‘He was everywhere’ – Praise heaped on Victor Lindelof despite embarrassing scenes away from Aston Villa
Victor Lindelof has had an indifferent start to his Aston Villa career this season.
To date, the centre-back has only made four appearances in all competitions, with all of these being short cameos from the bench.
Lindelof’s arrival at Villa Park was already controversial, with the signing of the 31-year-old being widely criticised.
With Aston Villa already eyeing another defender, there have been suggestions that the Sweden international’s career at the Birmingham outfit could already be over.
However, this has not stopped him from impressing away from Villa Park.
Victor Lindelof impresses for Sweden despite defeat
On the international stage, Lindelof is a regular for Sweden, earning 71 caps to date.
Alongside multiple other Aston Villa players who were called up for international duty this month, the centre-back was hoping to edge the Scandinavian nation closer to World Cup qualification.
However, this has not quite gone to plan.
A 2-0 loss to Switzerland last week was followed by a 1-0 defeat to Kosovo on Monday.
- Lindelof signed for Aston Villa in the summer
- However, his appearances to date have been limited
- The centre-back is yet to even start a match for Aston Villa
This has left Sweden bottom of their group, six points off the playoff spot with two games left, making qualification for the summer tournament highly unlikely.
As a result, many players were slammed for the embarrassing defeat by the national media. However, Lindelof was one of the few stars who came out of the match with any credit.
Fotbollskanalen on 13 October awarded the defender a 2/5 before commenting: “Tried to push his team forward.
“Took the ball forward and was close to heading in 1-0 on a throw-in in the first half. Defensively, he lost a duel but was overall acceptable.”
In comparison, Expressen on 13 October stated: “Started incredibly strong and was just about everywhere.
“Can’t be blamed for the random goal, even though he didn’t get the ball away in the first place.”
How good was Lindelof vs Kosovo?
According to Sofascore on 14 October, Lindelof had a solid game against Kosovo.
The defender made seven recoveries and was only dribbled past once throughout the match.
| Victor Lindelof vs Kosovo | |
| Minutes | 90 |
| Passing accuracy | 91% |
| Dribble success rate | 100% |
| Recoveries | 7 |
| Dribbled past | 1 |
| Big chances missed | 1 |
As a result, he was awarded a 6.7 rating in what was no doubt a disappointing evening.
While Lindelof is unlikely to break into Aston Villa’s starting XI anytime soon, this type of performance will do him no harm.
Hopefully, the defender will be given a chance to shine in an upcoming cup competition soon.
Enjoyed this article? Stay connected with all the latest Aston Villa news, updates, and behind-the-scenes content by following us on our new Instagram account – @villanews247