Keinan Davis was an unused substitute for the fifth consecutive Premier League game as Aston Villa lost 2-1 to Leicester City on Sunday, which could raise uncertainty over his long-term future.
The 23-year-old has made just eight appearances in all competitions this season, scoring one goal and supplying one assist (Transfermarkt).
Davis has amassed only 48 minutes of Premier League football this season and had little chance of playing when Villa were sixth in the table, boasting 29 goals in 15 games before the turn of the year (WhoScored), but why isn’t he playing now the goals have dried up in 2021?
Villa are 12th in the Premier League for goals scored in their last nine league games with just nine and have netted one goal or fewer in six of those matches (WhoScored), but why doesn’t Dean Smith believe that Davis could help?
The 1.89m (6 foot 2) striker has only scored five goals in 75 games for Aston Villa and hasn’t found the back of the net in 23 Premier League outings (Transfermarkt), but why does he stay in the squad if he’s not going to be used?
Why did Smith refuse to let Davis leave on loan in January if he wasn’t willing to give him minutes? Ollie Watkins has played every minute of every league game this season, so it’s clear that the Villa boss has no desire to rest his first-choice striker and give game-time to his backup unless in an emergency.
Davis is more of a target man while Watkins likes to run off the last defender to stretch defences, but the former can be useful to Smith if his hold-up play is capitalised upon. That a striker continues to sit on the bench when his team needs goals seems rather unfair.
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Davis’s confidence could be knocked after spending most of the season on the bench, but Smith is still refusing to giving him a chance, and to have a potential loan move dismissed seems selfish from the manager given the striker’s lack of game-time since.
Whether that changes against Leeds next Saturday remains to be seen, but with Villa struggling for goals of late, it makes little sense for Davis not to be at least given a chance to prove his worth.
