Aston Villa podcaster Tom Julian has shared his assessment on Villa midfielder Henri Lansbury and his performance against Burton Albion in Villa’s recent 3-1 win in the Carabao Cup.
This comes after Julian recently hosted the latest episode of The Villa View Podcast where he reflected on the victory for Dean Smith’s side.
On the subject of Lansbury, who played the full 90 minutes against the League One side, Julian had this to say on the midfield man.
He said: “I felt like Lansbury was completely anonymous. He obviously puts the ball in for Grealish’s fabulous strike towards the end, but apart from that, I barely recognised that he was on the pitch and you think, for somebody who came to Villa with high hopes and was very well thought of when he arrived at Villa, he’s never done it.
“He always had injuries here and there, but it didn’t seem like he was particularly ever bothered. When Conor Hourihane, for example, isn’t playing, you know about it, but when Lansbury’s not playing, he just sits there, and I think maybe tonight is the last time we see Lansbury in a Villa shirt.”
Villa signed the former Arsenal youth player from Nottingham Forest back in the 2017 January transfer window for a fee of £3.06 million. Since then, the Englishman has made 51 appearances for the Birmingham club in which he has scored two goals and provided nine assists (per Transfermarkt).
His recent performance against Burton earned him a solid match rating of 7.29/10 after he assisted Jack Grealish’s goal to put Villa in front late on in the second half.
Do you think the win against Burton will be Lansbury's last game for Villa?
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TIF Thoughts…
Despite putting in a good performance against Burton, the fact that Lansbury only played 187 minutes of Premier League action across 10 appearances last season shows that the midfielder isn’t a particularly important player for Villa.
That could be the reason why Julian thinks the game against Burton could well be Lansbury’s last game for the club.