Aston Villa drew 0-0 with Burnley on Thursday night and Anwar El Ghazi was one of the players who came in for criticism for poor finishing.
He has only scored one Premier League goal since mid-January (last week’s penalty winner against Wolves), so it wasn’t a major shock seeing him firing blanks against the Clarets.
The 25-year-old saw a lot of the ball, frequently took on his opposite number and created a host of chances at Villa Park, but he didn’t take his own opportunities when presented to him, which led to the hosts being held to a goalless stalemate.
Against Burnley, El Ghazi played for 90 minutes, had 51 touches, won three aerial duels, completed 80% of his 25 passes, created five chances, had eight shots with just three hitting the target, found a team-mate with three of his six crosses, gave away two fouls and had four successful dribbles. [WhoScored]
The Dutch international did everything but score against Burnley, most notably hitting the crossbar with a free kick, but finishing has again been his problem – El Ghazi has scored only once in the league in 11 months.
These Aston Villa fans on Twitter lamented the 25-year-old’s profligacy, with one supporter insisting that it is “really costing” the team valuable points:
I think after last night El Ghazi’s time is over. He emphasised what we’ve known for a long time, he will get you into good positions and then throw them away. He will always draw frustration from fans because he is so wasteful! #avfc
— Jake 🦁 (@Jake__Villa) December 18, 2020
Following on from last night it seems recently all of our ‘big’ clear cut chances at important moments in games seem to fall to the wrong players. For example Traore and El Ghazi miss guilt edge chances but in 90 mins not one falls to Watkins #avfc
— Mike Land (@Mike_Land10) December 18, 2020
Still amazed we didn’t beat Burnley last night, bossed that game from start to finish but not clinical in final third. Traore needs to learn how to use his right foot & El Ghazi needs shooting practice. Yes another clean sheet but 2 points dropped #avfc #UTV
— Nathan (@barclay_n) December 18, 2020
Traore and El Ghazi need some finishing practice, bless em #avfc
— Jacq Bennett ⚽️ AVFC & KHFC (@Jacq_Bennett_) December 17, 2020
El Ghazi and Trezuguet have their attributes but their wastefulness is really costing us. Traoré looked much better tonight now that he has some minutes under his belt. At least we got a point and didn’t gift any stupid goals so that’s progress of sorts at VP #avfc
— #FPL Villan (@FPL_VILLAN) December 17, 2020
Very frustrating to watch el ghazi I thought played ok but very wasteful,traore hasn't hit it off in a villa shirt yet and I thought should of been took off earlier than he did but they are games we would of lost last season with all the chances we had. #UTV #avfc
— Sam Brogan (@SamBrogan3) December 17, 2020
El Ghazi hasn’t got the end product to be a proper PL player I thought without a crowd he’d settle but again tonight it’s execution and decision making the problem and that is the difference He played well but I think that’s his peak #avfc
— David Nealon (@Dpn76) December 17, 2020
https://twitter.com/Vincentvilla81/status/1339662232930672641?s=20
In other news, many fans believe one player is ‘wasted’ after Aston Villa had 27 shots against Burnley without scoring.
