Pre-match press conference: Dean Smith [video]
- by Staff Writer
- Friday, 13th September 2019
Aston Villa manager Dean Smith says that his Villa side are "tough to beat" - but are yet to show the Premier League what they are really capable of.
Speaking to the media ahead of Monday's meeting with West Ham, the 48-year-old coach - whose side have taken just three points from their opening four matches since being promoted - insisted that Villa are hoping to give a better account of themselves in front of the TV cameras."I think we've shown glimpses of what we can do but we certainly need to more consistent in the domination part of our game," he said. "I don't think we've dominated games enough - the one game that we have was the loss against Bournemouth - but they were two goals up at the time."
And Smith believes that his team could take advantage of West Ham's porous defence that conceded five on the opening day - although he believes Villa will also have their work cut out at the other end of the field.
"They [West Ham] are a good team, an established Premier League team with a head coach who's won the league," he said. "They're certainly a threat going forward - I watched their game against Watford and it was end to end.
"If you look at the expected goals table they'll be at the top for entertainment, I think they can score a lot - but they could conceded a lot as well so I'm guessing I know what they'll have been working on during the international period.
"The signing of Haller up front, he looks a really good centre forward - they paid a lot of money for him but he's got a couple of goals already and look a handful.
"In wide areas they've got an awful lot of pace and trickery and they've got creativity in midfield, so it'll be a tough game for us but they're all tough games as we know."
You may see Smith's full press conference below (please note the audio is extremely quiet to begin with).
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