Aston Villa news: Opinion – International break at right time
“He’s been doing this all season,” said Theo Walcott on Match of the Day 2 last Sunday night, reflecting on how Unai Emery made second-half changes to help his team earn a point at West Ham. “He’s a master in tactics, and the players listen to him. He has so many messages. Players want to play for him.”
There’s certainly no shortage of appetite for work among the Villa players, who negotiated a potentially awkward week reasonably well – striding confidently past Ajax into the last eight of the Europa Conference League, and making a net gain of a point over Tottenham. Even if Spurs win their game in hand, Villa will be no worse than neck-and-neck with them, which is a rather brighter outlook than immediately after Tottenham won so handsomely at Villa Park.
While not their most fluent performance, and while they had cause to be grateful to the official technology for once, there were things to cheer for. In the last match of a wearing period, they grew stronger as the game wore on. And at a stage where every available player will be needed to make a meaningful contribution before the season ends, Nicolo Zaniolo’s goal will have to be a morale-booster for a player whose opportunities have been limited. He took it well, too, from Moussa Diaby’s clever cut-back – and Diaby also seems to be coming into better form after a spell in the background.
Sometimes international breaks feel like they come at a bad moment, interrupting a team’s momentum. Not so this time, perhaps, for Villa; they have steadied things again, but there have been days recently when you wondered if the demands of the season, mentally as much as physically, have finally been dragging them down.
“Break” is a strange term to use for a period in which many of the players will be doing what they always do, only with more traveling involved. But just being in a different environment, with different colleagues, and in at least some cases less pressure, may be exactly what Villa’s players need at the moment, to freshen the mind before the final push. It has already been a season of excitement and adventure at Villa Park. With seven months gone and two to go, it could still be a season of achievement on two fronts.
*BBC Radio WM Football Phone-In – weeknights 6-7pm
*Aston Villa v Wolves – live commentary on BBC Radio WM, Saturday 30 March 5.30pm