Please take Young for a good price. I'm serious. He's no longer our best player, and has been steadily declining in effectiveness after his breakout debut season in 2007/08. Each year he's had less assists incrementally, but that only tells part of the story.
His increasing willingness to dive, decreased set-piece effectiveness and most importantly his insistence on being played in the centre have all contributed to the blunting of what used to be a razor sharp weapon, not to mention what was once his greatest threat, his crossing, being almost non-existent. We have better wingers than him at Villa alone, let alone clubs like United. Downing, for instance, I rate higher than Young. He may be slower, but he has better technique and much more polished passing, creativity and vision. For all his pace and incisiveness, Young just doesn't have the playmaker's touch. One only has to look at earlier this season, where he was ineffective behind the striker, and recently where he has improved but continues to overhit balls through to the frontman in order to see why he's really not doing as well.
That said, I'm glad he stayed. Let us do our business in the summer: we've been linked with some true european heavyweights, and Houllier is a transfer market wizard from what we've seen so far.
His increasing willingness to dive, decreased set-piece effectiveness and most importantly his insistence on being played in the centre have all contributed to the blunting of what used to be a razor sharp weapon, not to mention what was once his greatest threat, his crossing, being almost non-existent. We have better wingers than him at Villa alone, let alone clubs like United. Downing, for instance, I rate higher than Young. He may be slower, but he has better technique and much more polished passing, creativity and vision. For all his pace and incisiveness, Young just doesn't have the playmaker's touch. One only has to look at earlier this season, where he was ineffective behind the striker, and recently where he has improved but continues to overhit balls through to the frontman in order to see why he's really not doing as well.
That said, I'm glad he stayed. Let us do our business in the summer: we've been linked with some true european heavyweights, and Houllier is a transfer market wizard from what we've seen so far.