Dan Bardell: Aston Villa difference from Steven Gerrard to Unai Emery a major improvement
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…
Unai Emery arriving at the club is a “serious managerial appointment” for Aston Villa as he has already shown his quality, says Dan Bardell.
The Villans quickly showed the new boss’ tactical ability with the brilliant Manchester United win in his first game in charge, just weeks after looking utterly listless match after match under Steven Gerrard.
And Bardell feels it is not just the ex-Rangers manager who will be made to look inferior by his successor, but most of those in charge at Villa Park in recent memory, based on the set up first time out.
He exclusively told Villa News: “It was like nothing I’ve ever seen really, just from that one game.
“That was tactics that I’d not seen at Villa, probably ever. That’s not just Steven Gerrard, that’s under a lot of Villa managers, I felt like that was elite-level tactics against Manchester United.
“And they’ve been going well too, it’s not like they came to Villa Park and they’d been struggling, they’d been going well, and when you throw in Villa’s awful record against them at Villa Park, to win 3-1 and play the way they did is so, so impressive.
“It’s so different to what Gerrard was doing. They didn’t have a game plan under him, I didn’t know what type of team Villa were supposed to be.
“I literally had no clue. The players look as though they were lost, they didn’t know what to do.
“It made them look bad, it made him look bad, and it made the club look bad.
“So the strides they’ve made in the first week has given everyone a lift, it feels like this a serious managerial appointment from Villa.
”If it doesn’t go right under Emery then it probably never will.”
If things take a turn for the worse from here then it would suggest there are much more deep-seated issues at the club, but early indications are strong.
The players, many of whom have cost a lot of money and proven regularly in their careers how good they are, suddenly appeared rejuvenated by tactics that were able to get the best out of them.
For so long this year the vast majority looked as if they had forgotten what they were supposed to do, with confidence virtually non-existent, so if Emery has successfully restored their belief already it is a very good sign for what should be to come.
In other Aston Villa news, Jamie Carragher has set out where the club should aspire to be under the new coach.