Aston Villa are on course to finish in the Championship play-off places after winning six games on the bounce.
Stiliyan Petrov has stated that he is seeing a difference in Aston Villa’s style of play under Dean Smith and fans are ‘right into’ his philosophy.
Boyhood Villa fan Smith replaced Steve Bruce in the dugout in October, with the four-time promotion winner guiding the club to the play-off final last May before being sacked three months into the new season.
During his tenure, Bruce was constantly criticised for his style of play and his heavy reliance on defending first before attacking.
Speaking to the Weekend Sports Breakfast on talkSPORT (06/04/2019 at 9:50 am), former Holte End favourite, Petrov shared his thoughts on Villa’s style of play.
On whether he sees more of what the fans want under Smith: “Yes, obviously Dean Smith and Steve Bruce are completely different managers. They play in a different way.
“It seems that the fans are right into Dean Smith’s philosophy of controlling the game, playing with a higher intensity, so he’s in a great place at the moment. He’s given the fans excitement again for the play-offs.”
Over the weekend, Bruce, who is now Sheffield Wednesday manager, suffered a 3-1 defeat against his former club, with Albert Adomah and Tammy Abraham scoring injury time goals.
Those three points lifted Villa into fifth place and kept up their hopes of finishing in the play-off places alive as they will now be preparing for a trip to relegation-threatened Rotherham on Wednesday night.
But the Midlands outfits biggest game of the season to date will come at the weekend when they take on sixth-placed Bristol City.
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