Boubacar Kamara injury an absolute disaster for Aston Villa – Dan Bardell
We’re delighted to welcome The Athletic’s Dan Bardell as our exclusive Aston Villa columnist each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the club…
Boubacar Kamara’s injury is a “massive blow” to Aston Villa after already losing fellow big-name summer signing Diego Carlos says Dan Bardell.
The young Frenchman was one of the two headline signings the club brought in over the summer to address the solidity through the middle, and with centre-back Diego Carlos ruled out long-term already with a ruptured achilles it was the last thing Steven Gerrard needed to lose Kamara for what L’Equipe are reporting to be at least two months.
The step back to relying on the same options from last season is a concern for Bardell, who expects the manager will be forced to abandon attempts to be expansive for the time-being, and feels forgotten men in the squad will have to be brought back into the fold to cover for the absence.
“It’s an absolute disaster,” he said, speaking exclusively to Villa News.
“Villa have made two big signings who I know they were pinning a lot of hopes on. They were very pleased to get them over the line because of what they’ve done in recent years.
“To lose them both for a big chunk of the season is a massive blow.
“I was hoping that the World Cup break might do us a favour with Kamara’s injury but he’s going to be back just before then anyway, so it’s not even like the break is going to benefit Villa in any way. It will for Diego Carlos but not for Kamara.
“It’s just a huge, huge blow because that number six position has been one that Villa fans have wanted to be addressed for some time and it looked like they’d addressed it.
“It hasn’t been spectacular but it has been solid, and I think he’s shown what he can do. I think moving forward he’s going to become a very good player, you can see he’s a classy operator in that position, he gives you everything you need.
“And now we’re in the situation where Villa are forced to go back to a back four and a midfield three that was the same ones that they had last season, and it simply didn’t work.
“We’ve got back to this ‘back to basics’ approach, and I think losing Kamara will probably necessitate that Villa do even more of that because they were just so open last season with the personnel that they had in midfield and defence, so something has to change.
“If Steven Gerrard can’t change the personnel because of injuries to new players now he’s going to be forced to solidify things, so there’s a danger that Villa won’t be too pretty moving forward over the next few months.
“But I do think, in Gerrard’s defence, it’s kind of a necessity because there’s nothing you can do about it now. You can’t bring anyone new through the door until January.
“We’ve got who we’ve got, and you’d think it’s going to be [Douglas] Luiz, [John] McGinn and [Jacob] Ramsey but it hasn’t really worked when they’ve lined up together.
“[Marvelous] Nakamba and [Morgan] Sanson are still knocking about at Villa Park. It feels like they’ve been alienated the last few months. Tim Iroegbunam’s gone out on loan as well. They’ve lost [Carney] Chukwuemeka to Chelsea. So suddenly they’re quite light in that position so players like Nakamba and Sanson might have to come back to the fore.
“It’s about how they react to that because they have kind of been cast aside over the last few months.”
Leander Dendoncker arrived on transfer deadline day to mitigate the damage slightly, but with the two youngsters out of the picture as well as the big name signing from Marseille, it is a worrying picture in the middle.
The win over Southampton was far from pretty, and it looks like it is going to need to be more of the same as Gerrard looks to avoid the kind of openness that plagued his side last season.
It is an opportunity for the likes of Sansom, Nakamba and Dendoncker, and fans will be desperately hoping one of them grasps it otherwise it could be an arduous run up to the World Cup break.
In other Aston Villa news, Jack Grealish has admitted he was more free as a Villa player than he is at the Etihad.