Tommy Elphick started for Aston Villa during their 2-2 draw at home to Hull City over the weekend.
Aston Villa defender Tommy Elphick has urged the players to ‘wise up’ following their 2-2 draw at home to Hull City on Saturday afternoon.
The returning defender, who was on loan at the KCOM Stadium at the start of the campaign, stated that the players ‘understand’ the supporters booing.
Dean Smith’s side were 2-1 down going into the halftime break against Hull, with the Villa Park faithful making their intentions pretty clear to the players.
After another game where Villa dropped points and conceded more goals, Elphick didn’t hold back in his criticism of the team and the manner in which they have been playing in recent weeks.
“We just need to wise up a little bit,” Elphick told the Express & Star. “The way we are trying to play, we are always going to be susceptible to being countered and conceding goals.
“We are giving stupid goals away that aren’t good enough for us to be up in the top six at the moment – We understand the booing,
“We’ve all been at the club long enough now to understand the frustration of where this club has been and where it wants to go.”
Over the course of the season, Villa have conceded 45 goals from their 28 league matches, both under their new manager Smith and their recently sacked manager Steve Bruce.
After Villa’s defensive struggles continued added with a lack of depth or balance, they opted to recall Elphick from his loan spell at Hull early and sign Kortney Hause from Wolves.
Smith’s side have kept two clean sheets since December and will be looking to pick up three points when they host bottom-of-the-table Ipswich Town at the weekend – former manager Paul Lambert will be returning to Villa Park for the first time since his sacking in 2016.
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