Aston Villa performed abysmally in the Premier League in August, heading into the international break without scoring a goal.
Naturally, that yielded very little in terms of results. Villa drew against Newcastle United at Villa Park on opening weekend but have since lost to Brentford and Crystal Palace, compounding the gloom of a frustrating transfer window and an increasingly fractious debacle involving their goalkeeper.
It follows, then, that the first AVF Power Rankings of the season leave a lot to be desired.
The process is simple: each month, we’ll be taking an average of your post-match player ratings (scored out of 10) for the matches played in that month and ranking the players based upon those averages.
Here’s August.
Nobody had a good month in a Villa shirt but fans were at least appreciative of Bizot’s debut, in which he kept a clean sheet with a fine performance against Newcastle at Villa Park.
Burrowes has played 16 minutes and you rated him as the second-best Villa player in August. I’m not sure whether that reflects worse on you or his teammates, but it’s great to see another academy player on the pitch.
Two of Villa’s key midfielders have performed in patches so far this season and ratings a sliver above average seem fair enough to me.
The same is true of Cash, Mings and Tielemans, who have all been pressed into action in imperfect positions but have been among Villa’s better performers in a shocking month.
Villa’s best player in a dreadful performance against Palace has featured much more heavily than any of us anticipated. Jadon Sancho and Harvey Elliott likely end that trend.
If Villa fans hoped that Malen could elevate the team’s performances after a false start last season, we at least know that he can’t do it on his own.
Villa’s full-backs haven’t found their groove yet and they’ve had precious little to work with in front of them in the three Premier League fixtures so far.
Konsa doesn’t shoulder all the blame for his red card against Newcastle but he certainly takes a share of it, as he does Villa’s weakness on the right of the defence against Palace.
Given he was fit for the Palace game and didn’t play, Martínez should probably have been eligible for a 0. As it is, he managed a single game in August and was mostly fine.
Maatsen can feel aggrieved to be level with Torres, who has been abysmal this season, and an under-performing Onana.
Guessand made his first start against Palace, played reasonably well for 45 minutes, and was substituted. I think we saw some signs of what he can do.
It’s fair to say Villa need more from Watkins but I’d also argue that the rest of the team and their tactical set-up have given him almost nothing with which to work.
Rogers has had periods in which he’s been a 5 and others in which he’s been a 1, so a rating right in the middle is fair enough. He’s capable of much, much better.
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