, Dean Smith reveals Aston Villa will not avert from attacking play style in second leg battle

Dean Smith reveals Aston Villa will not avert from attacking play style in second leg battle

Aston Villa manager Dean Smith has said he does not see his side moving away from their attacking football for their crucial Championship play-off semi-final second leg against West Brom on Tuesday evening.

Under Dean Smith, Aston Villa have specialised in attractive football. Their dangerous attacking options fired them up the Championship table in 2019 and helped them nail down a Championship play-off place with games to spare.

Aston Villa’s attack-minded play style helped pull Dean Smith’s side back from 1-0 down on Saturday afternoon against the Baggies. Jack Grealish provided the assist for Conor Hourihane to fire home from distance and level the scores before Grealish was fouled in the box by Kieran Gibbs.

Top scorer Tammy Abraham stepped up to give Villa the advantage and given their 2-1 aggregate lead, most would think that Villa would play more defensively to protect their lead away from home.

However, speaking to the Express and Star, Villa boss Dean Smith has said he does not think it will be difficult for his side to continue attacking their opposition.

“Our mindset for the last 14 games has been to go into it and try to win. We’ve been very good at that, and we’re getting used to winning too, which is important.

“The players know my mindset, I think if you go and sit back you invite a lot of pressure on your goal, and I’m not comfortable with that. The quality of the players we’ve got, we can score a lot of goals, so you’ve got to utilise that.

“I’ll be amazed if they (West Brom) are not different. I wouldn’t expect a Hawthorns crowd to be happy with them sat behind the ball and to let us have a lot of possession. I expect a different game to Saturday, that’s for sure.

“This team has a way of winning and they never give up.”

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