OPINION
One of Dean Smith’s first tasks as Aston Villa manager will be to sort out his defence, which has been a problem area for the club all season.
A serious lack of options across the back line saw previous boss Steve Bruce chopping and changing every single game, seemingly unable to work out his best options there.
Centre-back is a particularly weak area, with the club having just three ready-made options in that position, with Bruce resorting to deploying midfielder Mile Jedinak there on occasion.
Their lack of centre-backs is made worse by Micah Richards being frozen out from the first-team, and Smith has now admitted that the experienced enforcer could get a chance to prove his worth.
As quoted by the Mirror, Smith said: “Micah trained with us on Monday morning. He’s not played for a long time so he’s not near fitness to be in contention at all at the moment.
“But we’ll see how his fitness builds over the next month or two.”
A persistent knee injury has contributed to Richards’ woes at Villa Park in recent seasons, but the former Manchester City ace has shown little to suggest he is worthy of a first-team place.
His relationship with Bruce was obviously broken, but the club have been paying him handsome wages during his time on the sidelines, and there is no sign he is inclined to return the favour in any way.
His attitude has never been the best, and there has been no real evidence of the 5ft 11in ace [Transfermarkt] working hard to regain his fitness over the past two years or so.
His fitness levels are clearly lacking massively, which begs the question: what has he really been doing for the past few months? Not working on his fitness as he should have been, that’s for sure.
While it is understandable that Smith is assessing all his options to solve his defensive problems, the unfortunate truth is that bringing Richards back and giving him another chance is not the solution.
Smith should instead bin these thoughts and look to offload Richards as soon as he can, and invest money and time into a player he knows can make a difference.