Lee Hendrie comments on Dean Smith’s tactics

Dean Smith
Dean Smith

Former Aston Villa player turned popular football pundit, Lee Hendrie, has said that Dean Smith ‘missed a trick’ during Villa’s Premier League clash against West Ham on Monday night.

Hendrie wasn’t particularly impressed with Smith’s substitution during the game.

The newly-promoted Premier League side have made a stuttering start to their 2019-20 campaign, managing only one win thus far. Against Hammers, they could only manage a 0-0 draw, despite playing against 10-men for over 20 minutes.

Although Villa had the best chance during the game which Wesley missed, it was the visitors who actually created better opportunities and posed a threat throughout the game.

Hendrie feels Smith should have introduced Keinan Davis much earlier than he did.

Hendrie said to BBC Five Live: “I feel they missed a trick. He should have brought Davis on earlier and sacrificed a defensive midfielder.

“But he brought on another defensive midfielder and then in the last 10 minutes brought Keinan on. It looked like they had run out of ideas to me.”

Smith brought on Douglas Luiz as his first substitute for Villa, but his introduction didn’t make any impact. It turned out to be a very defensive move tactically.

In fact, Villa struggled when West Ham went down to ten men, and Hendrie is absolutely spot on that it seemed Smith had run out of ideas.

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