Have a horrible feeling this is one too many. I wasn't that concerned about how well he was playing, but he needed to get a full season under his belt. He was looking sharper than he has been for 2 years and it might be a few steps back again now.
Never been one to moan about him inviting challenges because that's the whole point of his game and it's a quality one when he can move freely. But that role of sitting deep and spraying passes around might be forced now if his weak ankles keep troubling him, so I guess all those Xavi/Pirlo videos on his ipad will get good mileage. He's pretty good at it as he is showing for England but he was potentially uniquely world class with the quick feet, dropping the shoulder and running into space. Gut feeling is he's not going to be one of the best players in the world relying mainly passing range. Obviously he can occupy the same positions so we're not talking about him learning how to play a new position and he's always going to be too good for Aston Villa, but I reckon it's sufficiently different to put him off track.
This season's injury record is disturbingly bad even for us. What the fuck's going on.
