Aston Villa are currently sitting in the Championship play-off places.
Cardiff City manager Neil Warnock has claimed that despite the big expectations at Aston Villa, Dean Smith has ‘coped’ with the pressures that have come his way.
Warnock also bluntly stated that he means ‘no disrespect’ to Smith’s former club, Brentford, but it has been such a ‘big step’ moving to Villa Park for the attack-minded manager.
Since his arrival in October, Smith has endured an indifferent campaign, with mixed results, including thumping the likes of Birmingham City, Derby County and Middlesbrough, but losing to the likes of Swansea and West Brom.
Speaking to the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast Show on talkSPORT (21/03/2019 at 8:15 am), Warnock shared his thoughts on Villa and their manager.
“Well, the expectations at Villa are so big,” Warnock told talkSPORT. “But I think he has coped with that Dean [Smith]. He’s at a learning process for him because it is a massive club. When you got to a massive club, no disrespect to Brentford, it’s such a big step. The expectations and the media and what have you. He seems to have turned that around.”
In recent weeks, Villa have turned their promotion fortunes around because they have won four games on the bounce, which has seen them move into the final playoff spot.
The likes of Derby County and Bristol City, who are a couple of places and points below them in the Championship table, do have games in hand.
But compared to where Villa were a month ago, they have well and truly turned their season around and will be a dangerous threat to those harbouring top-six ambitions.
After the international break, the Midlands outfit will host Blackburn Rovers on home soil before taking on their former manager Steve Bruce and Sheffield Wednesday.
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