Former Premier League footballer Carlton Palmer believes that Aston Villa manager Dean Smith shouldn’t ditch the five-at-the-back system because of defeat last time out against Arsenal.
Smith set up with Ezri Konsa, Tyrone Mings and Axel Tuanzebe as his three centre-backs, with Matthew Cash and Matt Targett as his wing-backs, and Villa fell to a 3-1 defeat at the Emirates.
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Despite losing to Arsenal, Palmer doesn’t think that Smith should ditch the system ahead of today’s game against West Ham, telling TIF: “Some Villa fans were complaining about the system. Well, it’s the same system he used to beat Everton, so, you know, you can’t just say because you’ve lost one game and it didn’t work in that game, that you should just ditch the system.
“If it’s a system that Dean Smith believes is the right system for the players he’s got, then you go back to the training ground and you work at the system and iron out where you went wrong against Arsenal to play the system correctly.”
Playing the five at the back system has allowed Dean Smith to play both Ollie Watkins and summer signing Danny Ings up front together, with Villa finding the back of the net on 13 occasions in the Premier League so far this season and Ings leading the Villa goalscoring charts in the top flight on three goals.
After accumulating ten points from their opening nine league matches, Villa will be hoping to go on a run of good form and help push themselves up the league table to improve on last season’s eleventh place finish.