Where would our current second 11 come in the Premiership?

[bickster]

Posted by JimCohen

Where would our current second 11 come in the Premiership?

A lot of people say we lack strength in depth, and injuries and suspensions could hurt us. So I thought I would make two Villa teams in 4-4-2 and compare one possible 1st 11 with a 2nd choice team, then see how that would fair against the rest the leagues squads have to offer.

Note this is done when all players are fit and has been chosen as I see it currently. I do not say it's gospel!

1st 11 - Friedel, Young, Davies, Cuellar, Bouma, Milner, Petrov, NRC, Young, Heskey, Carew

2nd 11 - Guzan, Lichej, Baye, Clark, Shorey, Albrighton, Sidwell, Delph. Downing, Agbonlahor, Delphouneso

(This does not even include Gardner, Lowrey, Herd etc)

Now I would say the 1st 11 is top 6, just missing a Sneijder type player. The second 11 is missing experience at the back, which will be addressed before the end of the window for sure, but other than that top 10 quality.

Compared to the other teams 2nd 11 as well, it shows we are better off than some may think. I have done this with the teams usual starting 11 taken out, keeping to the sides usual formations and playing players in positions they normally play in, to compare relative strength.

Man Utd - Foster, O'Shea, Evans, Brown, Fabio, Hargreavs, Scholes, Giggs, Nani, Owen, Macheda - top 4

Chelsea - Turnbull, Belletti, Invanovic, Alex, Zhirkov, Ballack, Deco, Cole, Kalou, Sturridge, Shevchenko - top 4

Liverpool - Cavalieri, Darby, Agger, Degen Dossena, Lucas, Plessis, Benayoun, N'gog, Babel, Veronin - top 10

Arsenal - Fabianski, Song, Djourou, Silvestre, Gibbs, Eboue, Diaby, Ramsey, Nasri, Bendtner, Eduardo - top 4

Everton - Nash, ?, Yobo, Irving, ?, Osman, Rodwell, Gosling, Pienaar, Yakubu, Anichebe - mid table

Man City - Taylor, Zabeleta, Ben Haim, Onuoha, Garrido, SWP, Kompany, Johnson, Bellamy, Santa Cruz, Petrov - top 8

Spurs - Cudicini, Hutton, Bassong, Dawson, Bale, Bentley, Huddlestone, O'Hara, Bostock, Keane, Pavlyuchenko - mid table

Fulham - Zuberbuhler, Kelly, Baird, Kallio, Stoor, Gera, Teymourian, Ki-Hyeon, Risse, Nevland, Kamara - bottom half

I would say our second 11 would beat Everton and Fulham and edge past Liverpool. With additions to the back we would match Spurs, and City and therefore sit in the top 4 behind Arsenal, Chelsea and Man Utd.

Not bad really.

[smolejaboy]

I would say our second 11 would be mid-table at best. I'm not sure about the centre-back pairing of Beye and Clark, although I haven't seen Beye play much. And there is some inexperience with Lichej, Albrighton and Delfouneso, but they are all good prospects and who knows a whole season week-in-week-out could make them, but then again could break them.

On the subject of the others - Chelsea's second team looks very good, as does United's of course. Who is in Everton's first team if that is their second? They have more strength in depth than I thought. Man City's looks pretty good and Spurs' too.

Interesting comparison piece though.

[jimcohen]

I guessed Everton's first team would be as follows:

Howard, Hibbert, Jagielka, Lescott, Baines, Arteta, Cahill, Neville, Fellani, Saha, Jo

Defensively they have very little back up, and in midfield its mainly kids. Up top a lot of injury prone players.

If we were midtable, who other than Arsenal, Man Utd and Chelsea, then maybe City and Spurs would beat us? Very few I would say.

[mozyFresh]

I guessed Everton's first team would be as follows:

Howard, Hibbert, Jagielka, Lescott, Baines, Arteta, Cahill, Neville, Fellani, Saha, Jo

Defensively they have very little back up, and in midfield its mainly kids. Up top a lot of injury prone players.

If we were midtable, who other than Arsenal, Man Utd and Chelsea, then maybe City and Spurs would beat us? Very few I would say.

I agree, but i think Yakubu would be picked ahead of Jo.

Villa's second 11 doesn't look as strong as the others (except Fulham and Everton),

though it will do once MON signs 2 more defenders he's supposed to be

planning to sign.

At least our midfield has strenght in depth this year.

This time last year our only wingers were A.Young and Routledge.

Now we have A.Young, Milner, Downing, Albrighton and Bannon to choose from. Delph can also play on the wing. (and imo i think Agbonlahor also makes a decent winger)

So it's safe to say that we're all sorted there.

Gardner didn't even make the second 11,

i think if we did sign Sneijder, Gardner would struggle to get a game.

I feel that MON would pick Sidwell ahead of Gardner.

It's reassuring looking at things this way and does show that our squad

has more strength in depth than some fans might think.

[toonlad]

it seems as though some of you are unsure as to whether beye is a good player:well he is he has pace he can attack and defend he is strong, determined and will always give you 100% unfortunately for us he was injured for a lot of the season but us toon fans love him we even set up a website especially for him which gained quite a bit of attention and was even reported on by itvs soccernight as you will be able to see on the link below

http://www.beyewatch.co.uk/

[OutByEaster?]

We've seen it, we like it, it's sillier than Andy Carroll's hair.

[CBGB]

So say our whole first team is injured and this lot is going to play all our matches from next Saturday til May 2010? I would say the second 11 would be lucky to avoid relegation.

Why?

1) The team will be comfortably outplayed by the better teams - the top 4, Everton, Man City and Tottenham, maybe a couple of others too.

2) They would be outmuscled by Stoke, Sunderland and others.

3) Inexperience - we saw this season what happens when a young team gets burned out.

It's a team that might win a few matches here and there, good enough to play in the lower reaches of the cups. But it's really just very raw talent and over the length of the full season, they would be found out.

Summer friendlies are not the same as the Premiership! Don't get me wrong, I'm excited by the emergence of some of the youngsters, but I think you're way overrating them & underrating the level of competition...

[Mark_b78]

based on the 2 teams there I share the opinion that we have spent over £20million of second 11 players.

our first eleven last season ran out of steam to finish top 6 but with Man City and Spurs both strengthening theirs first 11's i expect closer to a top 8 position this season for us.

we dont have any kind of strength in depth in defence and still lack a genuine goal scorer or a midfielder that can create something from nothing.

all our centre midfielders tend to do the same stuff (to differing degrees of quality).

hope i'm proven wrong but i'm not as optimistic about the new season this summer as i was last time round.

[jimcohen]

To compare our second team to other teams first teams is a little unfair, as its pretty uinlikly scenarion that we would get 11 injuries and no other clubs would have any, although I see your point.

But my point was about stremngth in dpeth and the way to compare that is to lok at our squads back up players against other teams similar players.

I think this shows as some of you agree with, that we are in a much better situation that some other teams.

I would say that 6 of our second 11 above Guzan, Downing, Delph, Gabby, Sidwell and Shorey), would get into the first team for all of the teams in the bottom half, and Gabby and Downing would challane for a spot of most of the top half teams as well, bar the top 4.

Seriously, look at Evertons and Fulhams second 11, even Liverpools! We are in a good situation.

[LaursenLegend84]

Took some time to think about it and i think compared to other teams second 11 i think we would finish in the top 9

Got some good promising youngsters coming through at Villa and im pretty sure come the new season some of those will be pushing for the first team.

Albrighton, Lichej, Fonz and others !

[sled]

Judging from what we've seen recently (Peace Cup) I'd say about 2 places above where our first XI will finish.