We here at 7500 to Holte have some excellent posts on Aston Villa tactics. This is not one of them. I don't normally write about them. While I did lead Villa to an FA Cup triumph on Football Manager 2014, I would not say I'm well versed in tactics. But I thought I'd give it a go. Sort of.
Villa are in a bit of a tough spot this weekend. There are like 700 first team squad members injured, suspended or are Tom Cleverly, who is suspended for a game he was already ineligible for (an impressive feat). Paul Lambert is probably gonna need to get somewhat creative in naming a starting eleven. I thought I'd give him my suggestions, which I, uh, got from a random number generator.
Step 1: Formation
I first used the Random.org Random Number Generator to figure out what formation Villa should play. Of course, I started by putting in a goalkeeper, because I'm not trying to mess with the sanctity of football too much. But I still had ten spots left. I asked the random number generator to give me a number between one and ten. I decided the number it gave me would be the number of defenders I played. I also did the midfield and the forwards/attacking midfielders using that same system. That gave me the random number generated formation of a 2-1-2-5. Excellent.
Step 2: Picking the Starting Eleven
Step two was much easier. I again used the Random.org Random Number Generation. This time I asked it to give me numbers between one and 40: the current range of squad numbers in use. Any of the suspended/injured players of course weren't taken into account.
Step 3: The results
Alright, via the magic of MS Paint, lets put all that together to see what we've got and oh dear god
Well I guess it put a bunch of attacking players up top, so that's cool. That Callum Robinson-Ron Vlaar defensive partnership could be interesting. And my sympathies to Carlos Sanchez who has to play in goal. Sorry, Brad Guzan.
So, that is my suggestion. Aston Villa should play a 2-1-2-5 this weekend with a midfielder in goal and two fullbacks playing in midfield. If Paul Lambert does decide to play this, he would probably get the same result Villa always get at home against Manchester United, so why the hell not?