Dean Smith met the media on Friday morning to preview Sunday’s game against Tottenham Hotspur.
Heading to London on the back of two successive Premier League wins, the Aston Villa head coach discussed a number of topics via virtual press conference.
Here’s what he had to say…
On team news…
When asked about Leon Bailey, Smith replied: “I’m hopeful that he’ll start training during the international break.
“We’ll assess him then, but him and Morgan Sanson are out for this game.”
On Ollie Watkins’ England recall…
“I always knew when Ollie joined up with the England squad that he would impress them in training – he’s obviously done that.
“He’s obviously got on the pitch and scored his first international goal, which we were all pleased with. He didn’t make the final cut for the Euros, but his performances have enabled him to get called up.
“The knee injury has been a frustration for him and us. We’ve had to modify his training a little bit, but he knows how to get the best out of himself.
“His work-rate and what he does in training is enough to take Gareth’s (Southgate) notice and they were only too happy to call him back up.”
On improvements to come from Villa…
“We’re inspired to be as high as we can in the league. The players want to build on last season. We felt we fell away at the end of last season, which was disappointing.”
He added: “We’re not firing on all cylinders at all yet, and the players know that. If I look at the performance against Manchester United, the pleasing thing was there were a lot of seven out out tens but there wasn’t a lot of nine or ten out of tens.
“There’s an awful lot we can do and work towards.”
On playing Tottenham…
“It always makes me smile that a manager can be nominated for Manager of the Month one month and then a month later everyone’s talking about how they’re in crisis. They’re certainly far from that.
“Yes, they’ve had an indifferent month but that can happen. This league is a tough league to play in. They won their first three games without conceding a goal and now all of a sudden they’re struggling defensively.
“I don’t buy into that, personally. They’ve got a very, very good squad of players. I’ve got an awful lot of respect for Nuno and believe he’ll do a good job.
“We’re certainly very respectful of the Tottenham team and we’ll prepare accordingly.”
