What I like about Paul Lambert is his willingness to change not only his line up but the shape of the team and the way they play. The trouble with that is someone is always going to hate one of the formations. Saturday was my turn. I don’t like 5 at the back, not used to seeing a Villa team employ it, it seems negative and invites opponents to come on to you. One could argue with Lichaj and Lowton playing further up it was a 3-4-3 or a 3-4-1-2 formation, but that won’t wash with me.
Villa took on QPR at Loftus Rd and seeing Villa’s line up intrigued me with Herd, Bannan and Westwood backing up the forward going Holman in midfield, but alas it seems Herd’s only duty was to back up Lowton, who really didn’t seem to need much help on the left, QPR attacked so well down their right wing, it seemed Lichaj was the overloaded one, dealing with Diakite and Bosingwa .
QPR came out firing on Villa’s weakened defence, and for 3 minutes it seemed Villa were in for a roasting, then Benteke got the ball. A flash of brilliance later, Villa had possession and they swung the ball around the Rangers 18 intelligently, until Westwood picked out HOLMAN whose first touch allowed the ball to sit up and let him drive a rocket from the edge of the area that Green could only push into the corner of the net, a stunner.
Villa seemed to have settled with the goal, but QPR were just powering up as they won corner after corner. The deliveries, from Taarabt were crisp and Villa was not winning the headers. Eventually, Villa was broken down when the in-form Mackie headed home a cross that Guzan could do nothing about.
Guzan rescued Villa with a great block after SWP was through on a break-away; the same player was denied a goal by the foot of the post.
Villa had poor attempts at goal from Lichaj and Holman twice, both should have done a better job of keeping their shots down.
Scary moment in the first half, when M’bia ran into Agbonlahor’s elbow, Gabby had locked up ready for impact, M’bia had obviously not noticed Gabby standing there and ran into him, he was on the ground about 6 minutes, fortunately he did raise his arm at one point, but he was still taken to hospital as a precaution. I have no update on the lad.
QPR fans showed themselves up a little bit at this point, first by chanting Jamie Mackie’s name while M’bia lay there, but then by booing Gabby who had done nothing wrong and even stopped playing to alert the ref how serious it was. They also got on the linesman’s case about all the offside decisions against them, but not one of them in the first half was as close as the one ruling out Benteke’s headed goal.
At half-time I had time to reflect on how little I was hearing Herd’s name mentioned, which is not usually the case with him. Also I got to grips with how superior QPR’s line up is to Villa’s with Wright-Phillips, Taarabt, Bosingwa, Granero, all of whom could walk into our team. The second half, I felt this Villa team is trying to punch above their weight. They look like a N’power league 1 team playing a huge F.A cup tie, again something I’m not used to seeing at Villa, at least not since they were a 3rd division side that did punch above their weight.
It was the usual Villa vs Harry Redknapp encounter we are used to seeing, Harry’s teams are fun to watch with great flair, but there is a darkside to them, a lot of off the ball stuff and Villa’s players responded and gave back with interest .
Rangers was well on top and substitute Park, another player that would look good in a Villa shirt right now, blew a chance to grab the lead when he tried to go to Guzan’s right, when there was a lot of space going across the keeper’s goal.
It was a shame to see the midfielder’s, Bannan, Westwood and Bannan working so hard, but not being able to go anywhere, because Benteke and Gabby were tired, but the midfield trio had out worked everyone on the field. The entire game, though Villa players were left isolated. Lowton, Lichaj, Holman, Benteke, Gabby were among quite a few that ran into trouble and had no outlet to pass to after great work.
Eventually, Herd, Bannan and Holman were replaced by debutant DerrickWilliams, Delph and El Ahmedi. Williams moved surprisingly to left back to cover Bosingwa, Lowton took Herd’s position and Lichaj went to right back. One the 3 bedded in, Villa looked more stable and Villa finally ran the match with some long training ground passing to kill the clock and declare a point is all we want.
Ratings: All players battled hard and deserve a 6.5 except for Baker who deserves a 7.5 for being in the right place over and over. Delph was very impressive in his cameo, with 3 very decent slide tackles and no booking!!! Williams looked confident and did a nice job, and looked good going forward.