Aston Villa hired former Champions League winning manager Roberto di Matteo this past summer with the hope to get an immediate promotion back to the Premier League but the start the Italian had to his managerial career at Villa Park was horrendous. Aston Villa appointed Steve Bruce yesterday as the new head coach of the Midlands side and the fans will hope that their club’s fate will take a turn around with a heavyweight promotion expert in charge. However, the job won’t be easy for the Englishman.
Here are three things Steve Bruce must do to turn around the fortunes of the Villans.
Restore the confidence in the side
It has been an issue for the past four Aston Villa managers, Tim Sherwood, Remi Garde, Eric Black and Di Matteo, and Bruce must rebuild a shattered team or else there is no chance of them getting back to the Premier League. Aston Villa are 10 points away from the sixth place right now which is still recoverable in 35 game weeks but the first thing Bruce needs to do is to restore the confidence of the side.
Aston Villa splashed plenty of cash during the summer transfer window but are yet to get any kind of return from the crop of players that came in like Ross McCormack, Mile Jedinak or Albert Adomah. Confidence is missing at Villa Park and it is the primary job of the manager to restore it.
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Opt for two strikers up front
Aston Villa have scored just 10 goals in the Championship this season in 11 games which is far from desired. With a striking department comprising of players like Agbonlahor, Gestede, McCormack, Kozák, Ayew and Kodija, Aston Villa should not have faced too many problems in finding the back of the net.
One possible solution to the struggle for goals in opting for two strikers up front. Bruce could easily go for a tactic with two front with the options he has at his disposal which can potentially bring them to winning ways.
Use Grealish in a free role
Aston Villa should feel lucky that they managed to keep hold onto a player like Jack Grealish despite going down. The 21-year-old has a huge potential and can become a world beater in near future. Steve Bruce has to ensure that he uses the creativity of the fleet-footed youngster.
The best way to get the best out of the young winger is to deploy him in a free role behind two strikers. Aston Villa lack quality wingers anyway which means that they can easily revert to a 4-4-2 diamond system with Grealish operating at the tip of the diamond.
