New for this season; once per week we'll be posting our current take on Aston Villa's pecking order. I'm still figuring out exactly how I'd like to do this going forward in terms of the look-and-feel, thought process, etc, so please leave feedback in the comments.

As of right now, this is my current read on how things stand going into the season; this is likely the least well informed I'll be all season (knock on wood) and I would not be surprised if I've whiffed on one or two, but it was at least a good faith effort. Things are arranged in tiered lists by position, with the likelihood of seeing players reduced with each indent. There are also denotations after some players; these are likely self-explanatory for the most part, but there's a key at the end just in case.

As I said before, please leave any thoughts and suggestions in the comments. That can be related to the way the post is formatted, the determining factors that go into setting the list, the order I have the players listed, anything. Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

STRIKER

• Darren Bent
• Andreas Weimann
  • Nathan Delfouneso
  • Brett Holman (2)
    • Graham Burke (R)
    • Gabby Agbonlahor

LEFT MIDFIELD

• Charles N'Zogbia
  • Barry Bannan (2)
  • Brett Holman (2)
    • Samir Carruthers (2)
      • Gabby Agbonlahor (I)(2)
      • Marc Albrighton (I)(2)

RIGHT MIDFIELD

• Brett Holman
  • Stephen Ireland (2)
  • Charles N'Zogbia (2)
  • Barry Bannan (2)
    • Samir Carruthers (2)
      • Marc Albrighton (I)(2)
      • Gabriel Agbonlahor (I)(2)

CENTRAL MIDFIELD

• Karim El Ahmadi
• Stephen Ireland
• Barry Bannan
  • Chris Herd
  • Fabian Delph
  • Gary Gardner
  • Samir Carruthers
    • Daniel Johnson (R)
      • Stiliyan Petrov (I)
      • Jean Makoun (*)

LEFT BACK

• Enda Stevens
  • Eric Lichaj (2)
  • Ciaran Clark (2)
    • Stephen Warnock (*)

RIGHT BACK

• Matthew Lowton
  • Eric Lichaj
  • Chris Herd
    • Alan Hutton (*)

CENTER BACK

• Ron Vlaar
• Ciaran Clark
  • Nathan Baker
  • Chris Herd (2)
    • Eric Lichaj (2)
    • Derrick Williams (R)
      • Richard Dunne (I)

GOALKEEPERS

• Shay Given
  • Brad Guzan
    • Andy Marshall (R)
    • Benjamin Siegrist (R)

KEY

• (2) - Secondary position
• (I) - Player is injured
• (R) - Player has minimal first-team experience
• (*) - Player is missing, presumed dead