Andre should get the green light from Bruce
ANDRE Green is first-teamready – and it’s time for Steve Bruce to trust him regularly. It’s difficult to read too much into pre-season friendlies. A convincing win and ‘we’re gonna win the league’, a disappointing defeat and the manager and most of the first-team squad must go!
But a clear finding from Villa’s first week of practice kickabouts is that Green is fit and raring to go.
He has inched into the first-team picture under several managers.
Bruce used him sparingly last season, Remi Garde gave him his debut in the relegation season and Tim Sherwood called him into the firstteam squad, but didn’t play him and has since raved about him.
The Villa Park faithful, like many fanbases, have made the mistake about building a player up as the next best thing, only for said wonderkid to fall flat on his face.
So this is not a case of proclaiming Andre as something he’s not, it’s about proclaiming him as something he is.
He is an 18-year-old Brummie with his feet on the ground and his head on his shoulders.
He possesses enough magic in his boots to offer Villa something different and the discipline to be relied upon for the less exciting duties on the pitch.
It is this ability to be a break from the norm that should be particularly appealing for Bruce right now.
In Villa’s first-team squad, there are a dozen midfielders and half-adozen strikers.
They might not exactly be carbon copies of each other, but neither do they offer enough variety.
Green is different. He backs himself to have the speed and skill to take on his man and the delivery to create chances.
In Saturday’s 2-1 loss at Shrewsbury Town, the teenager again showcased his raw energy as his comeback continues from the hamstring problem that knocked him out of his stride in April. At the New Meadow, playing on the right wing, he was determined to run at Junior Brown.
On one occasion he turned the left-back so quicklyckly that he got a kick to his anklekle for his trouble and was left t in a heap on the turf.
But, after a moment of wincing, he wass back on his feet and from the next passage of play latched hed on to the ball, beat his man again and tested Town goalkeeper eeper with a well-struck ruck cross-shot.
There were e things he tried d that didn’t t come off, likee the time he let et the ball run throughough his
FYlegs in an attempt to trick an opponent, but it ran out of play before he could retrieve it, and a couple of occasions when he waited too long before releasingreleas a pass or a shot. But thosethos moments can be forgiven fr from a youngster who turns 19 la later this month, especially when he shows a willingness to tracktra back and fill the defensi defensive gaps left by the mar marauding Alan Hutton. For those of you in Sh Shropshire on Saturd day, or watching on YouTube, you will k know moments of aai attacking intent were iid d in short supply, but during his 61 minutes on the pitch the No.19 loo looked the most likely to provide them.
He killed a long ball down the line from Hutton with a sublime first touch and embarked on a run that won a corner and he made a crunching tackle to retrieve possession.
Bruce has played a 4-4-2 so far in pre-season and when everybody is fit has his ‘back six’ pretty well set.
A calculated guess would say it’s Sam Johnstone in goal, a defensive line of Hutton, James Chester, John Terry and Neil Taylor, with Mile Jedinak sitting as the main holding midfielder. That leaves five attacking midfield/forward positions up for grabs. Bruce is not short of takers for those roles but, for me, Green should be given the best possible chance to occupy one of them.
Villa fans need convincing about the green shoots of recovery this summer and, right now, Andre Green deserves his place.