Aston Villa journalist Gregg Evans has been sharing his praise for Pepe Reina after Villa’s 2-0 win over Crystal Palace on Sunday.
This comes after Evans recently made an appearance on The Athletic’s Villa-themed podcast 1874 to look back at the win at Villa Park over the weekend. (11.24) (12.37)
On the topic of Reina and his performance in the win over Roy Hodgson’s side, Evans shared his thoughts on the Spaniard.
He said: “Pepe Reina I thought had probably his best game in a Villa shirt. [He] made a couple of decent saves. And there was a couple of times where we really got stuck into some of the midfielders. I think there was an occasion when [John] McGinn misplaced a pass and Reina read him the riot act and McGinn sort of just put his hands up and was like, ‘yeah, I’m sorry’.
“I like to see that, I like to see the teammates really fighting for each other and just constructively criticising them if they’ve done something wrong, it just felt like, despite all the problems that have been at Villa over recent months, and the season in general, I suppose, [it] just felt like they had a good togetherness and a good team spirit there.”
Reina signed to Villa back in the previous January transfer window on a loan deal from AC Milan after Tom Heaton picked up a season-ending injury earlier on in January.
For his performance in the win against Palace, Reina earned himself a match rating of 7.76/10, making him Villa’s third-highest player in the win (per WhoScored).
Did Pepe Reina have his best game for Villa against Palace at the weekend?
Yes
No
TIF Thoughts…
It’s good to hear that Reina, who is now valued at £585k (as per Transfermarkt), is being assertive on the pitch towards his teammates when they make a mistake, this shows that he has good leadership qualities and wants to push his teammates to perform better in matches.
However, Reina and everyone at Villa will also be pleased by the fact that they managed to keep a clean sheet against Palace at the weekend, which is something they have done since their 0-0 draw against Sheffield United last month.
The hope for Reina and everyone at Villa now would be that they can keep some more clean sheets in their remaining league fixtures and get some positive results so they can avoid relegation.