OPINION
Dean Smith must restore Aston Villa attacker Albert Adomah to his former glory in the coming weeks with the odds stacked against his side when it comes to their Championship play-off hopes.
The Villans have struggled to rack up positive results in recent weeks and due to this they find themselves in 10th, nine points off sixth-placed Bristol City.
Several members of the Villans’ squad have struggled as of late and Smith really needs his players to be at the best in order to have any chance of a top-six finish.
One player who could really make a difference to the club’s current fortune is Adomah.
The 6ft 1in tall winger (Source: Transfermarkt) has been in woeful form all season, particularly by his standards, and has only racked up three assists in his 26 outings.
He has been drastically below the high standards he set for himself last season as he was constantly among the goals one way or another.
In his 2017/18 campaign, Adomah scored 15 goals, while assisting seven, in the 44 outings and generally wowed whenever he was on the pitch.
Given his form last season the 31-year-old, who has 18 caps for Ghana, is clearly capable of being an important player for the Villans in the Championship and Smith just needs to find a way to get the best out of him.
Luckily for Villa’s manager, it seems like he is holding all the cards in the case of Adomah and could easily restore him back to top-form by using the player’s reported wish for a new contract to his advantage.
The Birmingham Mail reported on Monday that the winger had been looking to extend his deal for the past six months with his current contract still on course to expire in the summer.
According to the local newspaper, the Villans have an option to automatically add a year to his deal but they are yet to exercise it.
Many players can thrive under a sink-or-swim situation and Adomah could be among them.
Therefore Smith should dangle a potential new deal in front of the attacker – it could see the player drastically raise his game as he would be playing for his Villa career.