Aston Villa’s 2-2 draw with Brentford at Villa Park left Villa still without a league win at home this season, but perhaps more importantly, it raised several questions about the next few months ahead. Will Villa be compromised by a lack of a genuine left-back? When will Leon Goretzka finally surface in a claret and blue shirt? And more immediately, do Villa have a centre-back partnership they can rely on?
Unai Emery went with Tyrone Mings over Pau Torres to deal with Brentford’s set pieces, which seemed the right move in the first half, as the long throw-ins rained in, until one of several misplaced passes led to the visitors’ opener. Mings’ additional physical presence might not be worth the tradeoff for him compromising Emery ball against the press, but is the Torres and Victor Lindelöf combo too lightweight against more direct teams?
Brentford certainly arrived with a plan to rough Villa up, which the referee seemed happy to let them do. Nicolas Jackson and Johan Manzambi impressed despite being up against it, as Brentford swamped them, before Ibrahim Mbaye’s pace off the bench hinted at a better balance in the future.
Most of the worry though remains of the defensive nature: Boubacar Kamara still looks off the pace after injury, there still seems to be an Ezri Konsa-shaped hole in the defence with Taylor Harwood-Bellis not even on the bench. Could the absent Goretzka be the answer to the defensive balance of the team or a complete red herring – hopefully, we’ll get a chance to find out soon.
In the Brentford post-mortem episode of the My Old Man Said podcast we dive into all of this and more.
There is also the Speed Demon and LB segments, and musings about the North Stand.
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John McGinn Aston Villa's top European competition scorer
John McGinn Aston Villa's top European competition scorer