Dean Smith has admitted that he didn't know an awful lot about Anwar El Ghazi before taking over the helm at Aston Villa ,in a revealing interview with the club's YouTube channel.

Steve Bruce brought the Dutch international from Lille on loan, having seen him rise to prominence at Ajax prior to moving to France. However, when Smith arrived at the club he hadn't seen an awful lot of the tricky wide man.

All that has changed as El Ghazi has found his feet in the Championship, scoring three goals in his last three matches. The 23-year has been one of their most improved players in recent weeks and Smith was keen to point out the improvement.

“I spoke to Anwar when I came in because I didn’t know an awful lot about him. He wasn’t on my radar at Brentford," he said.

“When he came to Villa it was a bit of the unknown for me, so getting to know him was important. He came on against Norwich and he wasn’t, in his own words, as fit as he wanted to be. His performance wasn’t as good as he could have been."

“We sat in my office and went through clips, told him where he could improve and to be fair he’s gone and done that.”

With four goals from five starts in the Championship, El Ghazi has now become one of the first names on the team sheet for the former Bees boss as he looks to push his beloved Aston Villa back into the Premier League.

They face Stoke at home this weekend, before a huge promotion six-pointer with Leeds United on December 23rd.

The Verdict

El Ghazi just suffered from a lack of direction early on in his Villa tenure, but who didn't? It seems Steve Bruce offered very little guidance in terms of tactics, positional play or attacking flair.

Smith has changed all that, Villa look completely different these days and you'd always back them to score goals whoever they come up against.

Once the back four is sorted, they've got to be a shout for promotion.