Dean Smith was left to reflect on a disappointing night as his Aston Villa side fell to a 3-1 reverse against West Ham United.
Quickfire goals from Tomas Soucek and Jesse Lingard early the second half put the Hammers in control at Villa Park.
Ollie Watkins reduced the arrears in the 81st minute with his 11th goal of the season in all competitions, but Lingard doubled his tally soon afterwards to inflict defeat on Villa.
Head coach Smith feels his side have lost too many games of late for his liking and, with another quick turnaround, is immediately turning his attention to putting that right against Arsenal on Saturday.
Reflecting on the defeat to West Ham, Smith told VillaTV: “We gave horrendous goals away.
“The ball broke down too often, and we just weren’t our usual selves
“There’s not many times I’ve had to come out and be disappointed with a performance, this is one of them, the best team won on the night.
“I’ll have to reflect, I changed the system a little bit here, just tweaked it and went one and the two in midfield, upon reflection, a two and one probably would have suited us better. And Ross as well as a No.10.
“We played into Ollie’s feet, that’s where we felt the space would be, and we’ve probably got to play to his strengths more down the side, as we saw with the goal.
“But a disappointing night, because the goals we gave away were very unlike us, that’s probably the hardest thing to take.”
You can watch Dean’s full interview below…
