Many Aston Villa fans were left absolutely fuming over the display of rarely-seen winger Anwar after he came of the substitutes’ bench in the 2-1 defeat to Norwich City.
Despite taking a 1-0 lead into half time courtesy of a James Chester header, the Villans left Carrow Road without a point to their name as Jordan Rhodes netted a second half brace to seal the win for the Canaries.
Having come off the bench after 50 minutes for the injured Albert Adomah, El Ghazi failed to impress the Villa faithful, who had only seen him play five times prior to Tuesday’s loss, and they took to Twitter to hammer his cameo display.
This is Futbol has gathered a selection of the supporters’ tweets:
https://twitter.com/spunkyvillan/status/1054835854387175426
https://twitter.com/Dudley1uk/status/1054835831117111296
https://twitter.com/gazswain/status/1054835808262336512
https://twitter.com/shamelessShawn/status/1054835703224430592
https://twitter.com/VillaBradJ/status/1054835567714885632
Worrying this is two of our wingers have been exposed, Bolasie and El Ghazi. Ain't good
— Tom (@tomvlaa) October 23, 2018
Hogan’s hold up play and El Ghazi’s work rate has cost us here. Poor substitutions tonight. #AVFC
— James Felipe (@Jfelipe1) October 23, 2018
The final balls have been woeful in the second half. El Ghazi has offered nothing. #avfc
— Rich (@villarich32) October 23, 2018
https://twitter.com/will_avfc/status/1054833240899371010
Opinion
This was El Ghazi’s chance to shine and prove to new boss Dean Smith that he has what it takes to be a key part of the first team squad in the hunt for a promotion spot this season. However, if the Villa fans had their way, he would not be seen again, and quite frankly they are spot on with their brutal analysis. Coming off the bench you are expected to be fresh and fit, ready to hurt the opposition as they tire, but the loan man looked as though he had already played a full 90 minutes of football before he came on at Carrow Road. It was a truly poor display and while there were flashes that he could offer something, they were too few and far between in his 40 minutes of action. Smith would have wanted him to stand up and take his chance with both hands, but this sort of display hints he does not have the mental resilience to be counted when the going gets tough.