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Dean Smith criticizes ‘sloppy’ Villa players after Sheffield United defeat

Villa boss, Dean Smith, has slammed his ‘sloppy’ Villa stars after defeat against struggling Sheffield United.

Aston Villa manager Dean Smith has criticized his ‘sloppy’ Villa players after defeat to Premier League strugglers, Sheffield United.

Dean Smith slammed his players for “throwing away points” against Sheffield United.

The team rock-bottom in the table, Sheffield United, opened the scoring in the first half courtesy of David McGoldrick.

In the 57th minute, United were reduced to 10 men, as Phil Jagielka saw red; however, Villa failed to capitalise and succumbed to a disappointing defeat.

Dean Smith said after the defeat: “It was a very, very frustrating game from our point of view. We had the best chances in the first half and ended up going in a goal down.

“I can’t remember Emi (Martinez) being worked at all throughout the game, in all honesty, and then we conceded a really poor goal.

“McGoldrick switches the play from the halfway line and we don’t follow him. I think he runs off the back of John McGinn and then Elmo attempts to let the ball run out of play not knowing he was behind him. It was a really soft knowing we were a goal down in a game that we were on top of.

“In the second half we started really well; we were crisper on the ball and had a couple of half chances and the big change in the game was the sending off.

“For 35 minutes we were camped in their final third but we never showed enough quality on the ball or with our runs to make that count. The chances we had were made by the players themselves; from Bert (Traore) and Ezri Konsa. With the quality of players we had out there we should have created more.”

Smith added: “We shouldn’t be leaving with nothing. We threw points away tonight with a sloppy goal where we should have never been behind in the first half. We feel like we’ve given points away.

“For all of the possession in the final third we needed better quality, better runs and better balls in but, for me, we tried to get the goal back inside the first five minutes after the sending off instead of being patient, pulling them out and finding holes.

“Listen, if we take our big chances today we wouldn’t be having this discussion. We didn’t take them today. They went down to 10 men and had everyone inside their 18-yard box and were hard to break down. I have no worries about us scoring goals, that’s for sure.”

Aston Villa will be hoping to bounce back on Saturday when they face Wolves in the Black Country derby.

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