COOKER Villa boss Smith reckons he has firepower to win survival battle
TODAY, KICK-OFF 4.15PM
The Villa Park chief says he has plenty of goals within his team as he seeks to derail Frank Lampard’s Champions League-chasing Chelsea. Smith’s side managed to keep their first clean sheet in 13 outings during the controversial draw with Sheffield United in midweek. But they look weak in attack – not finding the net in their last three games – and rookie Keinan Davis was charged with leading the line against the Blades, without having a Premier League strike to his name. Jack Grealish is the club’s top scorer and strikers Wesley – who is injured – Davis, January recruit Ally Samatta and Anwar El Ghazi have found the net 10 times in the Premier League between them all season. But Smith is defiant that Villa’s squad can improve their goal return. He said: “If you look at the team who are about to win the league, Roberto Firmino hasn’t got loads of goals, has he? “There’s others within our squad that score. That’s what we are looking for – so you are not just reliant on your No.9 scoring a goal. “What we did against Sheffield United was create enough to have scored against them. “Jack Grealish is our top goalscorer so far, Anwar El Ghazi has a few, Trezeguet carries a threat, Conor Hourihane certainly scores. “We do have players – John
Mcginn is a goalscoring midfielder and he’s coming back.
“I also thought that we looked really dangerous from set-pieces the other day.
“I’m not sure if I was an opposition centreback I’d want to be defending deadballs against Kortney Hause, Tyrone Mings, Keinan Davis and Ezri Konsa. We’ve certainly got the goals in us.”
Smith (below) was bullish about Davis, 22, who was given the nod ahead of Samatta but hinted that the latter may start today.
He said: “Keinan is still a young lad. That was his first Premier League start. He’s deserved that, too.
“He’s had a lot of niggles since I’ve been here. A lot of injuries have hampered his progression. But he has bags of potential.
“I thought it was a really good first start. The only thing missing was the goal. I think the players here weren’t surprised when he got the nod.
“I got him and Ally into my office and told them, ‘You’re going to have to share the workload between you during the run-in’ because being the lone striker is tough.”
Smith’s stated aim this season has been to play on the front foot. Was admitting that Villa were playing with a lone striker against Sheffield United an acceptance of the fact that he has changed his approach?
He said: “I don’t think we have had the fitness levels to do it. These last 14 weeks have given us the opportunity to get more conditioned. You have to go back to the start of the season. We had Douglas Luiz walking into the club two days before the season.
“It’s very difficult in a Premier League season to catch up. I think our conditioning levels are a lot better than they were.”