Stan: Club needs a ‘big’ improvement

FORMER Villa striker Stan Collymore believes the club’s next manager must make them a more physical unit – akin to their claret and blue counterparts, West Ham.

The Hammers are third in the Premier League after leapfrogging Liverpool with Sunday’s 3-2 win at the London Stadium.

Collymore insists that whoever fills the Villa Park dugout, he must go about ‘beefing’ up Villa’s squad.

“It was the right time for Smith to go,” he said. “My big concern with Villa of late has been around them being a bit of a soft touch, physically not strong.

“They’re a nice, neat and tidy team to watch at their best, but if you compare them with West Ham, whose start-of-season aspirations are similar, the player profiles of the two sides are night and day.

“Villa have plenty of small players who are technically very good – Emi Buendia, John McGinn, Matty Cash and Matt Targett. They are all very good but don’t exude physical strength. The same goes for Anwar El Ghazi, Danny Ings and Leon Bailey.

“When you look at their opposite numbers down in the East End of London, though, you see technically good players who are also big, solid and strong, and look how that mix is working out for them this season.

“It’s not even about being giants, either, because alongside big men in Kurt Zouma and Declan Rice they have Said Benrahma and Pablo Fornals.

“They aren’t big, heightwise, but they are beefed up, while Villa’s players look anything from scrawny to half-decent.

“So things needed to change on that front and they now need someone who can develop players and strengthen the physical profile and it isn’t all doom and gloom, because for whoever comes in there’s a lot to work with.”