Aston Villa have had some struggles in the Premier League this season, specifically in an attacking sense.
With just six goals scored across their eight top-flight games, only four teams have taken fewer shots at goal than Steven Gerrard’s side (85) in the first two months of the campaign. Bearing that in mind, it’s little wonder that the 42-year-old has come under pressure in terms of his job security of late.
Should this poor run of attacking form continue, one thing that the club could do to try and remedy the issue is to once again dip into the January transfer market and bring in some extra reinforcements.
One player with whom the Villans have been linked in recent months and who could help them to find the net on a more regular basis is Blackburn Rovers attacker Ben Brereton Diaz.
In 140 appearances for the Championship club, the 23-year-old – who had a reported price tag of £20m in the summer – has scored 36 goals and delivered 13 assists along the way.
Across 37 league appearances last season, the Chile international found the net 22 times in total, leaving only two players with more goals than him in the second tier.
Lauded as an “extraordinary” player by his former Rovers boss Tony Mowbray, Brereton Diaz has started the current campaign in top form by scoring five goals in 12 league appearances. Indeed, he currently has the second-highest number of shots at goal (36) of any player in the Championship this season.
This sort of attacking prowess could make him the ideal winter signing for Villa and give them that extra spark going forward, especially if they are still struggling to make an impact in the final third at that point.
The previous January transfer window proved just how active the club can be in the market, which should give Gerrard and the Villa fans confidence that they could do it again this time around if need be.
Should the Villans sign Brereton Diaz and he brings the attacking form that he has shown in the Championship to the Premier League, this could go a long way in taking some of the pressure off Gerrard and maybe even keeping him in a job.
