There is a lot of talk about Ross Barkley’s form dipping at Aston Villa since his return from a hamstring injury and Football Transfer Tavern highlighted that many supporters want him dropped ahead of Sunday’s meeting with Leicester City.
Dean Smith has so far resisted such calls to take the 27-year-old out of the spotlight, however, and the reason may not just be down to his trust in Barkley but his lack of faith in two of his midfield teammates.
Villa’s attack has picked itself in recent months (Bertrand Traore, Barkley and Jack Grealish behind lone striker Ollie Watkins) because Smith has lost trust in his backup players. If Barkley is dropped, Grealish could move into his central role, leaving a void on the left wing to fill – Anwar El Ghazi and Trezeguet’s preferred position.
The problem is that Trezeguet hasn’t scored this season and only has one assist to his name from 14 league games (Transfermarkt), while El Ghazi badly underperformed in Villa’s 3-1 defeat to West Ham recently and has been left on the bench ever since.
El Ghazi has five league goals in 2020/21, but he hasn’t provided an assist since January 2020 and has a habit of being wasteful in possession – one shot every 21 minutes, with only 18% of his efforts hitting the back of the net (WhoScored).
Still, is he less productive than Barkley right now? The 27-year-old has scored just one goal since October and has no assists to his name since November (WhoScored), so it doesn’t make a lot of sense that Smith keeps him in the starting XI.
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Barkley would surely benefit from a rest and El Ghazi is more productive than Trezeguet, so he should be primed to get the nod if the aforementioned tactical change is made.
Alas, with neither being wholly convincing of late and Smith routinely keeping faith with the on-loan Chelsea midfielder, don’t expect any drastic changes to the front four any time soon.
