Paul Lambert took the controversial decision to leave Darren Bent out of his starting line up on Sunday against West Brom, but are Aston Villa good enough to leave out such a goal threat? A lack of incisiveness looked as if it was going to be Villa’s downfall until Bent was introduced to get the equaliser and save a point for Villa.
Admittedly, Aston Villa had scored 4 goals against Premier League champions Manchester City earlier in the week without the talismanic Bent. Lambert remained faithful to the two strikers from that game Agbonlahor and Benteke but in truth Villa didn’t look likely to score until Bent was on the pitch.
Despite Agbonlahor’s sparkling performance along with his brace against Manchester City, the 25 year old hasn’t scored in the Premier League since last November and hasn’t made the progress expected of him when hailed as a future England striker when he first broke onto the scene. He still has a very quick turn of pace and links the play up well with the rest of his team but appears to have almost no confidence when he gets a goal scoring chance.
Christian Benteke is a new signing at Aston Villa, the 21 year old arrived from Genk with very little reputation but Lambert has shown at Norwich and in his early days at Villa that he wants to give inexperienced players their chance to shine. After an exciting debut performance against Swansea, he started against Manchester City and despite excellent hold up play and bringing his teammates into the game; he had 3 incredible goal scoring opportunities that Premier League strikers should not be missing. Benteke ended that game goalless but was chosen ahead of Bent to lead the line against West Brom. Benteke is a typical Lambert player who works hard and is unselfish and this is what probably gave him the edge over Bent on Sunday.
Darren Bent has never been a player that will work hard for 90 minutes and join in the passing game with the midfielders but he is a player that will regularly find the net. Aston Villa have plenty of players that can link up play well such as the two previously mentioned, Stephen Ireland, Charles N’Zogbia and Brett Holman to name a few but without Bent there a no players that can be relied on to score enough goals to keep Villa in the mid-table position which is always their minimum aim.
Lambert wants his whole team to be together in working hard for the cause but he may have to compromise by finding a place in his team for Darren Bent or else it is hard to see Villa scoring the goals that are so valuable in the Premier League.
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