Following the end of the October international break and the lull in Premier League fixtures, Aston Villa are now preparing for Saturday’s return to action as we welcome Brighton and Hove Albion to Villa Park.
Head coach Dean Smith was meeting with the press on Thursday afternoon to discuss the game, and following his brace against Norwich City ahead of the internationals, summer signing Wesley was a hot topic for conversation.
The Birmingham Mail have the gaffer quoted as saying that he was naturally pleased for him to get the double, but, of course, he’d have far preferred it if he’d have also buried the penalty to get a hattrick to give his confidence a further boost.
“He’s a confident boy but when you hear things it can get on top of you. There’s a lot of expectation on him, there’s a big price tag on his head as well. He’s got one in two at the moment in the Premier League – that’s a great stat for a young centre-forward. The beauty for me is that he’s still got a lot of improvements to make in his game. The key to it is that he wants to improve. We’ve brought a player who has a lot of qualities but also a lot of potential and we’re working on tapping into that potential. He’s a player who I wanted to meet first before we signed him – to get to know him and find out what he was about. All players you find out they’ve got unique stories of how they’ve been brought up and, as a head coach, it’s all about getting to know what makes them tick to make them get better. I’m enjoying getting to know a lot of the players. It’s a good dressing room.”
Smith is right to say the expectation is there, purely down to the fee that we paid for him over the summer, but there are slow and steady improvements in his play as he continues to adjust, and those goals should’ve done the 22-year-old the world of good, as whilst he can definitely improve further as the gaffer states, four goals and an assist in eight games, is a decent return on his performances so far.
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