Aston Villa journalist Ashley Preece has been praising Villa full-back Ahmed Elmohamady and discussing his potential return to the team in the aftermath of Matty Cash’s recent hamstring injury.
This comes after Preece recently made an appearance on the latest episode of the Birmingham Mail’s Claret & Blue Podcast where he spoke about a number of topics concerning Dean Smith’s side.
On the subject of Cash’s injury and Elmohamady, who replaced the Englishman after he suffered this injury during the second half of their recent 0-0 draw against Brighton & Hove Albion last weekend, Preece had this to say about ‘Elmo’ and his role in the team moving forward while Cash is out injured.
Elmohamady has only started one league game this season against Burnley in December, which Cash had sat out. Therefore, the onus may fall on him again in the coming weeks.
Looking ahead to their clash with Leicester City, he said: “All eyes on Elmo now to slot in at right-back, who’s been Villa’s Mr Reliable from time to time so hopefully, he can come up trumps on Sunday.
“He’s got Harvey Barnes to mark, so it’ll be tough going, but if anyone is to pull a performance out the bag, it’s usually Elmo who comes good, experienced operator.
“I think Villa are in safe hands for Sunday and a big chance for Elmo to stake his claim.”
Villa signed Elmohamady back in the 2017 summer transfer window from Hull City for a fee of £990k. Since then, the 33-year-old, who is currently valued at £1.8 million has made 121 appearances for the Villans across all competitions in which he has managed to score four goals and provide 17 assists along the way (per Transfermarkt).
TIF Thoughts on Ashley Preece’s comments on Elmohamady…
Assuming Smith picks Elmohamady to play at right-back for their upcoming clash against Leicester, Preece certainly has a lot of confidence in the Egyptian’s abilities to perform well for Villa when called upon.
Are you confident Elmohamady can play well for Villa while Cash is out?
Yes
No
However, in our view, with the defender only managing to rack up a fairly uninspiring season rating of 6.55/10 for his 18 Premier League appearances last season, this suggests to us that he may not be at the required level in terms of playing consistently at a high level for the team this season.