Judgement Day Part I

Big day for the Villa boys then, I'm somewhat concerned as further injury and suspension means that Cahill will be starting at the back for the first time.

I'm sure the lad has potential and all that but in an ideal world you would not have either him or Ridgewell in such a crucial game. The criminal lack of investment during the January transfer window has created this problem, you cannot rely on two players (Mellberg and Delaney) to stay injury free for the entire back 9 of the season.

Personally if I were O'Leary I would consider a formation change. I'd play five in the middle with only three at the back. By playing McCann, Davis and Djemba-Djemba in the midfield (alongside Hendrie and Moore), the defense would be better protected than having a flat back four with two kids in the middle of it.

O'Leary has come into a lot of flack in the last few weeks. Personally I think most of it is somewhat unfair. As I've already said the main reason Villa are in the shit is because Doug wouldn't get another centreback in on loan. We'd already sent Erike back-er to Leeds so surely the wages we weren't paying him could have gone to a much needed centre-half? Even O'Leary had said in an interview before the transfer window opened:

"It doesn't take a genius to see that I need a centreback"

But I did say that most of the flack is unfair. Some of his signings have been questionable to say the least.

I recognise that Patrik Berger is an incredibly skillful player but he's one of the most injury prone players in the Premiership. I said at the start of the season that you would not get a full season out of him and it has been worse than I feared.

There is no doubting that Kevin Phillips is a great asset to the club in terms of his goal scoring abilities but again, he spends a lot of time in the treatment room.

I won't criticise the purchase of Wilfred Bouma as he's given JLloyd the kick up the arse he needs and next season (if there is a next season) I'm positive he'll be making a much larger contribution.

Djemba-Djemba ? - I think that says it all.

And whats more, what about the players he seems to have lost?

De-la Cruz was probably our most consistent player last season and now he's rarely even on the bench (Obviously not at the moment as we have a further injury crisis on top of our long standing injury crisis)

Angel doesn't get called on until the game is well and truly lost and seems to be rock bottom in the pecking order. I know that he doesn't have the pace of the other players but he and Phillips are different to the rest of them in that they have a brain.

Delaney has probably played his last game for Villa. Without a doubt one of the best value signings made by Villa since Graham Taylor bought a Man Utd reject from Crewe in the 80's. He wouldn't have been picked ahead of Hughes if O'Leary had everyone fit despite being the much better player... I'm not overly impressed with Hughes either, Villa have sold better right-backs in the last ten years. The one playing against us today for example.

But back to the game in hand, quite simply if we don't win then we're well and truly in the shit. West Brom have the worst form of the three below Villa and failure to beat them would give Birmingham further fuel to feed off next Sunday.

I said last season that the side that would stay up would be West Brom because they had the best form coming into the run in. This time round they have the worst and are closely followed by Villa. If we don't win today, the panic button will have been well and truly pressed.