Why the disgraceful Second City derby violence can't disguise Gerard Houllier's problems at Aston Villa

By James Nursey

Published 12:26 02/12/10

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Last night's appalling scenes at St Andrew's are rightly dominating the fall-out from Birmingham's progress into the Carling Cup semi-finals.

And I hope the police, FA and both clubs take firm, swift action to ban any perpetrators from future matches and ideally hit them with further punishment if possible.

Birmingham fans who invaded the pitch deserve a lot of the blame but so too do the idiots, seemingly in the away end, who responded by letting off a flare.

I made my views on the fiasco perfectly clear in today's paper as myself and colleague Mike Walters took aim at the troublemakers who have jeopardised our 2018 World Cup bid.

But given how much fans tend to prioritise club over country, then Villa fans will rightly be predominantly concerned about their team's fortunes on the pitch.

Defeat to the Blues has well and truly ended Villa's superiority over their neighbours which was established when Martin O'Neill masterminded six successive wins over City.

And it is now three successive defeats for Villa and just four wins in 13 games since former Liverpool manager Houllier arrived at Villa Park.

I appreciate there have been mitigating circumstances for Houllier - namely the club's injury crisis.

But there is still no excuse for a side that has finished sixth the last three seasons to be only three points off the relegation zone.

And I am particularly alarmed to see that Villa's once solid defence is now shipping goals at an alarming rate.

Six games have gone by since Villa kept a clean sheet.

Yet their defence of Luke Young, James Collins, Richard Dunne and Stephen Warnock, in front of keeper Brad Friedel, is arguably the club's most experienced and successful rearguard.

But Dunne no longer looks the player who got into the PFA team of the season in the last campaign.

The elementary errors, slack marking and own goals which Dunne appeared to have driven from his game have returned.

And at 31 years old, it appears age is catching up with the Republic of Ireland stopper.

Fellow veteran Friedel, so consistent for two seasons at Villa, is also looking worryingly shaky.

He made a crucial mistake at Blackburn recently and I thought he had a poor game in the cup defeat to Brum. It is probably no coincidence that Villa are now scouting other keepers, including Rangers' Allan McGregor.

So Houllier has a lot to ponder ahead of a televised return to his old club Liverpool on Monday.

By then, Villa's relegation fears could have increased with other Premier League teams in action before them.

The biggest problem is actually not just injuries to the likes of Nigel Reo-Coker, Stiliyan Petrov, Emile Heskey and Marc Albrighton, but rather that so many of the club's fit senior players seem to suffering from a lack of form.

Everyone can see Stephen Ireland is having a nightmare, and he could move on in January because he clearly hasn't settled since being a makeweight in the James Milner transfer to Man City.

And I personally don't think Ashley Young is having a good season, despite his England recognition.

Regularly switching from the hole to the wing, Young hasn't played in a consistent position this term. And although the player has admitted he prefers playing upfront, Young's finishing is just not clinical enough - as he showed in the first half against Arsenal.

Stewart Downing, so brilliant against Manchester United, has since returned to his trademark frustratingly inconsistent form.

Meanwhile, Robert Pires looks so slow at 37 years old that the suggestion the free agent's arrival could spark a revival already appears wildly optimistic.

Indeed, if it wasn't for the emergence of Albrighton and Agbonlahor's return to fitness, I would be very pessimistic indeed.

The press like Houllier and will give him time to implement his ideas and philosophy and to make signings of his own.

But the Frenchman arguably faces one of the biggest challenges of his career in trying to take Villa forward from O'Neill's reign while simultaneously implementing the cuts owner Randy Lerner is insisting on.

Birmingham, on the other hand, are upwardly mobile after reaching the Carling Cup semis and taking points off Chelsea and Manchester City recently.

But I did predict that I saw the traditional balance of power in the Midlands turning in Birmingham's direction after the clubs' previous game in October.

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