10 Storylines to Follow in Aston Villa's 2014-15 Premier League Season
The wait for the 2013-14 Premier League season is nearly over. The first matches of the new campaign kick off on Saturday and Aston Villa will be beginning their year with a clash against fellow mid-table stalwarts Stoke City.
The game against Stoke will give fans the first meaningful taste of what to expect from their team this season. While an opening-day win does not always foretell success—as last year's win against Arsenal shows—a good performance from Villa will be a big boost after a morose summer.
Win or lose, the match will give crucial insights into answering some of the burning questions that will define Villa's season over the months to come.
This article outlines 10 Aston Villa storylines that will dominate the headlines over the course of the 2013-14 Premier League season.
Will Lerner Find a Buyer for the Club?
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The biggest storyline for Villa this season is no surprise and is the continued saga of Aston Villa's attempted sale by owner Randy Lerner. After months of rumours that the American businessman was eager to sell the club, Lerner finally confirmed that he was seeking a buyer for the team last May.
Many were hoping that a sale could be conducted quickly, allowing the team to move on and begin to adapt to change under a new regime. Unfortunately, Lerner has yet to find a suitable buyer and his admitted disillusionment with the team has left them without the resources to improve.
With Lerner set to remain in charge for at least a portion of the upcoming season, the question becomes how long it will take for Lerner to find a purchaser and what the ambitions of a new owner would be?
Are More Reinforcements Coming?
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As mentioned, Lerner's tenuous situation as Villa's reluctant owner has restricted the club's ability to improve, limiting the club to mostly free transfers and pricing Villa out of higher-profile targets.
Fortunately, some respite appears to be on the horizon. With the season just days away, Matt Law of The Telegraph has indicated that Lerner has finally opened up the pocketbook for new signings.
Law further reported that Lambert was set to capitalize on this influx of funds by signing Elche's Carlos Sanchez, a no-nonsense defensive midfielder who was a key member of Colombia's impressive World Cup squad this past summer.
Having made no truly inspiring signings thus far, the acquisition of Sanchez would be Villa's first exciting move of the summer. His potential arrival gives fans hope that the squad will be improved before the end of August, filling a dire need and indicating that reinforcements could be on the way.
What Will It Take for Paul Lambert to Keep His Job?
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Entering his third season as Villa manager, Paul Lambert finds himself under heavy scrutiny to improve the team he has had substantial time with.
After initially being praised for attempting to build a team through young prospects, Lambert received frequent criticism for his tactical choices and personnel decisions over the past year.
Given the Premier League's high rate of manager turnover, it is not unreasonable to suggest that Lambert has been the biggest beneficiary of the uncertain ownership situation at Villa and that he may have been out of a job had a new owner taken over this summer.
New owner or not, the fans' unrest could grow to unmanageable levels if Villa have a poor start to the season. If Lambert cannot get Villa off on the right track and win back the supporters, then his time in Birmingham may be up.
How Will the Team Cope Without Benteke and Kozak?
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One area of optimism for Villa fans is that the laundry list of injuries to players that helped to derail their 2013-14 season has been almost entirely erased ahead of the 2013-14 campaign.
Only strikers Christian Benteke and Libor Kozak remain unfit and both of Villa's towering forwards should be healthy enough to play within a few weeks if their rehabilitation continues to progress well.
Nonetheless, the team cannot rely on either for their opening handful of games and must find a way to succeed without a useful goalscorer in Kozak and the irreplaceable Benteke.
Villa were completely neutered when forced to play without either man last year. Between the recalled Darren Bent, the inconsistent Gabriel Agbonlahor and the disappointing Andreas Weimann, Lambert must find a way to score goals until his two target men return.
How Will Last Season's Disappointments Rebound?
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One of the most disappointing aspects of Villa's last season was the regression of many of Villa's young, up-and-coming players. "Second-season syndrome" proved a very real occurrence for the likes of Andreas Weimann, Ciaran Clark, Nathan Baker and Matthew Lowton.
With Villa heavily reliant on the continued improvement of their young players, the poor play of these key figures last year was seriously detrimental to the team's success. These men must bounce back in 2014-15 if they want to help Villa improve and get their careers back on track.
The injuries to Villa's front line will give Weimann yet another chance to shine. A possible three-man defence leaves the door open for Clark or Baker to step up and the lack of clarity at right-back means Lowton could redeem himself as well.
Will Quantity over Quality at Full-Back Work?
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Heading into the opening-day clash with Stoke, the starting jobs at both full-back positions remain wide open. On either side of the defence, there are three men of roughly equal quality who could start and it may take some time before a player can definitively assert himself as first choice at right or left-back.
Leandro Bacuna, Alan Hutton and Matthew Lowton are the contenders at right-back. Hutton had been exiled by Lambert for the entirety of his tenure at the club, but a strong pre-season by the Scotsman sees him as the surprise favourite to start against Stoke.
Bacuna and Lowton split time at the position last year and either could take back the position as well. All three men are clearly more comfortable attacking than defending, leaving Lambert little to choose between from a tactical point of view.
The left-back position has more defined options but has no clear front-runner either. New signings Kieran Richardson and Aly Cissokho are extremely attacking and defensive options respectively with the shaky Joe Bennett somewhat of a compromise between the two.
Villa certainly have no shortage of options to fill in on either flank, but relying on quantity over quality could prove problematic for Villa's defence this year.
Will the Addition of Experience Make a Difference?
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Perhaps the most frequently leveled criticism of Lambert's previous management of Villa has been his insistence on trusting younger, less proven players instead of more experienced options.
This season, Lambert has sought to address this criticism by almost exclusively signing Premier League veterans, as well as recalling former outcasts from the squad with top-flight experience as well.
Joe Cole, Kieran Richardson and Philippe Senderos have all signed as seasoned professionals. Additionally, former outcasts Shay Given, Darren Bent and Alan Hutton have returned to the first team to add a further influx of experience.
What, if any, impact this has on the team will be interesting to observe. Cole, in particular, could be a good influence on Villa's squad, but overly relying on a group of players clearly past their prime is a risky proposition.
Can Villa Hold onto Their in-Demand Players?
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As any mid-table side knows, a breakthrough performance from a player can be a blessing and a curse. The teams at the top of the table are always on notice to swoop in and pry a rising star away at the drop of a hat and Villa are currently facing this problem.
Ron Vlaar, Christian Benteke and Fabian Delph were among Villa's key players last season, yet their futures with the team are unclear. The excellent performances of Vlaar at the World Cup, Benteke's goalscoring prowess and Delph's contract situation make them prime transfer targets for rival teams.
Until Vlaar and Delph re-sign with the club, speculation will run rampant over the possibility that they are set to leave Villa Park. Both men are Villa's standout performers at their positions and would be very difficult to replace.
On the other hand, Villa fans have the comfort of knowing that Benteke won't be sold this summer as he returns to fitness, but the Belgian nearly left the club last summer and will likely be on many teams' wishlists during the next transfer window.
A massive offer could see any of these three players make a sudden departure from Villa Park and the fans will be constantly aware of their tenuous situations for the foreseeable future.
Is Counter-Attacking Football Still the Focus?
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Tactically speaking, there are many areas of uncertainty for Lambert to address over the course of the season. Most significant among these decisions will be how reliant Villa are on counter-attacking football.
Last season, Villa were overwhelmingly dependent on this approach to succeed. With few exceptions, Villa's best performances came in matches where their opponent dominated possession but conceded goals to Villa's quick response on the break.
While moderately successful and suiting Villa's team last year, this approach makes Villa predictable, limited and generally poor to watch. It is both undesirable and unlikely that counter-attacking remains Lambert's primary method of attack next season.
Expecting Villa to suddenly morph into Pep Guardiola's Barcelona is foolish, but Lambert will have to be substantially more adaptable over the course of the season to improve Villa this year.
Can Villa Park Become a Fortress Again?
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Given Villa's aforementioned tendency to win games on the break, it is unsurprising that Villa had a relatively strong away record last season. The downside of this, however, has been consistently poor home form that must improve for Villa to win more matches and raise the spirits of the fans.
Even against the league's minnows, Villa have struggled to assert their authority on the proceedings at home and dropped many easily winnable points as the host.
Over the past few years it has become commonplace to see swaths of empty seats, hear the boos of frustrated fans and watch uninspired outings from the home team. Lambert must find a way to improve the home form if he has any aspirations of winning back the favour of the Villa faithful.
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