With the game being described as a cup final for Villa, and being away after all, I think we prioritised being solid over creative.
The selection dilemmas:
1 Replacing O'Connell. We picked Robinson, and he had a decent game, especially defensively. We know he is aggressive and steady and as we lost our maybe strongest, most physical player, it's understandable that we went with him. The other option would have been Stevens at LCB and Osborn at LWB. I think Wilder would have gone with that if we'd been at home.
2 Replacing Fleck. We chose Berge over Freeman, with Lundstram switching to LCM. Freeman would have offered more creativity, as he showed when he came on. I actually thought Freeman looked very positive, quite a few good touches and quick dribbles. Berge is probably a bit better defensively and can do a marking job at defensive set pieces. I'm also sure Wilder really wants him to get going and keep adapting. He does struggle to get involved in telling attacking moves though. His pass completion was our second highest, so he hardly gave it away, but he does need to show more, create more. Taking out our most creative central midfielder and replacing him with one who quite different and who is still adapting was bound to show. Although Lundstram's left foot is not bad he's not a natural left footer and he looked more at home when he swtched back to RCM, teaming up with Bash and Baldock again.
3 Picking strikers. We have some options up front and it's not easy to decide who should start. Maybe Wilder thought losing two key players was enough, so decided to keep the two strikers that started the last few games before the break. But with a not very creative midfield and some of the team's key relationships broken up it may not have been ideal to play McBurnie and Sharp. They are probably the best finishers and maybe expecting a tight game Wilder probably hoped one of them would get a big chance and be able to convert it. But they were given little service and didn't look threatening. McBurnie improved slightly before he went off, but he needs to get stronger.
McGoldrick looked good when he came on. With that midfield and with the benefit of hindsight, maybe he should have started. His link play is excellent and it may have helped compensate for the shortcomings of today's midfield. Mousset looked rusty, but also eager to get involved and tried to be direct, which was good to see. We could really do with him finding form again, and maybe today would have been a good game for him to start in.
