Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill ready to unleash John Carew and Gabby Agbonlahor against Stoke
Mar 12 2010 by Mathew Kendrick, Birmingham Mail
“We are playing for really big stakes here so, at the end of it all, the normal fundamentals of a professional footballer apply here – and you can never get away from that.
“If you lose confidence you can still go back to the basics of what your game’s about.
“For John, it’s getting hold of the ball, holding people off, being strong and aggressive in the box. Any player who puts those things to the forefront of his game has got a great chance.”
O’Neill insists Carew’s last three years at Villa Park have been the most productive spell of the striker’s career.
“John’s best time in football has been with us,” he said. “Despite all the things that hover around I think he would accept that.
“This boy has played in the Champions League final with Valencia, he’s played for Lyon and other big teams – and this might well be his longest spell at a football club.
“If John left tomorrow he has done very well for us, but he’ll want to keep this going because no-one’s leaving tomorrow – we’ve got a very important season to see through here.
“At some stage someone takes up the mantle of carrying a team for a couple weeks. Some players do it individually – James Milner, Ashley Young and Gabby Agbonlahor have all done it. Other players get carried at that time. Now it’s payback time.”
Agbonlahor is just one away from reaching his half-century of Villa goals and O’Neill added: “Gabby did a little bit of training yesterday.
“He’s feeling a lot better and I’m hoping he will be all right. At this minute, touch wood, it hasn’t spread.
“He has been in the first team consistently since I’ve been here.
“He’s done really well – 50 goals is a milestone, 100 goals is a milestone, so it’s nice to get them if they’re coming up. It would be great if he could get it.
“I’m very pleased with him. There’s lots of things he could still improve at, which he is aware of. The very fact he is hovering on the periphery of the England squad might tell you something – and they’ve got a few to choose from.”
