Aston Villa journalist Mat Kendrick has been sharing his thoughts on Villa striker Keinan Davis and his current situation at the Midlands club.
This comes after Kendrick made an appearance on a recent episode of the Birmingham Mail’s Claret & Blue Podcast where he spoke about a range of topics concerning Dean Smith’s side, including their recent 0-0 draw against Everton in the Premier League.
On the subject of Davis, who started the game against Carlo Ancelotti’s side at Villa Park, Kendrick had this to say about the striker and his current situation at the club. (5.44)
He said: “I think it’s an awkward one isn’t it because we always say it’s difficult to judge him over a 10-minute cameo, get him starting, get him in the starting lineup.
“I’m not sure he’s quite got the quality to lead the line on his own. I don’t think he’s quite got the guile to trouble defenders from the first minute. I think we’ve found that Keinan Davis does a lot of his good work when defenders are tiring at the end of the game and he can use that burst of pace and energy and power.
“I don’t think he had much of a look-in [against Everton] to be honest. I would still like to see him play in a two up with [Ollie] Watkins to see what he could do. I don’t think Dean Smith’s going to do that from the start of games, he’s not suddenly going to rip up his tried and trusted formation now.
“I thought he worked hard, I thought he put the graft in for little return really. I know he scored against [West Bromwich] Albion the other week but he’s not a goalscoring scoring striker is he?
“I don’t want to write him off after one start, but I still think that a spell in the Championship will give us a real good gauge of what he’s about.”
Davis signed to Villa’s U18 side on a free transfer from Biggleswade Town back in 2015.
Since arriving at the Midlands club, the 23-year-old, who is currently valued at £2.25 million, has made 84 appearances for Villa’s senior side in which he managed to score six goals and provide seven assists along the way.
TIF Thoughts on Mat Kendrick’s comments on Davis…
Given how Davis managed to provide two key passes during the match against Everton and won more aerial duels (6) than any other Villa player, ultimately earning him a fairly respectable match rating of 6.72/10, this shows that he can be a useful figure on the pitch but just perhaps lacking that goalscoring knack.
Do you think Davis needs to go out on loan?
Yes
No
In our view, perhaps a useful next step for Davis would be to join either a Championship or Premier League club where he would be guaranteed regular starts so he can develop his game and hopefully start scoring goals on a regular basis.
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