There’s no substitute for experience. Players who’ve seen it all before and can keep their cool in the face of adversity can be the difference in promotion and mid table. Steve Bruce and Keith Wyness spent the summer bringing in all the experience heads they could and while that’s sound thinking, the win over Norwich showed that perhaps it’s the young Villains who are the ones to take the club where it wants to go.
Keinan Davis was particularly impressive. His hold up play was the base Villa built all their attacks upon. His strength and control allowed the midfield to get forward in support and it paid dividends, especially for Hourihane. The 19-year-old not only bullied Norwich, he made clever runs and more often than not picked the right pass. Davis didn’t get the goal his performance warranted but more performances like this and he can expect to hit double figures this season.
Andre Green probably had his best game in a claret and blue shirt topped off by a sumptuous goal in the first half. His direct runs and willingness to come off the wing and support the strikers make him a nightmare for full backs.
Joshua Onomah left the game early due to injury but has shown already this season that he has what it takes at this level and probably higher. Impossible to move off the ball and skilful to boot, he’s always available to receive the ball and always looking to move the play forward.
It’s not often you see an experienced defender replaced by a youngster because he can’t handle his winger but that’s just what happened to Alan Hutton. Bruce, to his credit, saw what was happening and sent on James Bree to shore up the right side. Bree really is an excellent defender, clever enough to read the game and quick enough to get up and back as is demanded by full backs in the modern game
These young men are not the saviour of Aston Villa. What they are, when combined with the experience already in the squad, is the difference between the slow, boring Villa we’ve seen under so far under Bruce and the bright, dynamic, exciting team we all want to see.
