Aston Villa were beaten in the League Cup final over the weekend as they will resume their Premier League relegation fight next Monday night.
Tony Pulis has stated in a blunt manner to Dean Smith that they should ‘stop all the talking’ and ‘get out there and do it’ after the Aston Villa boss decided to form a huddle following their League Cup final defeat on Sunday at Wembley.
Villa headed into the final sitting 19th in the Premier League table and having lost 6-1 to Pep Guardiola’s men in January in the Premier League.
Going 2-0 down after 30 minutes at Wembley would have worried a lot of people in Claret and Blue, but Villa fought hard, pulled a goal back through Mbwana Samatta, and they hit the post near the end. Plus, Rodri’s goal was controversially awarded after City were wrongly awarded a corner which led to his header.
Following Villa’s fighting effort, Smith gathered his players in the middle of the pitch and seemingly offered them words of encouragement, but speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live Sport (02/03/2020 19:25 pm), Pulis thinks there needs to be more action.
“The important thing now is not talking about it and doing it,” Pulis told BBC Radio 5 Live. “They have probably had a few meetings this year.
“The important thing is to get a system and to get players in place that are going to work their socks off now for 10 games. They have got the quality and they have good players in certain areas.
“What most of these teams have got to recognise and understand is that every game is going to be tight. And if you can keep clean sheets, and I know people will go ‘oh, here we go’, then you always have a chance of being in games and winning games.
“You spend more time on the training ground making sure everyone knows their job, everyone knows what to do and what not to do. And then you want them to express themselves when they get the ball. But the most important things is your work, really, really hard up and down the pitch as a team. Forget all the talking about it. Get out there and do it. That’s all that counts.”
Villa’s next game will be against Champions League-chasers Leicester City in the Premier League on Monday night, with Smith’s side knocking the Foxes out of the League Cup during the semi-final stage.
Whilst it’s not a must-win for Smith’s men, positive performance and at least a point would bode well for their survival hopes and wanting to keep the morale high.
Defeat, and another display like they produced at Southampton, would only send Smith and his players back to square one which would seriously turn the pressure on all the players.
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