Aston Villa journalist Dan Bardell has made a claim on Villa goalkeeper Orjan Nyland.
This comes after Bardell made an appearance on The Villa View Podcast to look ahead at Villa’s upcoming clash against newly-crowned Premier League champions Liverpool at the weekend.
On the topic of Villa’s goalkeepers and who he thinks will start for Villa against Jurgen Klopp’s side, Bardell had this to say on Nyland.
He said: “Unfortunately, he has regressed a little bit back to the goalkeeper of last season, rather than the one that we’ve seen in the cup run, which is disappointing.
“Somewhere the pressure seems to have got to him a little bit. You kind of feel that that mistake against Sheffield United even though it went unpunished, it’s given him the jitters a little bit because he was one of those ones I thought might benefit from no crowd a little bit.
“It now wouldn’t surprise me to see [Pepe] Reina come in at Anfield on Sunday, it wouldn’t surprise me to see him lining up between the sticks but then you forget the two games before the break, Reina was having a nightmare as well so unless he’s got out that out of the system as well he wasn’t looking too clever between the sticks either. We’ve just had a nightmare of goalkeepers, in general, this season.”
Who would you start in goal against Liverpool?
Pepe Reina
Orjan Nyland
Since the current Premier League season restarted, Nyland has played in all four of Villa’s matches, conceding four goals along the way (per Transfermarkt).
TIF Thoughts…
Whoever Dean Smith chooses to play in the net for Villa at the weekend, everyone at the club will be hoping that they will be able to pick up a positive result to give them another step away from relegation.
However, considering how impressive Liverpool have been this season in terms of their results in the league, it will surely be a big ask for Villa to come away from Anfield with all three points.