Dean Smith admits he has no idea if he’ll be given time to turn Aston Villa’s fortunes around after his side’s fifth defeat on the spin. Adam Armstrong’s third-minute goal condemned Villa to their seventh defeat from 11 this season while, since the turn of the year, no other side have lost more games than Smith’s (18). He was asked about if he’ll get the chance to turn it all around as the pressure begins to mount over his future.
Dean Smith said: “I have no idea (if I’ll be given more time). I don’t have any control over that so I’m never worried about that. I concentrate on my job day-to-day and I’ll continue to do that. I’m very confident we can turn it around, given time, because of the squad we’ve got and with the players we’ve got coming back. You know, we had five academy players on the bench today and two of them came on but, unfortunately, some of our better players are left back at Bodymoor Heath at the moment. The fans that were here tonight saw what the lads put in today. The lads need to continue showing that. There’s certainly enough quality in the squad but I just felt the goal in the second minute knocked the stuffing out of us a little bit but, in the second half, it was the intensity I wanted from our players. I think our last two performances have shown a lot of character. The players feel like they’re letting themselves down at the moment that they’re not getting results.”
On five-straight losses,
Dean Smith added: “It’s disappointing, obviously. We feel like we’ve got a strong squad here. At the moment, we’re struggling a little bit with injuries. The five defeats seem to have come from nowhere, a little bit, we’ve been in some tight games and poor decisions go against us. The lads left everything out there today so you can certainly see their support (in me) and wanting to get a result today but, unfortunately, a few things let us down in the first half.”
Elsewhere,
Dean Smith added: “Douglas Luiz and Ings, I’m hopeful we’ll have them back after the international break. They’ve had slight hamstring strains. Morgan Sanson has trained the last three days but he’s had a Covid-related illness so wasn’t up to play. Bertrand Traore has got a little bit longer (out) with a thigh strain.”
