Collymore’s column: Rashford is a massive punt by Villa, Bruno can’t lead and more

In his exclusive column for CaughtOffside, former Aston Villa attacker Stan Collymore discusses some of football’s biggest talking points, including whether Marcus Rashford will be a success at Villa, why Man United are lacking true leaders, why Arsenal need to stop their childish antics and more.

—

Marcus Rashford is a massive punt by Aston Villa

At the Celtic game last week Villa were cruising and were very, very good, and then two goals were conceded very quickly. The player that the club wanted – a defender – was finally landed; Axel Disasi from Chelsea.

It’s attackers that always capture the imagination, however, and from a fan’s perspective, I think to myself, with Asensio potentially on the right of a three, Ollie Watkins down the centre and Marcus Rashford coming in from the left, that’s a very persuasive front three.

Then you can get really caught up in a lot of the online stuff where influencers are getting very excited, but football isn’t played on paper, and there are question marks over both Ascensio and Rashford, let’s be perfectly honest.

If both players were playing anywhere near their top form, they would be at Manchester United and PSG, respectively. So I think that you have to put that into some sort of context.

From a fan’s perspective I’m excited and hoping to see the best of them at Villa for however long they are there. From a pundits perspective, I think that Rashford is a massive punt.

He hasn’t looked as though he’s enjoyed his football and it’s going to take him three or four weeks I’d imagine to get up to speed before he’s got to hit the ground running. Do I believe he’ll do that? I don’t know. I think the jury is massively out and he’s been so hit and miss for such a long time.

At Villa he’ll maybe relax a little bit if he feels that he’s taking a step down, as mentally that often happens with players that have played for the likes of Man United and Liverpool, but of course the news media will still keep an eye on him to see how he’s doing.

Under Unai Emery there is a manager there that will make the extra effort to put an arm around him and to find out if there are any issues and problems, and to make him secure. Villa fans will give him a chance to succeed – and they’ll want him to succeed.

Marcus should know and understand that the expectation at Aston Villa Football Club will be the same as at Man United though. They have to compete. Period.

As long as Marcus realises that and he’s open and he’s honest if he has any issues, he talks to the staff, he makes friends with the players etc., then I think there’s a good chance that we’ll see something from him. Do I think that we’ll see peak Marcus Rashford for a long, prolonged period at Aston Villa? I’m not so sure.

It’s all down to him now.

Arsenal need to concentrate on winning matches not daft celebrations

What I like about Arsenal is that they’re now pretty much winning the games against the big boys that they need to, and they’re turning in decent performances. The downside is that they bite too easily.

I think that Myles Lewis-Skelly’s Haaland celebration is brilliant – if you’re looking at it through the lens of some of the younger Arsenal demographic – but in my opinion it’s that sort of OTT behaviour and way about them that ensures the team don’t come across as a ‘machine.’

They’re too pre-occupied with screaming in opposition players faces and the like, and I think that optics are really important.

Compare and contrast the noise out of the Emirates to what’s coming out of Liverpool by way of example. It’s not about celebrations. It’s not about winding up other managers or winding up other players. They’re just getting on with business.

It’s not irrelevant because the fundamentals of football never really change; leadership, discipline, fear. Do teams fear playing Arsenal? No.

You can get frightened of teams when you’re a player. There were teams when I played, most notably the great Manchester United teams, where there was no nonsense and the infamy of Roy Keane waiting for you in the tunnel. You thought ‘we’re in for a game, they’ve come to play.’

With Arsenal, there’s a lot of reactive stuff from from Mikel Arteta and his players that just doesn’t need to be there and that, for me, is where Arsenal have still got some growth and got some learning to do.

Just get on with business.

Lack of leadership is the major headache for Ruben Amorim

Ruben Amorim will be looking at everybody in his Man United squad and saying they’re all for sale. Who is there that you can guarantee will play 38 games and be a title winner? I don’t think there are any.

As we’ve said in the column previously, there are players that have been hot for four or five games and Amad springs to mind, but there’s nobody really that has got the consistency to go through a whole season at the top level.

I think that captaincy and leadership is the major issue that Amorim needs to get to grips with.

Obviously Harry Maguire was bought in as a leader but he’s had off field issues and lots of injuries as well, so he hasn’t really been the consistent eight or nine out of 10 leader that you’d want.

I don’t think Bruno Fernandes is captain material either. I just don’t. I look at him and think if I’m in a dressing room with him I’m not going to hang on every word he says, and he isn’t going to go into the trenches in put in a shift.

I know the lot of people may think that the days of a Roy Keane type captain are dead but I just don’t think Bruno Fernandes’ performances, his ability to lead and his ability to cajole that extra 5% out of players is proven.

I played under Stuart Pearce at Nottingham Forest, a very different kind of captain to the one I played under at Liverpool; John Barnes. The former led by example – hard tackles, hard man, whereas the latter was more collegiate and did more talking, so I do understand the different captaincy roles.

Take a look at Liverpool now and look around their squad. Mo Salah is a captain figure, although he’s a goal scorer. Virgil van Dijk is a captain figure. Andy Robertson, a captain figure. Even Trent Alexander Arnold’s been a captain figure, and others have grown into the into the role as well.

Manchester City have Rodri, Kevin De Bruyne and now Haaland is becoming very vocal, and you can see that he has an influence in the dressing room.

I look at Manchester United and I just think of a group of moderately talented players that if you get the better of them within 20/25 minutes, there’s nobody there that opponents would be really scared of – and that fear factor is precisely what Ruben Amorim needs.

Evan Ferguson is one to watch as West Ham are one of the transfer window winners

Evan Ferguson is certainly one to watch. I love him as a player and it’s going to be really interesting to see him back under Graham Potter’s wing. It’s also interesting to see James Ward-Prowse going back to West Ham, because everybody talks about his free kicks and corners but his longer range passing is also very good.

I wonder whether Graham Potter, particularly on away days, may look to do what Nottingham Forest do very well, which is defend very deep and look to hit on the counter, and Ferguson will run like an old fashioned centre-forward into channels for Ward-Prowse to pick him out. That joined up thinking makes a lot of sense.

Disasi was a need for Aston Villa, whilst we’ve already talked about Asensio and Rashford. It’s going to be the toss of a coin. If you get the right side of the coin and both work out, Aston Villa are only ever going to be better off for it.

Tel… needs must because Tottenham are down to the bare bones.

I know that Wolves’ January acquisitions were not particularly sexy signings, but the argument from a lot of Wolves fans is that there haven’t been enough incomings over recent transfer windows to freshen things up. Likewise with Ipswich, they’ve brought in players to give the squad a lift for an important second half of the season.

More Stories / Latest News

If you’re looking at a winner on paper, you couldn’t go much further than Villa because of the names they’ve brought in and the calibre of them. Then of course there’s Jhon Duran going to Saudi. That’s just a huge waste of talent, but he’s a massive maverick figure.

That kid will either go on and be the next big thing, or he’ll be playing for Orient in four or five years time.

For Man City, the likes of Marmoush and Gonzalez etc…  you’re talking proper money, aren’t you?! And I think that obviously signals the end of Jack Grealish and he’ll move in the summer.

I’m really struggling to find out who’s going to take him mind you because I just don’t think that a top six club will take a look at him. What does he do now? Does he go past anybody? Does he create chances? Does he score goals? I hope I’m wrong, but I just can’t see it.

It’s not about what City have done in this transfer window either, it’s what they’re going to do in the next two summer windows that other clubs have got to worry about.