Aston Villa Women: Should Carla Ward go shopping for defenders in January?
Despite a promising start to the WSL season for Aston Villa, there are a few areas of the squad that Carla Ward could tidy up in the January transfer window.
A highly profitable summer transfer window saw the Villans snap up England international Rachel Daly as their centre forward, Kirsty Hanson on the right wing and Kenza Dali in midfield, among others.
And goals have certainly not been an issue for Ward’s side this season, with Daly already bagging ten goals in all competitions – and well in the race for the WSL Golden Boot – whilst Dali has also netted three times.
Villa have highlighted themselves as a side that creates chances aplenty but who do ship an alarming amount of goals at the back.
Now Villa’s defence isn’t the worst in the league – far from it – but if they wish to bridge the gap with the top four, which Ward has outlined as her aim, they need to be more streetwise and dig in against top-quality sides.
Their 19 goals conceded this season is the fourth-worst record out of the 12 WSL teams, but the comparison to the ten goals conceded by direct rivals Everton potentially highlights an area for improvement.
This season, in their four games against the current top-four (Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and Manchester City), Ward’s side have shipped 15 goals, scoring six themselves.
The back-to-back drubbings at the hands of Manchester United and Arsenal showed that there is still a long road ahead at B6 if they want to be competing at the summit of the WSL table in the coming season.
With Hannah Hampton in net, Villa possesses one of the best keepers in the country, while the fleet-footed Maz Pacheco has proven herself as a fascinating prospect at full-back, so there is clearly no lack of talent in defence.
However, there just seems to be a piece of the jigsaw missing.
Villa have just been cut apart a little easily this season and they are conceding a few too many goals for Ward’s liking. The further up the league you start challenging, the finer the margins get.
Some defensive reinforcements may be required in January to give the squad the much-needed boost they require to close out what has been a highly-successful season to date.
In other Aston Villa news, Unai Emery’s faith in the academy is clearly reverberating all the way down the club.