Lansbury and Hourihane to revamp goal-shy Aston Villa midfield
Back-to-back defeats have left Aston Villa ten points off of a play-off place, with a massive task on their hands to have a shot at promotion, despite Steve Bruce admitting that anything short of a top-6 finish would be a failure. It’s little wonder, then, that the manager wanted reinforcements this month, with Sam Johnstone coming in as Bruce’s new first choice number one, before Villa’s latest foray into the market.
On Friday a deal was agreed to secure the services of former Nottingham Forest captain Henri Lansbury, who has been signed with a very clear goal in mind. In his press conference ahead of the game with Preston, Bruce referenced Lansbury’s ability to score goals three times in a single response to a question about what the new addition might add.
Lansbury has six in the league this season, the first of which came at Villa Park in a 2-2 draw back in September. It was a finish that has become relatively typical of a player that has a knack for arriving in the box to help support the attack and Bruce was quite right to identify that as a skill that his current crop of midfielders lack. With another 3 assists to his name, the former Arsenal graduate can contribute at the business end where Villa’s midfielders have struggled way beyond this season.
Indeed, Lansbury’s six goal tally this season is the equal of Villa’s midfielders since the start of their fateful Premier League campaign, with Westwood and Bacuna scoring twice in the last 18 months and Gardner and Tshibola adding one apiece this season. It’s this lack of support to the forwards that has seen the club continue to struggle and one that has become even more evident in the absence of star man and top scorer Jonathan Kodjia this month.
Villa are now without a goal in three games since their summer signing left for the African Cup of Nations, with the Ivory Coast international having scored half of the 16 goals the club have scored since Bruce’s appointment in October. That his reign at the helm is now 16 matches and the club are averaging just one goal per game points to a wider issue, however.
While the team’s results have improved it’s difficult to argue that their performances, certainly from an attacking standpoint, have been better than under Di Matteo. Of Villa’s seven wins under the new manager, six have been by a single goal, with the 3-1 win over Cardiff rubber-stamped by an injury time Rudy Gestede penalty.
That might suggest that Villa are struggling to put matches to bed but in reality it’s a reflection of a lack of creativity within the ranks, with the side arguably more dominant in overall play under Di Matteo this season. The Italian rightly faced the chopping block for failing to install a belief in his side that they could hold onto leads but in general they were on top in more games early on in the season - including the aforementioned draw with Forest - than they have been under Bruce.
While the former Hull boss has certainly made Villa more decisive at both ends, scoring more and conceding fewer, they’ve generally scraped results which, while a good habit to have and something they so badly failed to do under Di Matteo, they look less fluid at this stage. Indeed, Villa’s shots per game have dropped off significantly from 13.6 to 10.6, seeing less of the ball (46.5% from 51.2%) and completing fewer passes (69% from 74%). While it is of course a results business, the fans can feel justified in being underwhelmed by the manner of their side’s performances given their status and the money spent in the summer.
Villa, beyond Kodjia, simply lack difference makers in the final third, which is why Lansbury has been signed. The new addition has averaged 1.7 key passes per game this season - only struggling Ross McCormack has averaged more for Villa - and it’s telling that the club’s destroyer in the middle of the park Mile Jedinak has created the most chances from open play (12) of all the central midfielders.
While Lansbury should prove an astute acquisition in that regard, Bruce’s interest in Barnsley captain Conor Hourihane is perhaps the more pertinent. The former Sunderland youth player has registered more assists than any other Championship player this season (11) and while that owes much to his superb ability over a dead ball, his vision in picking out his striker would be a real asset.
His set pieces certainly account for a large amount of his 59 key passes - almost three times as many as any Villa player (20) - but over half have been from open play. Moreover, the energy and tenacity that both he and Lansbury would bring to the midfield would make Villa are far more difficult to dominate in the middle ground, were they to flank Jedinak as would be expected. With a combined average of 7 tackles per game between that trio, Bruce would have a strong blend of brawn and brains in a position that to now has been overrun since his appointment.
Lansbury and Hourihane's arrivals wouldn’t change the fact that Aston Villa’s mission is now looking improbable, if not impossible, but a midfield revamp is just what the Dr ordered as Tony Xia continues to put his money where his mouth is.
