hogan. However, with the exception of the sublime strike just after half time, Grealish’s performance was below par.
Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish looks dejected
Grealish has missed several games through suspensions and an inability to break into Bruce’s line-up so far this season; but when he has been selected, Grealish has been afforded berths in central midfield, left midfield, right midfield, as a withdrawn forward and in a free role. Moving forwards, the likelihood is that Bruce will have to decide on a permanent role for Grealish in order to get the best out of arguably his most talented asset.
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