Former Aston Villa star and current Sky Sports pundit Lee Hendrie has urged Aston Villa manager Dean Smith to drop the axe on goalkeeper Orjan Nyland by signing a replacement in January.
The 28-year-old only arrived at Villa Park over the summer and has established himself as a first team mainstay, missing just one Championship game that he has been available for.
However, Hendrie has not been impressed with what he has seen from the 6’3″ giant (source: Transfermarkt), calling him inconsistent and insisted that a new shot stopper is needed in the winter window.
Asked if Villa need to strengthen in January, he told Sky Sports‘ coverage of the clash against West Brom (07/12, 19:31): “Yeah, I do. I’d personally look at the goalkeeper. I think the inconsistency of Nyland is something that I’d question mark.
“You’ve got to bring in a centre half, I wouldn’t want to really rock the boat but he’s got to bring in some strength and depth for me. Even a central midfielder.”
Opinion
This is probably a little bit harsh from Hendrie and you cannot imagine that Smith is going to heed his suggestion come January. Yes, Nyland might have made the odd error but so has every goalkeeper in the Championship and there have certainly been more highlights than lowlights from the shot stopper this season. He looks a lot more assured now than earlier in the campaign and axing him after just half a season would shatter his confidence and probably ensure that he never made another appearance again. Smith needs to keep faith – he has an understanding with the rest of his defence and losing that could be a disaster in the second half of the season. If he fails to impress during the second half of the campaign then yes, a new goalkeeper is needed but right now the last thing Smith needs to do is upset the apple cart.