Nicolo Zaniolo must be dropped, Leon Bailey ready to go after 100% cameo for Aston Villa v West Ham
Leon Bailey should return to the Aston Villa starting line-up after his impressive cameo against West Ham on Sunday (22 October).
The Jamaican international came off the bench to replace Nicolo Zaniolo and got on the scoresheet in the 89th minute to cap off an excellent 4-1 victory for Villa.
The 26-year-old winger added an injection of pace to his side’s attack and he recorded a 100 per cent pass accuracy with the nine passes he played to his teammates against the Hammers [SofaScore].
He had much more of an impact in just his 14 minutes on the pitch than Zaniolo had made during the previous 76 minutes at Villa Park.
Despite recording a reasonable 86 per cent pass success rate, the Italy international had just 35 touches of the ball, while Bailey recorded 15 in far less time.
The 24-year-old didn’t find a teammate with his only cross of the game and he was only successful with 50 per cent of the long balls he played.
He also had just one shot while he was on the pitch and that was an extremely wasteful effort from long-range that went high over the bar.
The attacking midfielder also lost possession on seven occasions and he was dribbled past four times, showing that he didn’t do enough defensively for his side, either.
Bailey, however, had two shots in his short time on the pitch, with his late strike nestling in the top corner after he showed neat footwork to open up some space inside the box and get the ball onto his trusty left foot.
That was the winger’s fifth goal of the campaign to go alongside two assists in his 12 appearances, while Zaniolo is yet to register a goal or an assist in his opening 10 games for the Villans.
Although the Jamaican lost possession on two occasions, he made one interception to show that he was also on it from a defensive point of view for his side.
Bailey looked full of confidence after he came on and he deserves to be in the starting lineup ahead of Zaniolo for the Europa Conference League clash against AZ Alkmaar on Thursday (26 October).
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