Villa Must Survive Without The Hulk

Stiliyan Petrov has said that Villa must learn to cope without Big John during his lengthy spells on the injury bench.

There is no doubt an on fire John Carew is a huge asset in all senses to our diminutive frontline, but unfortunately due to a variety of problems he has only started two of the last nine games and whilst Gabby has come on in leaps and bounds in the lone striker department there is no doubting how much we have missed the big man.

Worse still is the expectation that Carew will be out for the next fortnight.

Speaking to the Evening Mail, Petrov talked about how important Carew is, but that we must learn to live without him and still pick up the points.

"When you are missing an important player it is difficult.

"You just try to deal with it. It is a long season and we need to cope with it, get round it and start winning again."

With a succession of 'Carew is important' soundbytes from the team, and not just Petrov, there's no doubt they are in agreement. Luke Young for a start believes that Carew would've been the difference between us and Fulham the other week.

"Perhaps if a fit John Carew was in there we might have come away with the win.

"It`s a different option when John is on the pitch. Maybe if we had him available he could have come on and made the difference.

"But it was down to us. The chances were there but we didn`t put them away."

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