Why Aston Villa should go all out to sign Matt Phillips in January

Back in July, Birmingham Mail had claimed that Aston Villa were interested in signing West Brom’s Matt Phillips. However, no deal materialized during the past summer.

Matt Phillips, 28, has been at the Baggies since the summer of 2016 when Tony Pulis signed him from Queens Park Rangers. He was a regular for West Brom last season whenever fit and netted five times – but not once after November.

This season, the Scotland international has been in excellent form under the tutelage of Slaven Bilic. West Brom are one of the title contenders, with Bilic making the team play some exciting football.

Phillips has been a regular fixture in the Croatian manager’s side, managing seven goals and two assists in 18 appearances thus far.

With the Scotsman being one of Championship’s best players this campaign, Aston Villa must rekindle their interest in the winger next month.

Aston Villa are 17^th in the table, having won just once in their last five league games. They are struggling to get points on board, despite splashing a lot of money last summer. Most importantly, the Villans have found it difficult to score goals even in front of their home crowd.

Record signing Wesley Moraes is yet to fully adapt to the demands of Premier League football, while wingers Mahmoud Trezeguet and Anwar El Ghazi have blown hot and cold.

Jota, another wide player, hasn’t really impressed since arriving from Birmingham City. There’s a clear lack of quality in the Villa ranks and hence, signing Matt Phillips would make sense.

Phillips, who can also play as a wing-back, has formed a lethal partnership with the likes of Matheus Pereira, Grady Diangana and Hal Robson-Kanu at West Brom. The Scotsman is a right-winger by trade but can also play on the left and cause problems to the defenders.

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As per WhoScored.com, the 28-year-old has registered 7 goals, 2 assists, 1.7 key passes, 0.8 dribbles and 2 shots per game. He has attained a 79.2% pass success rate, in addition to 1.5 crosses and 0.4 long balls per game.

The numbers suggest that Phillips possesses the qualities to make an instant impact at Villa Park and Dean Smith should go for him in January.

Verdict

Phillips has extensive experience of the Premier League and the winger has currently played 400 games so far in his career. He would add plenty of experience and quality to a Villa squad looking to avoid immediate relegation to the Championship.