Bjorn Engels enjoyed an excellent Aston Villa debut on Saturday.
Bjorn Engels posted a very accomplished debut for Aston Villa on Saturday, even if it ended in defeat.
Dean Smith’s side went down 3-1 at Tottenham Hotspur last night, despite taking a 1-0 lead into the break after John McGinn’s early opener.
Engels, a £9 million signing by Aston Villa [Sky Sports], helped the Villans repel wave after wave of attack, before Tanguy Ndombele equalised with 17 minutes to go and a late Harry Kane brace killed the visitors entirely.
In spite of the fact they lost, there were a series of positives for Smith and the partnership between the big Belgian and Tyrone Mings in central defence was certainly one of them.
And the Aston Villa boss singled out Engels for praise at full time while speaking to the club’s official website.
“There were some really good individual performances, especially defensively. Bjorn Engels did very well at the back with Tyrone Mings in his first game.”
If Aston Villa can come within 17 minutes of beating Tottenham, Champions League finalists, on their own patch then they’ll be fine this season.
As Smith said, some players didn’t look intimidated in the slightest and it bodes really well going forward.
Next up for the West Midlands side is a visit of Bournemouth next Saturday.
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