Player Profile - 11. Gabriel Agbonlahor

The local lad Gabby Agbonlahor has become a fans favourite over the past few years. He is a Villa fan living the dream and he is one of only a few people in the squad who truly knows how much of a privelage it is to play for your club. I think that was the main reason for the sadness people felt for him last year when he just couldn't come up with the goods and it looked like he might be on his way out.

Thankfully for the fans and himself, he has made an amazing resurgence back to the top of his game, leaving defences quaking in their boots. He's even starting to look clinical in front of goal! 4 goals already this season tops what he made in the whole of last season, and his ability to create a goal out of nothing is something that nobody else in the squad possesses so to have him back at his best could easily gain us an extra 10 points this season.

I don't think that there is any doubt that if he can keep this form up and stay fit then he should be given a chance in the England squad, and possibly even get on the plane to the Euro's. Not only does he possess great pace and danger, but he has now also added versatility to his list of attributes which, for Capello, makes him a great addition to the squad if he is to go to the championships.

Rating - 9/10

Player Profile - 10. Charles N'Zogbia

Bought in the summer for £9.5 million, Charles N'Zogbia was supposed to be our saviour after the loss of Young and Downing. Unfortunately he hasn't lived up to expectations so far and was even dropped for the 2-0 victory against his former club Wigan last week. Since joining he hasn't looked half as good as what he did last year for Wigan as he almost single handedly kept them in the league. Instead what we have seen is a player who can barely control a ball, misplaces passes and can't beat a defender to save his life.

There is undoubtedly a very good player in there somewhere though, as he showed at the end of last season. It's all a case of will Mcleish be able to get that out of him. Perhaps he is struggling with the pressure of trying to fill the boots of Ashley Young and Stewart Downing, or maybe he is just taking some time to settle in Claret and Blue. Earlier this season, N'Zogbia claimed that he can "murder any left back" and I think it's time for him to start showing these qualities that we payed just shy of £10 mil for.

Rating - 6/10

Player Profile - 9. Darren Bent

I've been looking forward to doing this Player Profile since I started the blog! The reason is simple, there is pretty much nothing negative to say about him so far. He was bought when we were in a crisis, possibly a panic buy, but he was totally worth every penny that we payed for him. He single handedly kept us in the league last season with a series of crucial goals. He had an unforgettable debut as he scored the winner against a team that Villa fans in particular have grown to hate. He grabbed 2 goals against Arsenal aswell in a fantastic victory at the Emirates.

This season he has only scored 2 goals compared to Gabby's 4, however I think that our whole team is starting to turn a bit of a corner on the chance creation front which will undoubtedly lead to more Bent goals. He will never be a team worker and track back all the time but as long as he gets the service, the goals should start to flow which is something we have needed for a long time now.

Rating - 8.5/10

Player Profile - 8. Jermaine Jenas

Well what can I say about Jermaine Jenas? He joined us on loan in January until the end of the season and I think the main question is will he stay injury free long enough to get on the pitch? So far he has injured himself on the eve of match day twice, the latest of which will keep him out until November, which begs the question of whether he will ever be able to stay fit enough to play a sustained run of games.

Now enough of the negatives and on to what I think of him as a player. As Alex Mcleish said, you don't get several England caps without having ability. I honestly believe that he could be the athletic midfielder we are lacking whilst persisting with Petrov and his 50 year old legs. If Jenas can turn into the driving force of our midfield I think we would be a much better side.

Now I have been giving the rest of the squad a rating but it's impossible for me to rate someone who hasn't played a single game for the club so I will not rate him right now. If he gets a few games under his belt later in the season I will come back and rate him but for now I will leave it and just hope he recovers.

Rating - N/A

Player Profile - 7. Stephen Ireland

Stephen Ireland is a player that I rate very highly. There is certainly no doubt that when he is playing to his full potential, he can be a very good player indeed. The only question is how good can Stephen Ireland be in a Villa shirt. There is only one way to find out the answer to that question, and that is to give him a sustained run of games. I'm very excited at the prospect of Ireland at his best, but it's clear to see that he still has a long way to go.

Last season was a complete disaster from start to finish for him. Houllier never took to him and was subsequently banished to the reserves before picking up a few niggly injuries and being forced out on loan to Newcastle against his will. It's fair to say that had Houllier have stayed this season, Ireland would have left in the summer, if anyone would take him that is.

Thankfully though Mcleish has come in and is trying to get the best out of him. He is still far from his best but the fact that he has started a few games already this season is a very good sign. I can see gradual improvements from him game by game. Especially in the Wigan game he was getting much more involved than in previous games which suggests that he is growing in confidence. The final pass/shot is still far from great but I feel that given time that will come back to him and soon we will see the Stephen Ireland we saw at Man City.

The rating is very tough to decide because if I was rating him on his Villa career so far it would be shocking but I need to consider his potential so it will be an average overall score.

Rating - 6.5/10

Player Profile - 6. James Collins

Brought in on the same day as fellow centre back Richard Dunne, those 2 formed a formidable partnership in their first season.  However in the next season, Collins along with Dunne seemed to fall from grace.  The spa bust up and several below par performances are what people will remember him for that season.

However he scored key winners against Blackpool and Newcastle to secure vital points which can't go unnoticed.  This year he seems to be back on form, throwing himslef at any ball coming his way.  He's arguably one of the bravest men I have seen in a Villa shirt over recent years.  His major flaw which I'm sure almost all Villa fans will agree with me on is his long ball tendancy.  He is known in my section of the crowd as "Hoofer Collins" and I'm sure we aren't the only people to call him that.  I suppose you could say that at least he doesn't give away the ball trying to fanny about at the back, but he needs to learn how to pass the ball into midfield instead of automatically looking for the striker.

The reason I haven't gone into loads of detail about him is that his story is almost identical to Dunne's who I posted yesterday so I don't want to sound like repeating myself.

Rating 7.5/10

Player Profile - 5. Richard Dunne

Richard Dunne has only been at Villa for 2 years but he has been such a headline maker that it feels as though he has been here forever.  When he joined he had an amazing first season where he surprised us all with his standout performances, and he was even a bit of a goal getter early in the season with goals against Man City, Chelsea and Hull.  Overall it seemed that at around £5 million he was bargain of the season, especially when Jolean Lescott cost Dunne's former employers more than 4 times that amount.  Unfortunately his mistake in the Carling Cup final defeat to Manchester United which led to Owen's goal seemed to be the start of a dramatic fall from grace.

With the arrival of Gerard Houllier the following season, Dunne became the prime example of hero to zero.  Returning to pre season completely out of shape following the departure of MON, and he never seemed to get back to peak physical fitness all season.  He looked, to put it bluntly, a bit fat.  Far from what you would expect a professional footballer to look like.  This was followed by a string of shocking performances where he was being outpaced by almost everyone and tripping over the ball at every possibility, and simply looking like a pub player.  He was then dropped by GH for a few weeks until it appeared that GH was advised to make up with senior players he had fallen out with in order to try and catapult us back up the table from the worrying position we were in.  Despite reclaiming his position for the rest of the season, he never came close to recapturing the form he showed in his first season with us.  He was also involved in a bust up in a spa with team mate James Collins, where the less said about that the better.

However the departure of GH due to health reasons was a huge relief to Dunney and new manager Alex Mcleish has reignited the centre half.  He looks in peak physical condition and has so far been as solid as ever, claiming many MOTM awards and getting high recognition on International duty from a certain Paul Mcgrath.  One thing is for sure, if he can keep his performances consistently high quality then we will be keeping plenty more clean sheets than last year.

Rating 8/10

Player Profile - 3. Stephen Warnock

Some rate him, some think he's hopeless.  But one thing is for sure, nobody can question his work rate on the pitch.  Every game I see him in he is racing up and down the left wing, getting forward whenever possible whilst also tracking back whenever the opposition comes forward.  He puts in some crunching tackles, admittedly a lot of them result in a yellow card, but he never backs out of a 50-50.  But for me there are 2 major problems with his game.

The first problem is his distribution/execution of passes.  Over the past couple of seasons I have seen far too many loose passes from him which puts us right on the backfoot or wastes good opportunities coming forward.  The other problem I have with him is his constant misjudgements of the ball when it's in flight.  A few times already this season I've seen a simple hoof upfield end up in a chance for the opposition as a result of Warnock charge at it to try and cut it out and the ball ends up going straight over his head.  At this standard of football that is simply unacceptable.  I think it was these traits which caused Gerard Houllier to banish him from his attempts to create "total football".

Despite these flaws I believe we have a pretty good left back and we shouldn't be in a hurry to replace him.  There are clearly better left backs availible but we have much more important positions to find replacements for in the short term.  I suppose he could be described as a marmite kind of character, you can love him or hate him.  Therefore I'm going to play it safe and sit on the fence and open up the floor to other people's opinions!

Rating 7/10

Player Profile - 2. Alan Hutton

Brought in on transfer deadline day after the departure of Luke Young to QPR, Hutton has made 3 Premier League appearances for Villa.  I don't think many people can argue that he has had a slow start as our new right back, but considering the circumstances I'm not surprised at all.  Hutton recently lifted the lid on what his life was like at White Harte Lane and it didn't sound great for him.  It very much reminded me of what Stephen Warnock had to endure last season under Gerard Houllier once he had fallen out of favour.  Left out in the cold to rot in the reserves/youth team.

For those reasons I'm not going to judge him until he has had a run of at least 10 games so he can get back to match sharpness.  He has said so himself that he can't be expected to play to his maximum potential straight away after spending so long without competitive football.  From what I saw of him when he used to play regularly for Spurs he looked like a very attack minded full back who could cause opposition defences problems with his overlapping runs.  Defensively he looked a bit dodgy, conceding lots of fouls in and around the box so he must cut that out sharpish.

It's hard to give him a rating so soon after joining but I'm going to do it presuming he gets back to his best form that we saw a couple of years ago.

Rating - 7/10

Player Profile - 1. Shay Given

So, Shay Given arrived at Villa Park this summer for £3.5 million, and with the performances he has been putting in, he looks like a real bargain.  Obviously there is still a question mark over his fitness as he was known for being more injury prone than your average goalkeeper, and he has already picked up a couple of niggles, but so far he has started every Premier League game.

When Brad Friedel departed at the end of last season we were all thinking the same thing, what an act to follow! We had been used to Mr Reliable for the last 3 seasons and the kind of names being mentioned to replace him, Foster and Al Habsi most notably, were prone to making the occasional error.  Don't get me wrong, I rate them both quite highly, but for £10 million and £4 million respectively, they aren't a patch on Given.  He is cheaper, more consistent and a better shot stopper.  I know he is older than them, but he could potentially have another good 3-5 years left in him.

Onto his performances this season.  His standout performances came against Fulham on the opening day where he saved us a point with a couple of great stops, and most recently against Newcastle where he made some great saves from Cabaye and even for the goal he made a great save initially and almost kept out the next one which just stayed under the bar.  He has single handedly earnt us at least 2 or 3 points aready this season, so from my point of view it is very much money well spent.

Rating - 9/10