Aston Villa podcaster Andy Bates has been sharing his thoughts on Villa winger Anwar El Ghazi and his current place in Dean Smith’s squad.
This comes after Bates hosted a recent episode of Villa-themed podcast Gather ‘Round The Lamp where he spoke about a range of subjects concerning the Midlands club.
On the subject of El Ghazi, his season with the Villans so far and his current place in the squad, Bates had this to say about the winger.
He said: “For me, El Ghazi is a player now who is quite a dangerous player at Premier League level. He will do something, he will come into the side and do a job and often comes away on the scoresheet, so no complaints from me.
“He’s also fought his way back this season. I think he was out of the reckoning at the start of the season and he’s fought his way in and now I think he’s probably a definite starter.”
Villa originally signed El Ghazi back in the 2018 summer transfer window on a loan deal from French club LOSC Lille before signing him permanently in the following summer window for a fee of £8.1 million.
Overall, the 25-year-old, who is currently valued at £9 million, has made 101 appearances for Villa across all competitions in which he has managed to score 20 goals and provide 13 assists along the way (per Transfermarkt).
TIF Thoughts on Andy Bates’ comments on El Ghazi…
Given how El Ghazi has only played in 22 of the 32 Premier League games this season but has managed to score seven goals in just 11 starts, this shows just how useful the Dutchman can be in front of goal when called upon, as Bates spoke about in the podcast.
Have you been impressed by El Ghazi this season?
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Moving forward, with Villa currently having Trezeguet out injured, and Jack Grealish still out with his shin issue, it seems likely that Smith will start El Ghazi for their upcoming Premier League clash against Everton, in our view, and as Bates also claimed.
In other news: Gregg Evans issues Matheus Pereira transfer update at Aston Villa