Aston Villa will travel to Brentford on Wednesday night for their Championship encounter.
BBC Sport pundit Garry Thompson has stated that Aston Villa’s wide players have been ‘very, very poor’ in recent weeks and was particularly critical of attacking duo Jonathan Kodjia and Anwar El Ghazi.
The former Villa striker claimed that Kodjia didn’t seem to be ‘paying the right attention’ during his side’s 3-3 draw against Sheffield United, while El Ghazi was ‘messing about’.
Both players started the encounter, with Kodjia being substituted in the second half as his replacement Andre Green staged a remarkable comeback against the Blades.
Nonetheless, Thompson was left unimpressed by Kodjia and El Ghazi’s performances as he explained why the former wasn’t paying attention to his job.
“The widemen have been very, very poor,” Thompson told BBC Radio WM. “Kodjia slipped over a couple of times [against Sheff Utd], which looks like he hasn’t got his right footwear on. It means he is not paying the right attention to his job.
“El Ghazi is messing about but he’s not really getting involved in the thing. I thought at half-time there would be changes.”
Dean Smith’s side travel to Griffin Park on Wednesday night to take on Thomas Frank’s free-flowing Brentford side – this will be the first time Smith will be returning to his former club after leaving them for Villa in October.
When the duo last met earlier on in the season, Smith was still in charge of the Bees and Steve Bruce’s side snatched a late point when Jonathan Kodjia headed home a late equaliser.
Nonetheless, Smith will be looking for three points in the capital and hoping his team can keep up their hopes of possibly securing a top-six finish at the end of the season.
At this moment in time, Villa are seven points behind sixth-placed Middlesbrough in the table and they will slip further away if they drop more points in midweek.
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