The Aston Villa boss singled out Jonathan Kodjia for praise.
Roberto Di Matteo has told Aston Villa’s official website that forward Jonathan Kodjia showed a lot of qualities in last night’s 1-1 draw with Brentford.
The 26-year-old, who joined Aston Villa from Bristol City last month in a deal which could rise to as much as £15 million (according to ESPN), opened the scoring in fine fashion on Wednesday.
It could, and perhaps should, have been the winning goal for the Villans, but John Egan netted an 88th-minute equaliser to deny Roberto Di Matteo’s side all three points.
Kodjia also starred on his debut in Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Nottingham Forest, in which Aston Villa conceded late on again, and the Italian manager was full of praise for his new signing last night.
“We went ahead with a fantastic goal from Jonathan Kodjia,” he told Villa’s official website.
“I thought he was always very dangerous playing off the right. He showed a lot of qualities.”
Di Matteo needs to sort things out if he wants to get the chance to work with the players he signed during the summer.
The former Chelsea boss has only managed one win in seven Championship outings so far, and some Aston Villa fans expressed their disappointment with him on Twitter.
It is too early to tell whether Dr Tony Xia is a Massimo Cellino type with regards to managers, but if no improvement is obvious in the coming weeks then the Chinese businessman may be tempted to cut him loose before their promotion hopes suffer irreservable damage.
Nottingham Forest’s Thomas Lam in action with Aston Villa’s Jonathan Kodjia
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