Birmingham Mail journalist Ashley Preece believes that ‘alarm bells should be ringing’ at Aston Villa regarding their poor defensive record.
The Premier League side has now conceded 50 goals in 26 top-flight matches this season after the 3-2 defeat against Tottenham Hotspur last Sunday.
Dean Smith’s men have the worst defensive record in the league and when speaking on the Claret and Blue Podcast, Preece said:
50 goals conceded, alarm bells should be ringing.
That’s two a game, Villa need to score three to win a football match, which is asking a lot of yourselves.
It can’t carry on.
READ ASTON VILLA VERDICT
The question which many people may want answering is why are Villa so leaky?
One reason could be the absence of Tyrone Mings. The centre-back has missed five league matches this season in which Villa have conceded 11 goals (Transfermarkt).
Another reason could be the switch of formation to three at the back in recent matches.
With the wing-backs pushing forward, Villa seem to be pretty vulnerable to the counter-attack, as proven on multiple occasions during the defeat to Spurs, with Steven Bergwijn and Heung-Min Son finding space in the final third many times.
We believe that Smith could look to set up his team in a more compact fashion because Villa matches are far too open, proven by the fact that they’ve scored the most goals from all the bottom ten teams, but also conceded the most.
