Aston Villa journalist Gregg Evans has been sharing his thoughts on Villa goalkeeper Pepe Reina.
This comes after Evans recently made an appearance on The Athletic’s Villa-themed podcast, 1874, to reflect on their 2-0 defeat to Liverpool at the weekend.
On the topic of Dean Smith’s team selection to play against the newly-crowned Premier League champions, Evans shared his thoughts on Reina’s appearance.
He said: “Come as a little bit of a surprise but I thought that the two things that he was brought in to do: one, to take away the nervous edge that crept into Orjan Nyland’s game; I thought he took that away, but I thought his distribution was terrible. He kept kicking it towards Alisson every time. It was really poor, I thought. For somebody who is well known for his incredible feet, he could hardly find a Villa player.
“He was brought in because Orjan Nyland was starting to look a little bit weak and fragile and he clearly lost his confidence. He made a couple of good saves, I just think he needs to improve on his distribution because it was poor.”
Reina’s performance in the defeat at Anfield earned him a match rating of 6.43/10, making him Villa’s third-highest rated player for the match (per WhoScored).
Who should play in goal for Villa for the rest of the season?
Pepe Reina
Orjan Nyland
The goalkeeper, who is now valued at £585k (as per Transfermarkt), signed to Villa on a loan deal from AC Milan to replace the injured Tom Heaton.
TIF Thoughts…
It seems as though despite being one of Villa’s best performers at Anfield at the weekend, Evans believes Reina has areas in his game that he needs to work on if he is going to continue playing for Villa in their remaining Premier League fixtures.