SMITH HEARS NO EVIL OVER HIS TACTICS

DEAN SMITH is paying no attention to debates over Aston Villa’s formation and has dismissed suggestions recent poor results can be put down to his tactics.

The Villans go into today’s meeting with West Ham off the back of three

straight defeats – a run that has led to calls for Smith (left) to ditch the three-at-the-back system in place since last month’s defeat to Chelsea.

However, the Englishman is steadfast in his belief that Villa’s winless run cannot be blamed entirely on their setup, and won’t abandon it purely on the basis of results.

He said: “It’s been discussed somewhere that I don’t visit so I don’t really get that message.

We as coaches are always analysing what we’re doing, whether it’s our formation, our personnel, that’s our job.

“Our job is to keep trying to win football games for Aston Villa and we’ll continue doing that. We want to keep progressing as a football club.

“When a ball is thrown up between two of my players and they don’t go and compete for it, that’s not about systems that’s about not playing well and not being ready for the match whatever system you play.

“At times it’s looked good. Everybody thinks it’s a good system if you’re winning 2-0 against Wolves and then it’s terrible if you lose 3-2 in five minutes.

“That happens in football and we just have to keep on working on improving the players.”

One major benefit of Smith’s new formation is the ability to get strikers Danny Ings and Ollie

Watkins into the same starting XI. But the Villa boss believes his players have not done enough to make the most of what is a potentially prolific partnership.

He added: “I think you’re always working at partnerships. Jack and Ollie seemed to hit it off straight away last season.

“We have not dominated the ball as much as we would like to get enough service to Ollie and Danny. So that’s something we’ll keep working on.”