For regular readers, I would imagine my position on £22million capture, Wesley, is pretty well known by now.
Incredibly poor against Tottenham Hotspur, but did show some improvement in the second half when he better knew what to expect, and we again saw the 22-year-old make steps forward in his overall play against Bournemouth last weekend at Villa Park.
He still has a significant way to go though – but there should be confidence that given the improvement we’ve seen so far, the rest should naturally follow as he continues to adjust to life at the club, let alone moving to a new country. The concern is understandable, but no player should be written off after 180 minutes.
With plenty of mouth pieces taking the opportunity for easy potshots, whilst not taking the actual circumstances into account, former Villa player Stan Collymore has offered an interesting thought recently.
I’m astounded that football continues to be so far behind the times when it comes to specialist coaching. GK’s get individual coaching but outfield players, in general, get coached as a group despite having such contrasting roles.
— michael owen (@themichaelowen) August 18, 2019
Reaction to that comment amongst fans was as predictable as you would imagine it to be, with plenty taking the easy option to criticise Heskey’s scoring record. Others offered up Stan for the role, or even Dion Dublin and John Carew as alternatives (Juan Pablo Angel even got a mention), but I think it’s an interesting idea.
We’ve seen he needs to adjust to the physical nature of the Premier League, but arguably he is showing some improvement on that front and despite his cost, he is only 22-years-old and is nowhere near the finished product yet.
When it comes to leading the line, or even just spending a bit of one on one time with somebody going over the videos, would it really do any harm and be a waste of time?
It’s food for thought and I’m sure there would be plenty that would take the club up should they offer it.
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