On-loan Everton winger Yannick Bolasie hasn’t had the best of times since moving to Aston Villa on a season-long deal and his performances so far had left him open to plenty of criticism from fans who expected better given what we saw of the player during his time at Crystal Palace.
Whether it was confidence, fitness or simply sharpness following the long-term injury he had at Goodison Park, new head coach Dean Smith made no secret of wanting him to work harder on the training pitch and he was notably dropped for the defeat to Norwich City.
Not the result we wanted tonight but thanks for the support #utv ???????? Let’s go again next week end
— Yannick Bolasie (@YannickBolasie) October 26, 2018
Smith also stated he’d be back for Queens Park Rangers last Friday evening and he was, as a replacement for Ahmed Elmohamady in the 62nd minute of what became a 1-0 loss and back to back defeats.
With an uplift in the performance and some confusion as to how we came out of the game with nothing to show for our efforts, Bolasie’s impact did attract praise from fans on social media.
Played well lads , result did not reflect the game I watched , great improvement
— Karen (@karenworledge) October 26, 2018
Keep working hard. You have the potential to destroy this league. We go again.
— stop the world, I wanna get off (@lamb_pants) October 27, 2018
You need to start next game reg
— JOSH (@Josh_lester1) October 26, 2018
A proper effort and much better display of possession Yannick 😉 #AVFC it will happen with the same effort
— Justin Robert Price (@JRPCD) October 26, 2018
Much better today mate keep it up
— ???????????????? (@KinkyKodjia) October 26, 2018
Made a difference tonight Yannick. Once it was clear you had the better of your man we should have been spraying balls out to you quicker and more often. You took up some great positions which went unnoticed. Keep it up ???? #utv
— derekcroghan (@derekcroghan23) October 26, 2018
Keep working brother won’t be long before you start and firing ????????
— Ben Hook (@Hooked_On_Ink) October 26, 2018
Brilliant energy, well played
— gary (@gary_fldgry) October 26, 2018
He can clearly improve further, but that was at least more of what fans were expecting when we secured his services.