SMITH: VILLA ARE GREALLY NOT A ONE MAN TEAM
DEAN SMITH has rubbished suggestions his Aston Villa side are a one-man team.
Villa tackle Leeds today without the services of their England midfielder Jack Grealish, who is still struggling with a shin injury.
The 25-year-old has missed only three Premier League games since Villa came back up – and they’ve lost the lot.
But Smith (above) says that statistic doesn’t bear up to close scrutiny and reckons it’s disrespectful to disregard his other players.
He said: “I’ve seen the talk about us being, at times, a one-man team. But there needs to be a bit of perspective about that because one defeat was against a side who finished top, another moved up to second and the third ended up seventh.
“It’s disrespectful to other players to talk about us being a one-man team, especially when we’ve got so many other top players.
“We all know what a great player Jack is, and we’re thankful he’s here, but we believe we’re a good team and that takes 11 players to play at the highest level.”
The Villa boss admits his star man’s current injury problem isn’t clear and is reluctant to put a timeline on his return.
He said: “He’s still got a little bit of pain, not too much. As ever with Jack, whenever he’s involved with anything, there’s an awful lot of speculation.
“A lot of people were speculating he was going to be out for this amount of games, or weeks, but we honestly don’t know how long this will be.
“But it’s not long term – he could be back for Sheffield United on Tuesday.
“He’s gutted. He loves playing football, but the doctor says he needs a little bit of a rest.
“It’s only been a week so far but a week’s a long time, certainly in Jack’s mind when it comes to playing.”
SINCE when has nine titles in a row counted as failure in any sport?
Neil Lennon has endured a poor season by Celtic’s high standards but my old Leicester team-mate deserved better than being hounded out with hatred and anger being directed towards him on a frightening scale. When the fire and fury has subsided, and perspective is back in favour, Lennon (below) should go down as a Celtic legend who won five titles for them as a player and another five as manager. Even in resurgent Rangers’ shadow this season, they have won a trophy after the Scottish Cup shoot-out drama against Hearts, so they will not finish the campaign emptyhanded. Lennon will be honest enough to admit Celtic have fallen short this time. He did not win all of those nine titles in a row himself but he played his part in a historic run.
Is missing out on a 10th consecutive title – after completing the Quadruple Treble – really a failure, or just a reminder that success in football has always come in cycles?
The players need to look at themselves as much as the manager and admit Steven Gerrard and Rangers have been a cut above in Scotland this season.
But if Lennon’s contribution to Celtic’s history constitutes failure, I am not sure what success looks like.
Marcus Rashford helping to hurt Tuchel and (right) Chelsea train yesterday
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