Last season was the proverbial one of two halves for Marc Albrighton. While the first part saw the youngster -initially given a chance by caretaker boss Kevin McDonald- rise to prominence on the right wing for Aston Villa and provide Fantasy managers with a viable cut-price option, the latter half proved frustrating, with Gerard Houllier and, latterly, Gary McAllister opting for the more experienced heads amongst the Villa squad as the club battled to beat the drop.
With just 61 minutes in his previous debut season, Albrighton was something of an unproven quantity as the 2010/11 season kicked off but immediately caught the eye in the season opener, picking up two assists and 1 Bonus Point as Houllier’s side began the campaign with a 3-0 home win over West Ham.
He also started the next six games, adding an assist away to Wolves and a goal at White Hart Lane as Villa claimed three wins and a draw in their first seven fixtures. By gameweek 19 -despite being sidelined with an appendix operation in November- Albrighton had made 13 starts and had started to find his scoring touch; in the seven starts he made between gameweek 7 and 19, he scored four times for Villa.
As the pressure mounted on the Villa management in light of both the club’s poor form and allegations of dressing room unrest, Houllier re-jigged his midfield; Nigel Reo-Coker became an almost-permanent fixture in the centre and Ashley Young’s return to a wing role came mainly at Albrighton’s expense. Game minutes became harder to predict and while a run of three starts from gameweek 28 to 30 looked promising, Albrighton subsequently played just 137 minutes in the final eight gameweeks of the season, as ill-health saw Houllier step down and allow McAllister to guide the club to safety.
Key Factors
- New boss Alex McLeish has plenty doubters to win over following his controversial move from Birmingham and has promised “a clean slate” for the current Villa squad when considering his starting XI. Man United’s purchase of Ashley Young opens the door for Albrighton to nail down a permanent place and with Stewart Downing also being strongly linked with a move to Liverpool, the opportunity to establish himself under the new regime could never be greater.
- Albrighton made 34 appearances in his breakthrough campaign, grabbing 6 goals and 10 assists in all competitions. Still only 21, he now, nevertheless, has a first full season behind him and with the experience of Villa’s previous year under his belt, will be the wiser for it.
- His stop-start second half of the season may possibly work to Albrighton’s favour in terms of Fantasy Pricing; he began last term at 4.5 and although he reached 4.7, interest waned due to the lack of game time and he dropped to 4.4 by the end of the campaign. With that uncertainty over his starting role at the end of last term in mind, FPL may keep him as a budget buy again; 5.5 is likely the highest he’ll come in at.
- Villa’s opening set of fixtures are particularly kind; the first eleven gameweeks sees them host (BLA, WOL, NEW, WIG, WBA, NOR) and investment in McLeish’s team could prove dividend. If Albrighton can force his way into Big Eck’s thinking prior to the opening match at Fulham, Fantasy Managers will surely be eyeing him up as a purchase ahead of such an enticing run of games.
