How Dean Smith got Jack Grealish scoring again for Aston Villa
Dean Smith, the Aston Villa head coach, hopes that Mbwana Samatta, the Tanzania forward, will be signed from Genk for £10 million this week, increasing the club’s fit and available central striker options to two, with six-goal Anwar El Ghazi the other.
That would take some of the weight off Jack Grealish, who has had to combine the role of leading scorer with those of captain and playmaker, although he has fulfilled it pretty well so far this season. It helped on Saturday that he was facing his favourite opponents, Brighton and Hove Albion, and that his fourth goal against them in as many matches was assisted by some very lax defending.
But he has scored nine goals in all competitions this season, including seven in the Premier League, with five assists, the best numbers among all England-qualified midfield players. And Smith can take some of the credit after tweaking Grealish’s positional play following his arrival at Villa Park from Brentford in October 2018.
“We were 15, 16 games into the season and I asked him how many goals he’d scored,” Smith said. “He said one. I asked him how many assists. None. He needs to be getting into areas where he can score goals.
“We’ve got him higher up the pitch and he’s got a good habit now of being a goalscorer. He’s starting to love that feeling of being a goalscorer as well – he wants more. When somebody wants more, they keep working that little bit harder.”
Grealish finished last season with six goals and has continued to hit the net in a tougher environment, which Smith puts down to a desire to learn and improve.
“This is already his record goalscoring season,” Smith said. “He’s creating assists as well. He’s turned into an all-round player.
“The beauty of Jack is he’s a great guy. He keeps pushing us as coaches to make him better. When you’ve got that attitude, that application, then he’s going to be a top player. People will take notice of him, that’s for sure, and he’s doing what he can to get himself noticed for the England squad.”
Smith believes that Grealish is versatile enough to fit into Gareth Southgate’s England plans in a number of roles. “He can go on the left, be on the right at times, or down the middle,” he said. “As good as his feet and balance are, he gives defenders problems because they can’t get the ball off him.”
Whether the rest of the team are good enough to keep Villa in the Premier League remains to be seen. The 1-1 draw at Brighton leaves them still in the bottom three with a crunch home game against Watford, the team immediately above them, on Tuesday night. Brighton are also looking over their shoulders after dropping more points from a winning position – they have now let slip 14 this season.
“We created some chances in the first half, we could have scored maybe two,” Leandro Trossard, Brighton’s scorer, said. “But if you are leading 1-0 at home, that can be enough to win a game. We need to go for that clean sheet.”
